Wassa (film)

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Movie
German title Wassa
Original title Васса
Country of production USSR
original language Russian
Publishing year 1983
length 138 minutes
Rod
Director Gleb Panfilow
script Gleb Panfilow
production Mosfilm
music Wadim Bibergan
camera Leonid Kalashnikov
cut P. Skachkova
occupation

Wassa (Original title: Васса , Wassa ) is a Soviet feature film directed by Gleb Panfilow from 1983 based on the drama Wassa Schelesnowa by Maxim Gorki from 1910/1936.

action

In 1913, the shipowner Wassa Borissovna Schelesnowa stood on a rubbish dump on the outskirts of the city of Nizhny Novgorod and watched as her one-year-old passenger steamer sank burning in the Volga . The sailor Shalamov, who was responsible for the watch, caused the sinking of the ship, which cost 300,000 rubles and was named after Wassa's son Fyodor Schelesnow, through his drunkenness. He was only hired as a seaman because he saved the young Fyodor from drowning years ago. When Wassa wants to drive her car back into town, her driver Alexei Pyatjorkin lies under the engine to try something new, which is why she walks on foot.

Back home, she receives Yuri Wassiljewitsch Melnikow from the district court, which she had instructed to do something for him in the case of her husband. Melnikov explains that the preliminary investigation has ended and the matter is going to the prosecutor. The examining magistrate softened the case for 3,000 rubles as far as possible, but the matchmaker's testimony is so overwhelming that excuses can no longer apply. The police who caught Wassa's husband Sergei Petrovich Schelesnow with the underage girls also have conclusive photos from the brothel . For the desecration of the children, he is threatened with a court conviction of forced labor . Melnikov also emphasizes that the prosecutor in charge wants to pursue a career and will therefore not be bribed with a lot of money. Wassa Schelesnowa wants to cover up the case at all costs, also out of consideration for her two daughters Natalja and Lyudmila.

Wassa calls her husband and tells him about the state of affairs. She refers to the common daughters who would not find a husband if Sergei were punished and that he should also think of his five-year-old grandson Nikolai. She asks him to pay attention to the good reputation of his family and not to let it come to trial, which is why he should take the powder she gives him. Wassa's brother Prokhor Borissowitsch Chrapow and the maid Lisa, who is pregnant by him, also get the following argument. Wassa's daughter Natalja has also heard from Melnikov's son that her father is about to be brought to justice and tells her uncle about it. He is upset about why his sister married the captain, 20 years his senior. While Wassa is talking to her brother and her two daughters about the difficulties in their marriage, a shrill scream from Lisa, who has just found Sergei Petrovich Schelesnow dead in his room, sounds through the house.

A new passenger ship of the Schelesnow family is dedicated on the Volga, named after the present grandson Wassas and which is celebrated with a big party. In the evening Wassa is sitting with her confidante and employee Anna Wassiljewna Onoshenkowa over a cup of tea, when the new maid, Lisa had committed suicide, reports a young woman named Rachel Moissejewna Topas. It is Fjodor's wife and Wassa's daughter-in-law. She lives in Switzerland and entered Russia with a forged passport because she is wanted as a revolutionary . Fyodor is seriously ill, she says, and he will die in about two to three months. She has come to fetch her son, but Wassa resolutely refuses. She won't give her grandson, even if she had to report Rachel to the police. After this conversation, Natalja and Lyudmila are called, who are very happy about the presence of their sister-in-law and tell her at the table that Kolja was here today for the inauguration of the ship, but has already left. Then Wassa's brother arrives and kisses Rachel hard. While he fetches a bottle of wine, Natalja admits that she likes wine and the intoxication, which annoys her mother very much. She then has to leave the meeting because there are problems with the river police about one of their barges .

Now Prokhor Borissowitsch takes over the further organization of the evening and invites a gypsy band to it until it degenerates into an orgy in which Alexei Pjatjorkin also takes part. But when Wassa Schelesnowa returns, the party is already over and only her two daughters are still waiting for her. Wassa tells Natalja that she should go with Anna to her son in Switzerland to support him in his last days. However, Natalja refuses to go with Anna, whereupon her mother beats her. When Rachel arrives, she tells of the extravagant solemnity and accuses Wassa of belonging to a hopelessly sick class that is never allowed to raise her son. Then Wassa Schelesnowa goes to her office completely exhausted and calls Anna over.

Here Anna reproduces the conversations that took place in Wassa's absence and that, as always when she was gone, everything is like a pit of sin . Wassa then decides to banish her brother to work in a tar distillery. When Anna then learns that she should go to Switzerland, she kisses her mistress' hands in gratitude. Then she gets the order to go to the gendarmerie the next morning to report the whereabouts of the emigrant Rachel Topas. When Anna has left and she is getting weaker and weaker, she even thinks to see her husband sitting on the bench in the office.

The next morning Anna enters the office and finds Wassa Schelesnowa sitting lifeless in her armchair. After a brief pause for thought, she picks up the phone and calls Alexei Pyatjorkin, whom she instructs to go to the notary with the will immediately and take enough money with him , as agreed . In the meantime, Natalja and Prochor arrive at the dead woman and find that she no longer has the key to the safe with her. Since Prochor believes he is now the guardian of the two daughters, i.e. the heiresses, he wants to throw Anna out of the house after he has taken the key from her. However, at this moment Alexei arrives with the will, in which Anna is designated as guardian for the two sisters. Prochor's attempt to tear it up fails and his call for the police is prevented by force. When Rachel enters the room while Anna and Alexei are clearing out the safe, she just wants to know the address of her son, she is not interested in the rest of the action. Then Lyudmila enters the office, sees Anna sitting on her mother's chair and collapses.

Production and publication

The film, shot in color, premiered on September 12, 1983 under the title Васса in the Soviet Union .

In the GDR it was first shown on May 4, 1984 in the Berlin Kino International . The film was broadcast on the 2nd program on November 4, 1984 on East German television.

criticism

HU draws the following conclusion in the new era :

“However, it is also noteworthy how Panfilow specifically uses filmic means of expression without denying the theatrical presentation. There are extended long dialogue scenes, observed with a rigid camera, but the point of view is a subjective perspective. "

Horst Knietzsch wrote in Neues Deutschland :

"Panfilow has combined the scene and the actors' play into a remarkable artistic unit, but despite all efforts to achieve a film-appropriate implementation of the material, the stage play has not turned into a drama for the cinema."

The lexicon of international films writes that this is a sensitive and atmospherically impressive film adaptation.

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of May 3, p. 10
  2. ↑ Neue Zeit of May 16, 1984, p. 4
  3. ↑ Neues Deutschland, May 30, 1984, p. 4
  4. ↑ Wassa. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 17, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ↑ Neues Deutschland, May 10, 1984, p. 4