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Showing posts with the label Boris Barnet

Девушка с коробкой (The Girl with the Hatbox)

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 s...