They live too... how? Climbing somewhere... The cockroach crawls - and that knows where and why it needs, and you - what? Where you going? . . © Why is there no review of this film? It's actually really weird. Even for the most passable films, someone must write something - and here Mark Donskoy, the adaptation of a bright and interesting story by Gorky, the 59th year, is still not the beginning of the twentieth century ... And yet, even in books devoted to the movies of the 60s, you will hardly find a mention of “Fom Gordeev”, unless the statement that yes, this film exists, and it was made then and so. And well, such a situation would have developed with a failed and frankly unsuccessful film, but no: in addition to the fact that this is a neat adaptation of the Gorky story, “Thoma Gordeev” is a rather interesting film in itself.
Of course, he suffers from the same problem from which all illustrative films-screen adaptations of the 50-60s suffered: the craving for tendentiousness, the dryness of the narrative, the loose composition, thanks to which the initial events skip in ten minutes, because of which the middle lengthens and lubricates the emotional impact on the viewer. All this, of course, is true, but, to Mark Donskoy’s credit, these shortcomings do not look so catastrophic and are compensated for by well-played Gorky dialogues. In the case of this writer, there is always a danger of slipping into tendentiousness and patheticness, turning sincere and natural words into empty slogans, but this also bypassed Thomas Gordeev. There is, of course, some exaggeration of characters and excesses in the dramatic tension of a number of scenes, but this is due to the peculiarity of the literary material and the peculiarities of the historical period when the film was released.
The main advantage of “Thoma Gordeev” is both a correct attitude to the Gorky text and at the same time the emotional sincerity of the director’s position. And in human terms, you just believe this story, from and on. Not even because it poses acute problems (especially since it could hardly be called the merits of the film itself, rather, the literary source), but because the film adaptation managed to surprisingly carefully convey sympathy for the morally ambivalent main character and at the same time acutely and polemically convey the essence of the tragedy that happened to him. Villain merchants, although they look somewhat caricatured in their thirst for profit and dull limitation, but this is not an unwillingness to work with characters, but a conscious technique that clearly demonstrates what kind of people Thomas fears; besides, this inhuman malice works perfectly in the culmination scene of beating and humiliation. These must be non-personalities: individuals either drink and degenerate like Thomas, or fool around and scold, or get used to the endless humiliation of their dignity and do not resist. And most importantly, in the work of Mark Donskoy, the same message is felt that there is in almost any, even the most unsuccessful, Gorky’s work: the feeling that this should not be so, that it is wrong, that this can and should be resisted, this is a social monstrous machine that overturns and destroys human destinies. And not that there was a lot of civil pathos inside the film (of course, it can not do without it, after all, the fifties), just this conclusion comes out somehow by itself, out of the context and interpretation of the situation.
And a whole gallery of wonderful acting portraits. Georgy Epifantsev created an amazing man, both thoughtful and romantic, passionate and dull-educated, reflective and temperamental, appealing to justice and honesty, but at the same time absolutely uncontrollable. Great work, why is it so rarely remembered in connection with the Soviet adaptations? What about the beautiful, outrageous merchant performed by Sergei Lukyanov? Dreamy, but absolutely passive Lyuba, turned from an intellectual girl into a simple ornament, which should be quickly scolded by a potential groom? And the incomparable cunning Mayakov? By God, the best work in the filmography of Pavel Tarasov: this cunning squint, affectionate intonations, fleetingly replaced by furious steel in his voice, the vile kindest half-smile of a rare scum... Every scene with him turns into a real pleasure, even if terrible things happen inside the frame - whether it is betrayal of his own pupil or insulting his daughter. An amazing character.
In general, I do not understand what is wrong with Thomas Gordeev, that this work is circumvented by tactful silence. It is damn good, both as a film and as a film adaptation, and you will not often find such a combination.
Is this all weird?