After being betrayed by her playboy lover, a heartbroken mute young woman joins a ballet company; during a performance of “The Dying Swan,” she enraptures a painter obsessed with portraying death genuinely.
Marianna advertises for work as a reader and is employed by the reclusive millionaire Dymov. Appreciative of her sensitive, artistic nature, and of her youthful innocence and purity, Dymov is protective of Marianna and shields her from the attentions of his philandering playboy son. Marianna...
Young scholar Andrei, fascinated by haunting actress Zoia Kadmina, is surprised when she sends him a note. The two have a brief scheduled meeting, then three months later Andrei is shocked to learn she has died. He becomes obsessed with Zoia's memory and decides he must find out all that he can...
A blind woman is cured by a doctor, but when her sight is restored she accidently mistakes her kind lover for his wayward younger brother and no one deems to correct her ‘fearing for her psyche’.
Paula is a circus performer married to the alcoholic clown-acrobat Lorio. Lorio's heavy drinking leads to him being severely injured during a performance. This forces Paula and the now-crippled Lorio to become street musicians. This film formerly ran to 81 minutes – regrettably, the second half...
Documentary film about early years of Russian cinema: its first directors, cameramen, producers and actors. Includes rare fragments of pre-revolutionary feature films, newsreels and Starewicz's animation.
A female doctor is so busy with her work that she has too little time for her fiancé. He falls in love with a waitress and the two have a child. Though considered by some to be a proto-feminist yarn, the film dwells on the consequences that equal rights for women may generate rather than openly...
“Chelovecheskie bezdny is an excellent sample of the “high style”, brought to perfection in Yevgeni Bauer’s melodramas. A stage set designer by training, Bauer relied on drapes, curtains and columns, which divided the set into sections but were also used to disguise the lights. Wall ledges,...
Wealthy Mrs. Khromova has a natural daughter, Musya, and an adopted daughter, Nata. The merchant Zhurov is in love with Nata, and hopes to marry her, but she is non-committal.
