The Czar Wants to Sleep (1934) User Reviews

Complete Film available on Google Video

[ajbakeresq · 6/10 · 11 February 2009]

I thought this was lost but a watchable copy of the complete film can be found on Google Video. At last you can see how Prokofiev's music fits in. It's a bizarre film, with exaggerated Russian comic acting, but quite stylish. The score is, of course first rate and and comes over well even on a fairly poor copy.

The famous Troika appears as a song during chaotic night time ride and the romance is sung as a solo with harp accompaniment.

On the whole the sound is as goo as most prints of Alexandeer Nevsky that I have seen - though i await a restored version from Ruscico - the Russian Cinema Council.

I hope they do a restored version of this forgotten classic.

Suite sorrow

[hte-trasme · 5/10 · 23 February 2014]

It's neat that this film now now available online, after as a so-called "lost film." It's primary interest has usually been as the film for which Sergei Prokofiev composed his famous Lieutenant Kizhe Suite for orchestra, and unfortunately the film doesn't quite live up to the excellence of its soundtrack.

It's really has two things going for it, namely the Prokoviev score and a very witty central idea, based on a novella by Yuri Tynyanov, who also is credited with the screenplay. A slip of the pen causes the Russian "Poruchiki zhe" to become "Poruchikki zhe," which is corrected to be "Poruchik Kizhe," creating a fictional Lieutenant Kizhe whose career dogs the idiotic Tsar Pavel I.

Tynyanov, the inventor of this scenario, was a main Russian Formalist, and it certainly concerns itself with the formalist-related theme of the gulf between reality and the potential effects on it language-created illusions. I'd still like to read the novella, especially since, with the film's somewhat sparse dialogue, I suspect much may have been lost.

It's a satire and a broad one, painting as complete idiots the Tsar and all his coterie. Tsars were, of course, not especially respected in the early Soviet Union; it is possible to read it more subversively as a satire on bureaucracy and tyrannical power in general. I suspect Tynyanov may have had that sentiment, if not Prokofiev. But it doesn't make the satire less broad.

This falls into the category of early talkies, and it is not one of those early talkies which work well around the inconveniences created by early sound equipment. It is, in short, very awkward and many moment which could have been funny end up being only badly timed. Only when the humor moves to gags that are based on set-pieces -- such as when the woman marries the Kizhe and ends up taking vows with an empty space at the wedding -- does it become actually amusing.

Curiously, the opening credits seem to list which major Soviet theatre each of the actors worked with. And perhaps that has to do with why most of the acting comes across as very overplayed -- as if the actors were playing to a large theatre full of audience-members, rather than a nearby movie camera. Sometimes its amusing, but usually it's much too much.

The score is, of course, brilliant. And it's difficult to think of it as part of this mediocre film rather than its own piece even after watching.

A Fable For All Times

[boblipton · 7/10 · 28 June 2020]

While Tsar Paul is napping, a lieutenant and court lady are necking. When she gives him a playful pinch, he shouts for the guard, waking the Tsar. He's furious and orders the obvious freethinker discovered, flogged, and marched to Siberia. While preparing the indictment, the selfsame lieutenant has his pen slip, producing a fictitious Lieutenant Kizhe. So the whippers whip the air; the officers march nobody to Siberia, and drink the vodka and food; and when the Tsar is jollied out of his snit, he promotes the non-existent officer to General, grants him extensive lands, and orders him married to the court lady who pinched the lieutenant.

It's a very silly and amusing little fable about absolute power in the hands of an egomaniacal, paranoid moron. In Russia in 1934, you could make such a movie, so long as it was about Tsarist Russia. Still, I am reminded of what another Tsar said when he witnessed his courtiers and bureaucrats laughing at the premiere of Gogol's THE INSPECTOR GENERAL: "Don't they realize they are laughing at themselves?"

Sergei Prokofieff composed the score for this movie; it was his second movie credit. It has become a standard orchestral work as "The Lieutenant Kijé Suite."

Make this film available!

[donsmithers · 10/10 · 1 January 2006]

The fact that this film was shown at London's Barbican suggests to me that the print must have been acceptable enough for such a showing. Now the question is, Why isn't this long lost and important film available in DVD (or even VHS)? A large number of persons in Europe and the USA have for many years hoped to see this film, if for no other reason than the wonderful music written for it by Sergei Prokofiev. What does one have to do to get such a wonderful production as this available for a wider public, not just patrons to the Barbican at London? Having been a devoted listener to Prokofiev's music for many years and aware of this film, PLEASE, someone 'out there' do the right thing and bring it out as a DVD.

Is film available?

[sjl-10 · 11 July 2005]

It is good to hear that this film exists. Do you know if this film is available to the public?

I am sure there is a tremendous interest here in the United States in seeing it. The Lieutenant Kije Suite is very popular here. I know that I, for one, have been dying to see this film almost all of my life. The story about antics pertaining to maintaining this fictitious personage -- at least what I heard of it through commentary accompanying the Suite -- sounds fascinating.

I really hope that the film is or becomes available. English subtitles would be nice for those who do not know Russian, but that can be worked around.

Lieutenant Kije fan

Tedious farce

[cherold · 3/10 · 3 October 2013]

This is a movie with a point to make. That point being that the Czar and everyone of his supporters and soldiers was a laughable jerk. It's an understandable point to want to make, and farce is broad by nature, but this movie seems like a sort of inside joke, something that might be very funny to angry Russians still bitter about their treatment under the Czar, but a failure in terms of comedy that is relatable to those for whom the Czar is not such a big deal.

The score by Prokovieff is, of course, brilliant. And the basic idea is really cute. But the movie is forced and not funny at all. Sometimes a hint of subtlety is more powerful than nothing but broad strokes.

