Happiness (1935 film)

Happiness (Russian: Счастье, romanized: Schastye) is a 1935 silent satirical slapstick (or rather lubok[1]) comedy set in the Russian Empire before the October Revolution and in the Soviet Union at the time of the collectivization. Medvedkin's original title was The Snatchers or The Possessors (Стяжатели).[2]

This article is about the Soviet film. For the French film, see Le Bonheur (1934 film).
Happiness
Happiness
Directed byAleksandr Medvedkin
Written byAleksandr Medvedkin
StarringPyotr Zinovyev
Yelena Yegorova
Release date
  • March 15, 1935 (1935-03-15)
Running time
99 minutes
West German TV cut: 66 minutes
CountrySoviet Union
LanguagesSilent film
Russian intertitles

The original print featured an experimental color sequence illustrating a poor peasant's dreams of becoming a king.[1] It was the first color production of the Mosfilm studio. According to Medvedkin, "At that time the peasant could not dream of anything multicoloured of beautiful. His dream was limited, and in that the technology helped".[2] The sequence was discarded on account of its poor technical quality and is apparently lost.[2]

Unnoticed on its release, Happiness became well known in the 1960s among film scholars.[3] It was especially championed by Chris Marker who included some excerpts from Happiness in his 1992 documentary The Last Bolshevik.

Cast
  • Peter Zinoviev as The Loser
  • Elena Egorova as Anna

References
  1. "Художественный фильм "Счастье"". Russkoekino.ru. Retrieved 2012-09-22.
  2. Emma Widdis. Alexander Medvedkin. I.B.Tauris, 2005. ISBN 9781850434054. Pages 36, 49.
  3. "Happiness". Silentsaregolden.com. Retrieved 2012-09-22.


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