This was my first foray into Russian - or to be strict, Soviet - cinema. It is not a kind of cinema that the West knows very well, and I only became aware of this film thanks to its magnificent soundtrack. I was not badly impressed, and I confess that I was in the mood to find Anton Chekhov's original book to read it too.
The story is set in the countryside, where Count Karneyev, a noble landowner, lives. On a day when he was strolling through his hunting grounds with two friends - the widower Urbenin and the young bailiff Kamyshev - the group is surprised by a thunderstorm and has to take shelter in the house of a forest guard. It turns out that this guard has a very young and beautiful daughter, Olga, who grew up freely and whose spontaneity and beauty captures the attention of the three men. Desiring to get a comfortable life, Olga decides to marry Urbenin, but soon realizes that she loves Kamyshev, and the two end up having an affair, in a story that will turn into a tragedy marked by crossed passions and jealousy.
Deep, melancholic, sometimes dramatic, Emil Loteanu's film is pleasant and deserves our best attention. Setting the plot in the final reigns of Tsarism, the film takes the opportunity to criticize the "modus vivendi" of the Russian elite of the time, to the taste of Soviet thinking: trapped in a way of life that has both dissolute and absurd, the rich - be they aristocrats or bourgeois - are selfless debauched who care little for the harshness of the lives of the poor or even their own servants, placed to serve as chandeliers, as objects that can be disposed of. Criticism of marriage for convenience is also present, as is the warning of the danger that young women pose to more mature men. In fact, Olga is a character who is far from being innocent, despite her youth: she is the almost intentional pivot of the web of jealousy and crossed passions where she entangles herself, creating her fatal destiny through her attitudes.
The cast is headed by Galina Belyaeva. Extremely young, only 16, she is fair, attractive, captivating, charismatic and perfect for the role. And as life tends to imitate art, Loteanu proved unable to resist her, despite being much older than her at the time of filming. They would be married two years later, for a short time. With the young Russian actress - who became an icon at the time - they also star Oleg Yankovsky, Kirill Lavrov and Leonid Markov. They are quite good and do an interesting work, but it is undoubtedly Belyaeva who stands out.
Technically, the film is quite simple: cinematography has nothing special, and I even thought that some shooting angles and camera movements seem too rough, they are not as subtle as would be desirable. The sets and costumes are quite good, and they emphasize all the features I already mentioned: the ranger's hut shows the simple and hard life of the poor, Olga's costumes follow the evolution of her character (from the simple girl in the forest to a lady) and the shabby mansion express well the decadence of the Russian aristocracy. The soundtrack, which I mentioned at the beginning, contains iconic melodies by Eugene Doga, especially a specific wonderful waltz.
