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[REKLAMFILM] Groza [The Storm]. Film poster for the production directed by Vladimir Petrov. Moscow: Reklamfilm, [1950s].

GERASIMOVICH, I., artist.

Item #2940

Color poster, 64 × 113 cm (25¼× 44½ inches). In Russian. Backed, with a few restored tears and visible fold lines.

An atmospheric Soviet film poster for Vladimir Petrov’s adaptation of Alexander Ostrovsky’s play The Storm. Against a dark landscape and the silhouette of a Russian church, the artist places a large, apprehensive portrait of a young woman in a black headscarf, with two older figures
behind her. The design evokes the oppressive household and provincial society at the centre of Ostrovsky’s drama.

The film was produced by the Leningrad studio Soiuzfilm in 1933 and is also commonly dated 1934, the year of its release. The screenplay and direction were by Vladimir Petrov (1896–1966), a Soviet filmmaker known for his adaptations of Russian literature. His The Storm was made in the early years of Soviet sound cinema and brought together a distinguished cast of theatre actors.

The story takes place in the fictional Volga town of Kalinov. Katerina, trapped in a marriage dominated by her severe mother-in-law Kabanikha, falls in love with Boris, the nephew of a wealthy merchant. Tormented by guilt and unable to escape her circumstances, she publicly confesses the affair before ending her life in the Volga. Ostrovsky’s play, first performed in 1859, examines family authority, religious fear and the restrictions placed on women in nineteenth-century Russian provincial life.

Alla Tarasova (1898–1973), a leading actress of the Moscow Art Theatre, plays Katerina. Varvara Massalitinova (1878–1945) appears as Kabanikha; Ivan Chuvelev (1902–1972) as her son Tikhon; Mikhail Tsarev (1903–1987) as Boris; Irina Zarubina (1907–1976) as Varvara; Mikhail Tarkhanov (1877–1948) as the merchant Dikoi; and Mikhail Zharov (1899–1981) as Kudryash. The cinematography was by Vyacheslav Gordanov, whose name is printed on the poster as V.Gardanov.

Worldcat shows no copies in the USA.

Price: $350.00