The Steppe (La Steppa, 1962) Stars are burning over a deserted land.
The Holy Constellation of the Dog is Royal:
Suddenly darkened and with a fiery red serpent,
Someone cut through the heavens above the dark earth.
Traveler, don't be afraid! There are many wonderful things in the wilderness.
It's not vortices, it's jinns disturbing her.
He is the archangel, the servant of the merciful God.
A golden spear was thrown into the demons of the night.
(Ivan Bunin)
From N, the county town of the Z-th province, in the early July morning she left, and with a rumble rolled through the postal tract a springless, shabby breech, one of those antediluvian breeches, on which now only merchant clerks, Gurtovskaya, and poor priests travel in Russia. In the breech sat two N-seaters. N-sky merchant Ivan Ivanovich Kuzmichov, and the other is Father Christopher the Syrian, rector of the N-Nicholaev Church. In addition to the two just described, and coachman Deniska, there was another passenger in the brig - a boy of nine years old, with a dark tan, and wet face with tears. It was Yegorushka, Kuzmichov's nephew. With the permission of his uncle, and with the blessing of Father Christopher, he went to enter the gymnasium. His mother, Olga Ivanovna, the widow of the collegiate secretary, and Kuzmichov’s sister, begged her brother, who was going to sell wool, to take Yegorushka with him, and give him to the gymnasium.
So begins the story of Chekhov, on which the film was made. A little boy, going to another city, to go to the gymnasium. On the breech, then on the carts across the steppe. The journey will begin with tears, but soon, Yegor will take over the road. He will eagerly look around, listen to the conversations and stories of adults: fellow travelers, Jews in the inn, drivers. She learns a lot and takes the first steps to becoming an adult. Italian director Alberto Lattuada has repeatedly turned to Russian classics. In addition to the “Steppe”, he filmed “Overcoat” (Il capotto, 1947) by Gogol, in 1958 he filmed “The Tempest” (La tempesta) based on “Captain’s Daughter” by Pushkin, and in 1975 – “Heart of a Dog” (Cuore di cane) by Bulgakov. The film “Steppe” is a joint, so the cast is extremely motley. There are French, Italians, Yugoslavs. And the actors are great. In the role of Ivan Kuzmichov – Yugoslav Pavlo Vuysich. Father Christopher - Frenchman Charles Vanel, in the role of Countess Dranitskaya, lit up Marina Vlady. Luba Tadic, played Emelian. The episodic role of the deceased grandmother Egor, performed by Marianne Leibl. The actors for the role of the second plan are Italians and Yugoslavs. Most of the film was also shot in Yugoslavia.
Every time you watch Russian classics, in the Western film adaptation, you are afraid to see a “flung cranberry”. In Lattouad's case, the fears are in vain. He didn’t have to move the film to Italy, modernize or change the plot. Except that some characters, refracted in the imagination of the director, became more relief. Kuzmichov - more assertive, sharper than Chekhov, lost a straw hat and glasses, but acquired a papaha. One short episode in the inn, associated in the book with Varlamov, passed to him. Father Christopher became less talkative. In the film, he is not a speculator, but a very kind and deeply religious old man. Hisrushka (Daniel Spallone), received a white shirt instead of a red one, and in addition, a dashing, embroidered sleeveless sleeveless shirt. Yes, the secondary character Stepka, turned from an 18-year-old guy, into a middle-aged man, with a marked bald spot. That's all the directorial "freedoms." Is it permissible to think something in the classics? - Why not? Simply transferring text to the screen usually doesn’t work. In this case, you are often waiting for “talking heads”. A colorless and boring movie that you can not watch at all, but only listen like a radio broadcast.
The film convinces the sincerity of execution, a certain “authenticity”. It’s a shame that this is the first film. And the fact that the director managed to look at everything “from the inside” – through the eyes of Yegor. Visibly and convincingly show how it is: look at the night sky with all eyes, and with a fading heart listen to terrible stories, swim in the river, look at the holiday. It is nice that thanks to the efforts of actors, director, cameraman and composer, the everyday trip turned into a small miracle, and the passage through the night steppe, and the thunderstorm, came out just exciting and mysterious. And most importantly, in the film there is always another character – steppe. Hot sun-green-blue hare, with the smell of herbs and flowers, the singing of birds and grasshoppers. The endless steppe seen through the eyes of a child. Sometimes unspeakably beautiful, sometimes dark, sinister, frightening. It is hard to believe without seeing the film, but the Italian Lattouada, somehow managed to bring to the screen the indescribable: a piece of a long-gone world. The atmosphere of the Russian steppe and the Russian people of the late nineteenth century, with their unsophisticated joys, grief, with their fatalism and faith in fate. And it is doubly pleasant that everything is filmed not in pavilions, but in nature. In a word, you will find an original, beautiful and bright, amazingly "delicious" film, with a kind of, tart, exciting the imagination of music. In "Steppe" is equally felt verisimilitude, and grace, determined by the aesthetics of the Director. And since the comparison is inevitable, I will say that this film adaptation seemed to me more interesting, the version of Sergei Bondarchuk.
The viewing language is Italian. Two options are considered at different times. 1) Soviet rental copy - in Italian, with Russian broadcasting translation - in the cinema and on TV; and 2) on video, also in Italian, with German credits. If possible, watch “The Steppe” on the big screen. The film is dominated by natural colors. For all the brightness, the colors are slightly muted, a lot of general plans. In the cinema "Steppe" makes a lasting impression, in the video - not so bright.
9 out of 10