Synopsis
Lieutenant Kizhe (1934) is a satirical comedy you can watch online on iFILM. Alexander Faintsimmer directed it from Yuri Tynyanov's novella, with a score by Sergei Prokofiev — the music that later spun off into a famous orchestral suite. The setting is the court of Tsar Paul I.
Everything springs from a slip of the pen. A military scribe smears two Russian words together, and a royal order suddenly names a "Lieutenant Kizhe" who does not exist. The Tsar wants to meet this officer. Nobody dares contradict the hot-tempered ruler, so the courtiers start feeding the fiction: the phantom gets a service record, a disgrace, an exile, a wedding, a career. Mikhail Yanshin and Erast Garin push the bureaucratic absurdity along with perfectly straight faces.
The film lands a sharp point: fear of a superior can promote a blank space to general rather than risk his anger. A treat for anyone who enjoys early Soviet sound cinema and satire aimed at rank-worship. Stream Lieutenant Kizhe (1934) online on iFILM.
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