Early Russian Cinema, Vol. 5: Petr Chardynin & Pushkin

Two brilliant adaptions from Alexander Pushkin's work are featured in this volume.

Director Pyotr Chardynin's The Queen of Spades (1910) was shot on a specially-built set at Krylatskoe to inject the story with a vital resource to cinema of the era: realism. The story follows a man who abstains from his friends' games of cards and dice, but when he learns of an elderly countess with a secret talent for winning, he can't help but resist wooing her for her powers. Famously known as a classic tale of human avarice, critics agree that Chardynin's adaption remains unmatched by nearly all others.

The Little House in Kolomna (1913) features the legendary Ivan Mozzhukhin in his role as a female cook, who become the plaything of a pampered young woman and the apple of her eye, a guard to her widowed mother. Chardynin was worried that Mozzhukhin's performance would rue them accusations of bad taste but, convinced he was right for the part, they worked together to avoid a scandal while retaining the mischievousness of Pushkin's original verse. The result is a unique demonstration of Mozzhukhin's range and Chardynin's dedication to the text.