Lieutenant Kizhe / Lieutenant Kije / Поручик Киже

1934 Russian film with music by Prokofiev. English language subtitles available: click on CC if necessary to see them. Note: no sound at all (except static) during the credits. The sound starts after they are done.

Based on a novella by Yuri Tynyanov, who also wrote the screenplay, the film tells an apocryphal tale about Tsar Paul I and a certain lieutenant whose entire existence is due to a copying error by an army scribe.

Imaginative directing and writing, outstanding comic acting. Primitive sound. Prokofiev reworked his music into the Lieutenant Kijé Suite, which is much better known (outside Russia, at least) than this long-unavailable film. See http://www.sprkfv.net/journal/three13... for information.

For downloadable versions, see http://www.archive.org/details/Lieute....
Comments to kizhesubtitles [AT] mit [DOT] edu.

Sovetskaja Belorus'
composer: Sergei Prokofiev
director: Alexander Feinzimmer
screenplay: Yuri Tynyanov
Tsar Paul I: M. Yanshin
Count Palen: B. Gorin-Goryainov
Princess Gagarina: N. Shaternikova
her companion: S. Magarill
Adjutant: E. Garin
Commandant: M. Rostovstsev
himself: Lieutenant Kizhe

• Category

  Comedy

[al1936ful]

What about the music by Prokofiev? When does it start?

[KizheKino]

Around the 2 minute mark, and scattered throughout the rest of the film.

[MrNihonsuki]

Thanks for this. A real pleasure!