the original “I love you” “it’ll pass”
On holiday in Yalta, Muscovite banker Dimitri Gurov contrives to meet a young woman who walks her dog. She’s Anna Sergeyevna, trapped in a loveless marriage to a lackey. He’s unhappy in an arranged marriage. With neither spouse at hand, Dimitri and Anna begin an affair.
Lady with the Dog is showing in 1 cinema in London - next screening Tuesday 3 November at 20:00 at Sands Films Studio.
Next screenings: Tuesday 3 November.
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the original “I love you” “it’ll pass”
He had believed that in a month's time Anna Sergeyevna would be nothing but a wistful memory, and that hereafter, with her wistful smile, she would only occasionally appear to him in dreams, like others before her. But the month was now well over and winter was in full swing, and all was as clear in his memory as if he had only parted with Anna Sergeyevna the day before. And his recollections grew ever more insistent. When the voices of his children at their lessons reached him in his study through the evening stillness, when he heard a song, or the sounds of a musical-box in a restaurant, when the wind howled in the chimney, it all came back to him: early morning on the pier, the misty mountains, the steamer from Feodosia, the kisses. He would pace up and down his room for a long time, smiling at his memories, and then memory turned into dreaming, and what had happened mingled in his imagination with what was going to happen. Anna Sergeyevna did not come to him in his dreams, she accompanied him everywhere, like his shadow, following him everywhere he went. When he closed his eyes, she seemed to stand before him in the flesh, still lovelier, younger, tenderer than she had really been, and looking back, he saw himself, too, as better than he had been in Yalta. In the evenings she looked out at him from the bookshelves, the fire-place, the corner, he could hear her breathing, the sweet rustle of her skirts. In the streets he followed women with his eyes, to see if there were any like her.... (Anton Chekhov, "The Lady with the Dog")Women Film Editors #57: Elena BashenovaBourgeois wealth is emptiness, passionless marriage is a mass of chains. Only in stolen moments may love shine a few pale beams of light into the void.Screenwriter/director Iosif Kheifits does a fine job of adapting Chekhov's 1899 short story into this beguiling Soviet film (available on YouTube with an option to turn on subtitles), a melodrama of class and romance exquisitely photographed by the team of Dmitriy Meskhiev and Andrey Moskvin, efficiently edited by Elena Bashenova for the quick 83-minute runtime (she makes use of wipes on several occasions) and starring the perfectly cast Aleksey Batalov (of The Cranes Are Flying fame) and newcomer Iya Savvina to respectively portray the impossibly alluring Dimitri Gurov - though maybe that's my own Batalov bias sneaking through - and endearingly delicate Anna Sergeyevna.I would have liked for Kheifits to establish Gurov's character just a little more strongly at the start - in the original story, we know right away that Gurov has a lengthy history of trivial philandering, which is what makes his authentic feeling and obsessive yearning for Anna even more potent (in my view) than where the revelation appears in the script, during the final encounter - but there are also some ways that film elements can capture moods that the written word cannot. Besides the appealing actors and the breathtaking visuals, evoking the atmosphere of Chekhov's tale so well, I find Nadezhda Simonyan's score to be intensely moving; music has its own power to stir the soul, and here it underlines the emotions in the lovers' plight with a uniquely haunting refrain.Women Film Editors: A Journey
1st Iosif KheifitsA great adaptation of a very slight but extremely impressive story, which I read while simultaneously watching this. What impressed me most was how faithful Kheifits is to the spirit, and indeed the letter, of Chekhov’s original story. The first twenty minutes replicates the first three pages in exceptional detail but never feels laboured, content instead to depict the minutiae of thought as simply as possible. I found that I could read the story in my head while watching the film and follow with complete accuracy, my voiceover providing extra pieces of information that helped flesh out Dimitri’s narrative progression. Despite it being Chekhov, that master of dry irony, it’s a strangely touching story about a man who realises that his own cultivated detachment has been melted by the surprising normality of his Summer fling. In those little moments they share on the cliff, on the boat, that thaw the Muscovite ice of his heart in n incredibly touching manner. Aleksey Batalov is really quite touching as Dimitri, managing to convey that emotional journey largely through his facial expressions and subtle gestures, though he also has a wonderfully melodious voice that helps with the gravitas of the situation. The whole production has a real sense of Old Hollywood gloss to it, complete with B and W cinematography and back projection; There’s Always Tomorrow or Love Affair feel appropriate comparisons here. Another successful Quiz watch!
It follows a Muscovite banker and a young woman trapped in loveless marriages who begin a secretive affair after meeting on holiday in Yalta.
It was directed by Soviet filmmaker Iosif Kheifits in 1960 as an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's classic short story.
The film received widespread international critical praise and recognition at prominent European film festivals.
