Authentic Film Footage of Leo Tolstoy!
History comes alive in this authentic film footage of Leo Tolstoy celebrating his eightieth birthday party in 1908.
Tolstoy is depicted here with his wife, Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya (picking flowers in the garden), his daughter, Aleksandra L’vovna
(sitting in the carriage in the white blouse), his aide and confidante, V. Chertkov (the bald man with the beard and mustache),
his dog (a spaniel-poodle), and his peasant students who have come to celebrate Tolstoy’s birthday with him. Shot on one of the first
film cameras in Russia, this rare glimpse into world history is certain to excite and inspire.
The short film presented here was shot on L. N. Tolstoy's eightieth
birthday (August 28, 1908) by one of the early pioneers of Russian cinema,
Aleksandr Osipovich Drankov, and his two assistants, I. S. Frolov and
V. Vasil'ev. It was the first film taken of Tolstoy.
It was obtained from the Russian State Documentary Film & Photo
Archive and digitized by Eric W. Hoffman at the Media Center of Stetson
University. The Tolstoy Studies Journal holds non-exclusive copyright
over its use.
The film opens with Tolstoy's relatives and friends riding through
the territory of Yasnaya Polyana on a light carriage, delivering a box
of presents for peasant children. I believe the woman riding in the
middle of the carriage (in the white blouse) is Aleksandra L'vovna,
Tolstoy's third daughter. The following scene finds Tolstoy's wife,
Sofia Andreevna Tolstaya, collecting flowers from the flower garden.
The Tolstoys' beloved dog (a spaniel-poodle mix) makes a brief appearance.
Next, V. Chertkov, Tolstoy's aide and close friend, distributes alms
at the "tree of the poor". Chertkov appears
in several of the scenes: he is the bald man with a beard and mustache,
sometimes wearing an English bowler. Among the men leaving the main
house with Chertkov are the Tolstoys' sons. You can also spy another
of Drankov's cameras set up near the house. The last scenes are of Tolstoy:
In the penultimate scene, Tolstoy, who was suffering from leg pain at
the time, is seated on the second-floor balcony, in a low wicker chair,
barely visible over the railing. The men to the left are students who
have come to congratulate Tolstoy on his birthday. Chertkov stands immediately
behind Tolstoy, and Sofia Andreevna stands to the right. The final scene
is taken from the balcony. Tolstoy smiles at the camera, his ailing
leg propped on an ottoman. Sofia Andreevna stands to his right, Chertkov
behind him, and Aleksandra L'vovna can be seen to Tolstoy's left.
Watch the film:
For slow connections: Small picture, low quality image
Window's Media Player version
Quicktime Version
For fast connections: Large picture, high quality image
Window's Media Player version
Quicktime Version
You will need the Window's
Media Player or Quicktime
Player to watch this short film. If the file does not properly launch,
you might try to right-click on the link with your mouse and choose
the "save link target as" option. Once the file is finished
downloading, you can double-click the icon.
There are several accounts of the shooting of this film: The most detailed
is in Lev Anninsky’s «Oxota na Lva» (Tula: Shar, 1998), p. 14-20. Another
can be found in Jay Leyda's Kino: A History of Russian and Soviet
Film (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), p. 33. You can
read another account, published in the New York Times, of the day's
events and Tolstoy's reaction to cinema here,
on the Tolstoy Studies website.
Michael
A. Denner,
Tolstoy Studies Website Editor
Source: http://www.utoronto.ca/
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