Anniversary of Marriage
On July 14, 1944 a film by Isidor Annensky "Marriage" was released on the screens of Soviet cinemas.
Due to the historical features of the moment the picture was released, it did not participate in film festivals. What festivals in 1944?! Judging by the lack of reviews of professional Western film critics, the picture is poorly known in the West. Perhaps only in 1945, in the wave of the allied mood, it was shown in the United States and some European countries. And that’s it. So, once again, you can sympathize with the audience of Western countries, which, due to the most severe censorship, are deprived of the opportunity to see some Soviet film masterpieces.
In the West, sometimes the number of stars employed in a picture is used as a measure of the merits of a film. If this criterion could be applied to the "Marriage", it would probably be recognized as one of the most worthy films of the century. In fact, the film features: 11 people's artists of the USSR, 2 people's artists of the RSFSR, 4 honored artists of the RSFSR. Moreover, not all were indicated in the credits. As, for example, Tatyana Peltzer. And some are simply listed as the actor of the episode. Like, for example, Mikhail Pugovkin.
Of course, at the time of the film's creation, many of its actors did not yet have all the regalia that they had been awarded for their entire creative lives. But we are not talking about official ranks and awards, but about the highest level of talent of the star collective assembled by Isidor Annensky. This team, combined by a talented director with the genius of Chekhov, ensured the creation of a film masterpiece for centuries. A masterpiece in which each frame, each episode, each replica is a separate work of art.
According to one of the most respected Russian film critics Sergey Kudryavtsev, “Marriage” can be perceived as a collection of folk jokes, a kind of humorous concert upon request, when you know all the funs and jokes in advance - and, nevertheless, you experience inexplicable pleasure. ... The vulgar story of a kind of "wedding showdown" in the family of petty bourgeois Zhigalovs, trying at all costs to get capricious official Aplombov into the suitors, turns into a genuine encyclopedia of national characters. This is a tragicomic study of the deep essence of purely Russian existence: without evil sarcasm, but also without the desire to in its own way be touched by pranks and twists of the semi-barbaric mentality."
Despite the fact that the film was created more than three quarters of a century ago, the modern moviegoer highly appreciated it. 71% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave this film a rating of 8 to 10. Based on this indicator, the rating of the film "Marriage" according to FilmGourmand was 7.978, making it the 734th place in the Golden Thousand.
