Director: Boris Barnet
Year: 1927
Run-time: 1 hr 7 min
Source: Kanopy
Bed and Sofa is well-known, at least in cinephile circles, for being the last Soviet film in some time that avoided any element of propaganda. The Girl with the Hatbox,, from the same year, has several similar themes to Bed and Sofa. It also features a love triangle (even sharing one of the main actors), and the housing shortage in Moscow plays a large role. This film, however, was ostensibly commissioned to promote Soviet lottery bonds. However, these play a relatively minor role in the main plot, and even though the main character does surreptitiously win a great deal of money from one, it's hard to say that a contemporary viewer would be convinced to go out and buy them.
For the film itself, it's much more slapstick than Bed and Sofa, but I enjoyed it a great deal. The comedy is simple, but effective. I particularly like the scene where one of the suitors attempts to scramble up an icy embankment after his unimpressed love interest, who walks away until she's just a miniscule speck on the horizon. It doesn't push the envelope in the same way as Bed and Sofa, but I do think it's refreshing, and possibly intentional, how uninterested Soviet comedies of this era are in bourgeois monogamous relationships. Although the lead does make up her mind by the end of the film, there seems to be no rancor among the competing suitors. In a strange final shot, both the woman and her husband lean in to kiss the other man from either side.
For a state-commisioned film, there is something very naturalistic about the performances in The Girl with the Hatbox. The early scenes are the best, before the plot goes off the rails a bit. The lead actress would eventually defect to Hollywood and get signed on with Goldwyn. She brings a lot of heart to this film. In this era, it's the Soviet films that sympathize the most with its female characters, and I'd really like to know why.
Year: 1927
Run-time: 1 hr 7 min
Source: Kanopy
Bed and Sofa is well-known, at least in cinephile circles, for being the last Soviet film in some time that avoided any element of propaganda. The Girl with the Hatbox,, from the same year, has several similar themes to Bed and Sofa. It also features a love triangle (even sharing one of the main actors), and the housing shortage in Moscow plays a large role. This film, however, was ostensibly commissioned to promote Soviet lottery bonds. However, these play a relatively minor role in the main plot, and even though the main character does surreptitiously win a great deal of money from one, it's hard to say that a contemporary viewer would be convinced to go out and buy them.
For the film itself, it's much more slapstick than Bed and Sofa, but I enjoyed it a great deal. The comedy is simple, but effective. I particularly like the scene where one of the suitors attempts to scramble up an icy embankment after his unimpressed love interest, who walks away until she's just a miniscule speck on the horizon. It doesn't push the envelope in the same way as Bed and Sofa, but I do think it's refreshing, and possibly intentional, how uninterested Soviet comedies of this era are in bourgeois monogamous relationships. Although the lead does make up her mind by the end of the film, there seems to be no rancor among the competing suitors. In a strange final shot, both the woman and her husband lean in to kiss the other man from either side.
For a state-commisioned film, there is something very naturalistic about the performances in The Girl with the Hatbox. The early scenes are the best, before the plot goes off the rails a bit. The lead actress would eventually defect to Hollywood and get signed on with Goldwyn. She brings a lot of heart to this film. In this era, it's the Soviet films that sympathize the most with its female characters, and I'd really like to know why.
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