Cinema
The Poet and the Tsar
Поэт и царь
Vladimir Gardin · 1927
Synopsis
St Petersburg, in the last years of Pushkin's life. Tsar Nicholas I has fallen in love with Natalia, the poet's wife. To conceal his passion, he encourages the young woman's closeness to an officer, Baron d'Anthès, and the whole court begins to comment on their liaison. The rumours reach Pushkin, who discovers a rival in the sovereign.
Context
The film is co-directed by Evgeny Chervyakov, who also plays Pushkin; Irina Volodko plays Natalia, Konstantin Karenin Nicholas I and Boris Tamarin the rival officer. It runs for about an hour and twenty-five minutes. The Russian National Library regards it as the most important of Gardin's films; before the revolution he had specialised in adapting the Russian classics.
Who it is for
A historical silent film, which assumes some knowledge of Pushkin's life and of the court of Nicholas I.
Prizes and reception
A portrait of Pushkin offered by Soviet cinema ten years after the revolution, with one of the two directors in the role of the poet.