Women of Ryazan

Women of Ryazan or The Peasant Women of Riazan (Russian: Бабы рязанские, romanized: Baby ryazanskie) is a 1927 Soviet silent drama film directed by Olga Preobrazhenskaya and co-directed by Ivan Pravov,[2] starring Kuzma Yastrebitsky, Olga Narbekova and Yelena Maksimova.[3][1] This is the fourth feature film Preobrazhenskaya directed. In this film, "she reveals her belief in the strength of a simple plot, and her penchant for portraying folk traditions and for conveying a sense of the beauty and freshness of her native countryside."[2]

Women of Ryazan
Directed byOlga Preobrazhenskaya
Ivan Pravov (co-director)
Written byBoris Altshuler
Olga Vishnevskaya
StarringKuzma Yastrebitsky
Olga Narbekova
Yelena Maksimova
Music bySergey Dreznin
CinematographyKonstantin Kuznetsov
Production
company
Release date
13 December 1927
Running time
67 minutes
CountrySoviet Union
LanguageSilent
Russian intertitles
Budget46.000 roubles[1]
Box office210.000 roubles[1]

The picture compares the fate of two heroines Anna, who commits suicide at the end, and her lively and energetic sister-in-law Vasilisa, who openly defies the old way of life.[4]

Plot

The film is set in the village of Ryazan in Russia. It opens in Spring, 1914, just before the outbreak of the First World War. The well-to-do farmer Vasilii Shironin has a daughter, Vasilisa, and a son, Ivan. While Ivan's love towards Anna was by luck also Vasilii's choice for his bride, Vasilisa's love towards Nicolai was strongly opposed by Vasilii. Before the general mobilization in Russia, Ivan is married to Anna while Vasilisa leaves home to start her family with Nicolai without the formal marriage. Vasilisa and Nicolai openly defies the conservative villagers' gossiping. When the war breaks out in the summer, both Ivan and Nicolai were drafted.

Meanwhile, Vasilii rapes Anna after getting drunk, and a child is born during Ivan's absence. After the war, Nicolai comes back to the village while Ivan remains missing. Now we are in the post revolutionary era, when Vasilisa's standing is drastically improved. Her plan of orphanage is approved by the mayor and a deserted mansion is assigned to her for that purpose. When Ivan's letter finally arrives, we learn that he has been a prison of war and will return home soon. Upon see Anna with a child, he is devastated and does nothing to sooth Anna, who in desperation jumps into the river and kills herself. When her body is brought back to the farm, Visilisa tells Ivan to ask his father about the real cause of this incident. She then carries the child away to her orphanage.

Cast
  • Kuzma Yastrebitsky as Vasilii Schironin
  • Emma Tsesarskaya as Vasilisa, his daughter
  • Georgi Bobynin as Ivan, his son
  • Olga Narbekova as Matveena
  • Raisa Puzhnaya as Anna
  • E. Safonova as Anna's Aunt Alyona
  • Yelena Maksimova as Lukerya, a widow
  • M. Sabelyev as Nicolai, a blacksmith
  • Gulya Korolyova
  • Inna Fyodorova

Reception

"Women of Ryazan enjoyed a considerable success both in the Soviet Union and abroad", according to Dictionary of Films.[2]

Bryher praised Women of Ryazan as the most moral film she has ever seen.[5]

Home Video

This was released as part of Flicker Alley's Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology as a dual format Blu-ray/DVD edition on 9 May 2017.

References
  1. Jay Leyda (1960). Kino: A History of the Russian and Soviet Film. George Allen & Unwin. pp. 231, 270.
  2. Sadoul, Georges (1972). Dictionary of Films. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520021525.
  3. Christie & Taylor p.434
  4. "Six Russian Films – The Peasant Women of Riazanj". Close Up. Pool Group. September 1928. pp. 43–50.
  5. Bryher (1922). Film Problems Of Soviet Russia. Riant Chateau TERRITET Switzerland. pp. 84–91.

Bibliography
  • Christie, Ian & Taylor, Richard. The Film Factory: Russian and Soviet Cinema in Documents 1896-1939. Routledge, 2012.
  • Jay Leyda. Kino: A History of the Russian and Soviet Film. George Allen & Unwin. 1960
  • Bryher (1922). Film Problems Of Soviet Russia. Riant Chateau TERRITET Switzerland.
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