Tuesday | April 17, 2001 7:00 pm

Bed and Sofa
(Tretya meshchanskaya)

Live Piano Accompaniment Composed and Performed by Yakov Gubanov
Screening on Film

Directed by Abram Room.
With Nikolai Batalov, Vladmir Fogel, Lyudmila Semyonova.
USSR, 1927, 35mm, black & white, silent, 95 min.

Bed and Sofa is a simple story of a domestic ménage à trois—simple, that is, until the woman discovers she is pregnant. While the two men try to decide what to do, she announces that she has other ideas regarding her future. Once believed lost, the film was rediscovered during the 1970s and has since become regarded as a little Russian masterpiece of the silent era. Considering its subject matter, Bed and Sofa is unusually frank for its era—or any era—thanks to the matter-of-fact storytelling talents of director Abram Room. The film also displays extraordinary fluidity of camera work in a confined set, and natural performances from the cast.