St. Jorgen's Day

St. Jorgen's Day
Directed by Yakov Protazanov
Written by Harald Bergstedt (novel)
Yakov Protazanov (screenplay)
Ilya Ilf, Yevgeni Petrov and Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky (cues)
Music by Sergei Boguslavsky
Cinematography Pyotr Yermolov
Release dates
  • 1930
Running time
83 minutes
Country Soviet Union
Language Russian
Part-talkie with
Russian intertitles

Prazdnik svyatogo Yorgena (St. Jorgen's Day,[1] Holiday of St. Jorgen, The Feast of St. Jorgen, Russian: Праздник Святого Йоргена) is a 1930 Soviet, partly silent comedy film by Yakov Protazanov and starring Igor Ilyinsky.

Uncredited are the original novel by Harald Bergstedt, and the cues written by Ilf and Petrov (with the additional contribution of Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky).

Plot summary

Before the church holiday celebrating St. Jorgen, the thief Korkis (Anatoli Ktorov) escapes from prison and mingles with the gathering celebrants. He sees the large amounts of money being made by those hosting the celebration, who are mainly clergy. Korkis cannot refrain from getting involved in this venture. Together with an accomplice (Igor Ilyinsky) they conceive and realize a way to fraudulently extract at least a small part of the money flowing into the hosts' coffers.

Cast

Credited crew

Part-talkie

Films from this period often combine silent and sound sequences.

Most of St. Jorgen's Day was shot without recorded sound. These sequences have Russian intertitles, an orchestral and choral score, and occasional sound effects (e.g. the sound of a hand knocking on a door) or added dialogue. A specific scene can use sound effects and intertitles together. The often-impressive exterior scenes were shot silent on location. Interspersed throughout the film are short indoor scenes with recorded sound. The opening credit sequence uses sound, with the principal performers speaking in costume as their characters.[2]

Quotes

See also

References

  1. "The crudely antireligious Holiday of St. Iorgen (aka St. Jorgen's Day...)", Rollberg (q.v.), p. 548.
  2. Source: DVD release from Незабытое Кино.

External links