Film DVDs/VHS tapes

[Ruder, Cynthia A]

Dear SEELANGERS:



Might anyone know where it is possible to obtain either DVDs of VHS tapes of the following films, all of which feature film scores by Prokofiev?  The director of the campus radio station is interested in acquiring them.  Please respond to me OFF LIST at Cynthia.ruder at uky.edu<mailto:Cynthia.ruder at uky.edu>   .  Thanks in advance for your help.



KOTOVSKY (1942)



TONYA (Nashi Devushki) (PG)

Abram Room's Tonya tells the heroic story of a telephone operator who sacrifices her life by drawing Soviet artillery fire onto the Nazi weapons that are stored near her office. Like Room's earlier film A Severe Young Man, Tonya was banned by the Soviet authorities. Prokofiev wrote the stirring score in August 1942, basing part of it on a song for which his second wife Mira Mendelson wrote the words.

USSR 1942



LERMONTOV (PG)

A precious opportunity to hear Prokofiev's music for 1944 film Lermontov, never before seen in Britain. Albert Gendelshtein's film is a portrait of the great nineteenth century Russian writer and poet Mikhail Lermontov, the inheritor of Pushkin's mantle, who, like his mentor, died in a duel at the age of twenty six. Lermontov's affection for the serfs and peasantry, and his criticisms of the Tsar, endeared him to the post-revolutionary Soviet regime. Prokofiev was one of two composers for the film (the other being Venedict Pushkov). Featuring Prokofiev's two pieces, Contradance and Mephisto Waltz.

USSR 1944 Dir. Albert Gendelshtein 77 min.



LIEUTENANT KIZHE (U)

Prokofiev's first composition for the cinema was one of the very earliest Soviet sound films, a charming tale about an office clerk who, when copying out a list of officers to be presented to the Tzar, inadvertently adds a non-existent Lieutenant Kizhe. The unusual name catches the Tzar's eye, and he promotes him. Kizhe later falls into disfavour and is sentenced to Siberia, is pardoned, and promoted to General. When he 'dies', Kizhe's empty coffin is given an imperial funeral. A clever satire on official stupidity and bureaucracy. Prokofiev's score for the film, in a slightly altered arrangement, is renowned in its concert form as the Lieutenant Kizhe Suite.

USSR 1934 Dir. Alexander Faintsimmer 87 min.



Cynthia A. Ruder, Associate Professor
Director of Undergraduate Studies
University of Kentucky
MCL/Russian & Eastern Studies
1055 Patterson
Lexington, KY  40506-0027
859.257.7026
cynthia.ruder at uky.edu<mailto:cynthia.ruder at uky.edu>

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