Cinema
The Beginning
Начало
Gleb Panfilov · 1970
Synopsis
Pasha Stroganova, a weaver in a small provincial town, goes dancing in the evening and plays Baba Yaga in the club's amateur troupe, since she is not given other roles. At the dance, she falls in love at first sight with Arkady, whom she will learn is married. Almost at the same time, a director notices her and offers her the lead in a film about Joan of Arc: for this plain girl begins a double ordeal, that of the shoot and that of love.
Context
Panfilov had written a screenplay devoted to the Maid, which the film administration left in suspense, neither banning nor funding it; he salvaged part of it by embedding it in a contemporary story, written with Evgeny Gabrilovich. The film was shot at Lenfilm, with Dmitri Dolinin on camera and music by Vadim Bibergan; the small town was filmed in Murom, and the historian Vladimir Raitses advised on the medieval scenes. The film has no opening credits: its title appears only in the final images. It was released on 12 October 1970.
Who it is for
An hour and thirty-one minutes, in Russian, subtitled. Two stories alternate, the life of the weaver and the shooting of the film about the saint.
Prizes and reception
Silver Lion at Venice in 1971, with an acting prize for Inna Churikova; Leningrad Komsomol prize in 1970.