Not just a musical footnote

[pd-28 · 8/10 · 11 May 2004]

I went to see this film out of curiosity, and to settle an argument. The film is now best known from the suite of music Sergei Prokofiev extracted from his incidental music to the film, the Troika movement even turning up in pop arrangements. The general outline of the plot is well known from the sleeve notes on various recordings. A clerk accidentally generates a non-existent Lieutenant Kizhe in a list to be presented to the tsar. The tsar is interested in this person, and rather than tell him he doesn't exist, the courtiers and officers maintain the pretence that he is real. Kizhe is exiled to Siberia, recalled, promoted, married, promoted again, dies, is given a state funeral, revealed as an embezzler and posthumously demoted to the ranks.

I had heard conflicting stories about how the clerk invented Kizhe, involving ink blots and sneezes, but I'd heard the film was lost, so there was no way to find out what happens. Then the film turned up at the Barbican in London as part of their Prokofiev festival. For the record, it turned out that all that happens is that the clerk confuses two words whilst writing an order and turns Kuzhe into Kizhe. As the tsar is in a hurry to see the order, there's no time to correct the mistake.

Having gone expecting an historical curiosity, I was pleasantly surprised. The film is very funny, and the audience, myself included, laughed continuously. Although most of it is filmed straight, set mostly in the palace, there are a few "trick" shots where multiple images appear on the screen. For instance, the tsar's army is represented by a small group, repeated across the screen. Four identical guards perform perfect drill in perfect unison. Two identical servants scrub the floor.

One slight drawback was it was very difficult to work out who everyone was. There were two women who might have been the tsar's daughters, or a daughter and a servant or something else. And very few people were named. But all in all, an enjoyable film and I'm surprised it's not seen more often.

The birth of Capt. Tuttle

[mirok · 10/10 · 27 July 2007]

Ever wonder where that episode, "Tuttle," came from in the middle of the first season of M*A*S*H? Well now the cat's out of the bag: they got it from this Soviet film, a satire on how dumb the Tsar is, due to the slip of a pen (rendering the phrase "the Lieutenants, though ..." into "Lieutenant Kizhe" which has no meaning) and nobody being honest or gutsy enough to contradict him and just tell him the truth -- Kizhe doesn't exist and never did. So they make up an imaginary life for him and eventually kill him off. And 40 years later, David Ketchum and Bruce Shelly borrowed this zany plot and gave us essentially the same story, only on the other side of what had become the Cold War, proving that people in high positions can be equally dumb no matter what their loyalties may be!

The unexpected consequences of a typographical error

[robertguttman · 8/10 · 22 January 2016]

Outside Russia "Lieutenant Kizhe" is known chiefly as the source of Serge Prokofiev's "Lieutenant Kizhe Suite", which he based upon the original score that he wrote for this film. That's unfortunate because this move is a very funny satirical farce about the unexpected consequences of a typographical error and deserves recognition in for its own merits. In that sense, while watching this I couldn't help wondering if it might have provided the inspiration for Terry Gilliam's movie, "Brazil".

Tsar Paul is such a martinet that his courtiers are so terrified to admit to a typographical error in the regimental orders of the day that they resort to inventing a non-existent Lieutenant Kizhe in order to comply with what is written down on the paper. However, matters begin to spiral out of control when the eccentric Tsar takes a personal interest in the "confidential and invisible" officer.

This movie is highly recommended to anyone who thinks that Russian Cinema begins and ends with the heavy, epic propaganda films of Serge Eisenstein. "Lieutenant Kizhe" is well produced and the actors are excellent, but the material is never ponderous. incidentally, for those who may be interested, it is available on Youtube. I might add that even the subtitles are very legible, which is not always the case with Russian films.

This film is an utter delight!

[philip-davies31 · 9/10 · 22 June 2016]

A polished and deliriously funny satire on the entire edifice of imperial pretension, this sublime comedy achieves something very like the fabled 'Lubitsch touch', even though it is in fact the work of an obscure Soviet Russian director.

The film's demolition of the epically Ruritanian absurdity of Tsarist times manages to be at once bitingly contemptuous of the pomposity it punctures, and as charming as an innocently silly fable. The captivating performances are of a comic subtlety and sophistication redolent of pre-revolutionary 'bourgeoise' sensibility. There is actually affection for these hopeless and futile idiots - none of the bitter and implacable hatred for perceived 'enemies of the People' that blights so many otherwise brilliant Soviet productions of the era..

It is a welcome anomaly amidst a fierce tide of state propaganda. Of course humanity is shown in the work of all the great Soviet directors, but only as interludes in an ongoing war against the enemies of the Soviet mission. In 'Lieutenant Kizhe' on the other hand there is a perfectly relaxed stance viz-a-viz the material: Everyone on set is obviously having enormous fun. It is a wonder such a light-hearted approach escaped censorship during revolutionary times!

Perhaps this laxity on the part of the Soviet authorities had something to do with the involvement of the great Prokofiev, since the composer had managed to maintain a good relationship with Stalin. However this may be, this wonderful comedy should be treasured, especially as it's survival appears to have been a matter of chance until it was eventually rediscovered in modern times.

A Must See

[rewolfsonlaw · 10/10 · 16 December 2018]

Made in 1934, this brilliant piece of filmaking combines elements of Expressionism, Dada, and Surrealism with directorial style reminiscent of Cocteau, Renoir, Leger and Bunuel. Add the music by Prokofiev and it transcends cinematic art. I've followed, sought and studied film for over four decades. This is a seminal work of early cinema with superior subtitling. An absolute must see for those who love the art.