Happiness (1934)
A cinematic folktale, directed by Alexander Medvedkin, which satirizes the effect on the peasantry of pre- and post-revolutionary Russia. The film was almost entirely unknown in the West until it was resurrected by the French post 1968. Stalin banned the film for 40 years as anti-Bolshevik.
Regarding his film, Medvedkin has stated: “the peasant himself - and this is just not true of our country, it's part of the social psychology of mankind in all civilized nations - dreams of ownership. He wants a prosperous life to set himself apart from his thousands and millions of neighbors; he wants to creep ahead and have his own barn, his own horses, his own grain. In short he wants to be his own boss. Of course, for every 1,000, only one will manage it; the other 999 will remain farm-hands and starve, but this dream lives on among the peasants. So happiness is a satirical picture. I made it as the nail in the coffin of this rosy dream. I ridiculed that dream because it's unrealistic; 999 people out of 1,000 get nothing from a dream like that.”
Medvedkin was one of the masterminds behind the infamous Cine Train in Bolshevik Russia, whose underlying purpose was to document the plight of the peasantry and working class and present it to them as a mirror, thus enabling them to recognize their situation and, possibly, to change their lives.
Chris Marker’s tribute to Medvedkin, The Last Bolshevik (1993), has probably been the single most important factor in gaining the Russian filmmaker wider recognition. The film is presented through a series of six cinematic letters dedicated to his deceased mentor and friend. It functions as a signal, and perhaps as an exegetic tool, for the necessary reconstruction of the structure and fiber of history itself, newly bedazzled by obscure and forgotten luminaries. The two films, Happiness and The Last Bolshevik, can be found in tandem, a release from Icarus Films.
Jennifer Dawson
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Grading
- Story A
- Acting B+
- Visuals A
- Originality/Innovation A
- Enjoyability A-
- Overall A-
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