alr

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.

Part of film series

Read more

Frames of Mind

Other film series with this film

Read more

Not-So-Silent Sundays

Read more

Frames of Mind

Read more

Behind Potemkin: Other Faces of Russian and Soviet Film

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

Floating Clouds… The Cinema of Naruse Mikio

Read more

The Seasons of Hong Sangsoo Part I, Summer & Fall

Read more

Small Axe by Steve McQueen 2025-2026 Norton Professor of Poetry

Read more

Gore Vidal Goes to the Movies

Read more

New Dog, New Tricks: Youth in Cinema

Read more

A Terra! The Cinema of Marta Mateus

Read more

Columbia 101: The Rarities

Read more

Jordan Belson by Raymond Foye