Proof Russian director-led film production still ahead of time, 100 years on.
Boris Barnet was born in Moscow. His grandfather Thomas Barnet was a printer who moved to the Russian Empire from Great Britain back in the 19th century. A student of the Moscow Art School, he volunteered to join the Red Army at age 18 and was then professionally involved in boxing. In 1927 he shot his first feature, a comedy film, The Girl with a Hatbox, starring Anna Sten. His 1928 melodramatic film The House on Trubnaya, starring Vera Maretskaya, was rediscovered in the mid-1990s and now ranks as one of the classic Russian silent films.
Encouraged in his early efforts by Yakov Protazanov, Barnet emerged in the 1930s as one of the country’s leading film-makers, working with the likes of Serafima Birman and Nikolai Erdman. Outskirts (1933), a pacifist story acclaimed at the first Venice Film Festival, is considered one of Barnet’s masterpieces.
The House on Trubnaya is set in Moscow at the height of the NEP. The petty-bourgeois public carries out their philistine life full of bustle and gossip in the house on the Trubnaya Street. One of the tenants, Mr. Golikov (Vladimir Fogel), owner of a hairdressing salon, is looking for a housekeeper who is modest, hard-working and non-union. A suitable candidate for use seems to him a country girl nicknamed Paranya, full name Praskovya Pitunova (Vera Maretskaya). Soon the house on Trubnaya receives shocking news that Praskovya Pitunova is elected deputy of the Mossovet by the maids’ Trade Union.
- https://moviessilently.com/2018/12/02/the-house-on-trubnaya-1928-a-silent-film-review/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_on_Trubnaya
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Barnet
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outskirts_(1933_film)
