Vladimir Erenberg

12 Chairs

Who was the first to bring the great novel "12 Chairs" to the screen? You say "Leonid Gaidai" - and it will be a mistake. In our country, the first director was Alexander Belinsky (Leningrad television, 1966). Filming the favorite books of millions is a difficult task. The audience knows the plot in detail. Winged phrases have long gone to the people. Everyone has their own idea of ​​the main characters. In general, dissatisfied will be sure. So the version of "12 chairs", proposed by Alexander Belinsky, of course, will not suit everyone.

Hamlet

Shakespeare's 17th century masterpiece about the "Melancholy Dane" was given one of its best screen treatments by Soviet director Grigori Kozintsev. Kozintsev's Elsinore was a real castle in Estonia, utilized metaphorically as the "stone prison" of the mind wherein Hamlet must confine himself in order to avenge his father's death. Hamlet himself is portrayed (by Innokenti Smoktunovsky) as the sole sensitive intellectual in a world made up of debauchers and revellers. Several of Kozintsev directorial choices seem deliberately calculated to inflame the purists: Hamlet's delivers his "To be or not to be" soliloquy with his back to the camera, allowing the audience to fill in its own interpretations.

Safe Person

Doctor Vera Pavlovna Zanemonets has recently been working at the Genetics Research Institute and is thinking about her dissertation. Her life is quite prosperous: her favorite job, family. One day, on an urgent call, Vera goes to her sister, who lives in the village and needs urgent surgery after an accident. But there is no surgeon in the village hospital, and Vera decides to urgently operate on her sister.

The Bronze Bird

Three friends in a summer camp are looking for a treasure hidden in a old mansion.

The Strogovs

In the Siberian taiga village of Wolf's Burrows, the Strogov family lives — Matvey with his wife Anna and his parents. Through the fate of this peasant family, a picture of the life of the Siberian region during major historical events — the Russo-Japanese War, the 1905 Revolution, the October Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War is outlined.

Koriolan

The noble patrician Gaius Marcius became famous for his military exploits and victories over the enemies of the Romans, the Volscians. However, his hatred of the plebeians and thirst for power led to Coriolanus being condemned to eternal exile from Rome. Then he decided to betray his homeland and take command of the Volscian army.

The Green Carriage

Inspired by the life of Varvara Asenkova, a 19th-century actress who earned great acclaim on St. Petersburg stage before her death at the age of 24.

The Seventh Companion

A portrait of the era of "Red Terror" during the civil war that followed the Bolshevik revolution, The Seventh Companion offers a character study in General Adamov (Andrei Popov), a law professor in the tsarist army, who is incarcerated by the Bolshevik secret police along with many other members of the bourgeoisie. Finally released into the new world of the Soviet Union, the resigned officer finds that he has lost everything from his old life except a mantel clock that he carries through the night from place to place, until he ends up back where he started.

Великое противостояние

Lady with the Dog

On holiday in Yalta, Muscovite banker Dimitri Gurov contrives to meet a young woman who walks her dog. She’s Anna Sergeyevna, trapped in a loveless marriage to a lackey. He’s unhappy in an arranged marriage. With neither spouse at hand, Dimitri and Anna begin an affair. After a short time, she returns to Saratov, he to Moscow, believing it’s good-by forever. All winter he is miserable, enervated, distracted by tristesse. In desperation, he contrives to go to Saratov, surprising her at a concert. Fearing discovery in her home town, she promises to come to Moscow. Will they cast aside reputation to live together, or will theirs be an affair of infrequent encounters in hotel rooms?