Film title Khovanshchina Original title Khovanshchina (Хованщина) Production country Soviet Union Original language Russian Year of release 1959 Length 133 minutes Staff Director Vera Pavlovna Strojewa Screenplay Anna Abramova Production Aleksandr Broisov Music Modest Mussorgsky Camera Viktor Dombrovsky Editing Yekaterina Ovsyannikova Cast
- Aleksey Krivchya: Prince Ivan Khovansky, leader of the Streltsy
- Anton Grigoyev: Prince Andrei Chowanski,
His son - Aleksei Maslennikov: Kuzka, young archer
- Evgeniy Kibkalo: Bojahr Shaklovity
- Mark Reizen: Dossifej
- Tikhon Chernyakov: Furst Wassili Golizyn
- Fyodor Godvkin, Ivan Ionov, Ivan Khapov, Leonid Maslov, Aleksey Serov, Ivan Sipayev: Altgläubige
- Daniel Bedrosyan, Yuriy Gorbunov, Vladimir Gavryushov, Sergey Koltypin, Leonid Ktitorov, Anatoliy Nikolaev, Mikhail Shkaptsov: Strelizen/Palastgarde
- Call Leonova: Marfa, Altgläubige
- Viveya Gromova: Emma, a girl from the German quarter of the city
- Filip Fokin: Varsonofyev
- L. Gavrilyuk: Streletskaya Zhena
- Fyodor Godvkin: Neuling Chelovek
- Liliya Gritsenko: Susanne
- Sergey Bekasov: Podachiy
- Yuriy Dementyev: Boyarin Streshnev
- Viktor Nechipailo: Anführer Prishlykh Lyudey
- Lyudmila Novosyolova, Yelena Sanko, G. Savchenko, I. Zorina: Strelizen
- Georgiy Pankov: Pastor
- Vladimir Petrov: Prinz Visiliy Golitsyn
- Maya Plisetskaya: captured Persian
- Yelena Sanko: Streletskaya
- Nikolay Zakharov: Clerk
Khovanshchina (original title Khovanshchina (Хованщина)) is a Russian musical drama, an opera film by Vera Pavlovna Strojeva from 1959. The script is based on a political opera of the same name by Modest Mussorgsky. The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Score.
The content of the film is a corrupt state power created by the Chowanski clan and the resulting bloody schism in the church. The topic is the conspiracy of the boyar and Streltsy leader Khovanski against the underage tsars Peter and Ivan and the regent Sofia. The film and the opera of the same name deviate greatly from historical reality.
Late 18th century: The westernization of his country has long been a thorn in Prince Ivan Chowanski’s side. As Tsar Fyodor III. dies, there is no heir to the throne who is already of age. This is how the half-brothers Ivan and Peter come to the throne, whose families are at odds. They only got into this position because of their father Alexei I’s relationship with the tsar. Ivan’s sister Sofia, who would prefer to keep the regency, acts as regent. So she supports an uprising of the Strelizen, the palace guard, whose leader is Prince Ivan Khovansky. This leads to most of Peter’s family and people close to him being killed in a single night.
Prince Golitsyn, a member of the government and commander-in-chief of the army and also the lover of Tsarevna Sofia, receives a love letter from Sofia. He wants to meet with Ivan Khovanski and Dossifei, the spiritual leader of the Old Believers, to discuss the common conspiracy in more detail. However, the meeting ends in a dispute, which means that further decision-making fails. The boyar Shaklovity, also a lover of Sofia, arrives unexpectedly and reports that the court, Sofia’s half-brother Peter has now seized power, knows about the Khovansky conspiracy and that Tsar Peter calls it “the Khovansky affair equal to Khovanshchina and ordered an investigation into the conspiracy. Khovanski’s son Andrej has so far paid little attention to politics, preferring instead to pursue his love affairs. He pursues and harasses Emma, a young German whose father he has on his conscience. Marfa, an Old Believer and fortune teller and previously Andrej’s lover, comes to the young girl’s aid. So, under Marfa’s care, Emma ends up in the circle of the Old Believers, who have also opposed the Strelitzes under the leadership of old Dossifej.
When drunken Strelitsians rage and riot one night, they receive the news that Tsar Peter’s bodyguard is on the way, whereupon panic spreads through the ranks of the Strelitsians. However, Ivan Khovanski orders them to lock themselves in their houses, not to fight and not to resist. Chowanski himself is afraid of his imminent downfall and what could come to him. However, he unexpectedly receives an invitation from Tsarevna Sofia, without suspecting that this will prove to be a message of death.
While Golitsyn is sent into exile and greeted with sympathy by the Muscovites, Marfa Dossifei excitedly explains that the government has ordered the extermination of all Old Believers. Dossifej then decides on collective self-immolation. Marfa informs Andrei Khovansky about his father’s death and also warns him that he is also wanted by the Petrovtsians. However, Andrei doesn’t believe her and says she wants to destroy his life. But soon the chimes announce the execution of the condemned Strelizen and Andrei has to realize that Marfa was telling the truth. This is the time when he is ready to follow her anywhere. At the last moment, so to speak, Tsar Peter pardoned the Strelizas.
However, Dossifej, Marfa and Andrei as well as other believers no longer see a way out for themselves and burn themselves in the hope of finding a better life in another world.
Production notes[Bearbeiten | Quelltext bearbeiten]
The film was produced by Mosfilm and distributed by Alliance Film (in Denmark), Artkino Pictures (in Argentina and the United States). Lyudmila Novosyolava made her debut in this film.
“I am drowning in the material,” wrote Modest Mussorgsky in 1872 about his work on the opera Khovanshchina. At the time he was busy processing the relevant historical material, which would certainly have been enough for a tetralogy. So he tried to bring together the struggle of the Old and New Believers with Tsar Peter’s seizure of power. However, the opera remained a fragment. Ultimately, it was the composer Rimsky-Korsakov who completed it according to more Western listening habits, although he was actually trying to create a Russian folk opera. It was Vera Strojeva who, together with Dmitri Shostakovich, attempted to integrate Mussorgsky’s music into a film adaptation of the opera.[1]
publication[Bearbeiten | Quelltext bearbeiten]
The film premiered on November 14, 1959 in the Soviet Union under the original title Хованщина. It was published in Hungary on June 2, 1960 under the title Hovanscsina. It was first published in the United States (New York City) on September 17th under the title Khovanschina. In Argentina it was released under the title Jovánschina on October 5, 1960 and in Denmark under the title Khovansjtjina on March 27, 1966. In the Federal Republic of Germany the film was released under the title Khovanstschina.
criticism[Bearbeiten | Quelltext bearbeiten]
The Armory Cinema found: “In noble images, the fate of the collective alternates with the private affairs of those in power, the people sing about their fate, which they cannot control.”[1]
Award[Bearbeiten | Quelltext bearbeiten]
Academy Awards 1962: Nominated for an Oscar in the category “Best Film Music” Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich
2024-03-06 01:18:41
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