| A Man from the Boulevard des Capuchines | |
|---|---|
Original film poster |
|
| Directed by | Alla Surikova |
| Written by | Eduard Akopov |
| Starring | Andrei Mironov Aleksandra Yakovleva-Aasmyae |
| Music by | Gennadi Gladkov |
| Cinematography | Grigori Belenky |
| Editing by | Inessa Brozhovskaya |
| Studio | Mosfilm |
| Distributed by | Sovexportfilm |
| Release date(s) | June 23, 1987 |
| Running time | 99 min. |
| Country | Soviet Union |
| Language | Russian |
A Man from the Boulevard des Capuchines (Russian: Человек с бульвара Капуцинов, translit. Chelovek s bulvara Kaputsinov) is a Red Western comedy film of 1987 (Mosfilm production), with nods to silent film and the transforming power of celluloid.
It is particularly unusual in Soviet cinema for two reasons: first, it was directed by one of the few female Soviet directors of any stature, Alla Surikova, and second it was a rare post-modernist outing.
The film was the leader of Soviet distribution in 1987 and had 60 million viewers.
The plot involves the arrival of Mr Johnny First in a sleepy "Wild West" town. After Mr First starts showing the residents Chaplinesque silent films on his cinematograph, the town's wild inhabitants are tamed by the images on the silver screen, trading saloons and brawls for glasses of milk and moving pictures.
Beautiful dancer Diane falls for First, and so he ends up making a few enemies, including Diane's many other admirers and the barman who is threatened by the new competition for "entertainment".
The film is a comedy critique of the wild west myth. Just as Buffalo Bill mythologized his exploits and later Hollywood elaborated the image, a Soviet film (i.e. the other side of the Cold War) deconstructs and satirizes it, both through the film and the "film within film" that Johnny First shows. It is a self-reflexive fable documenting its own evolution.