The same Ivan Mosjoukine—the actor we enjoyed watching in Protazanov’s 1916 Queen of Spades—with the same steely stare, plays the protagonist of another one of Protazanov’s “quality pictures” and adaptations of a classic piece of prose. “From dirt to Princes,” iz griazi v kniazi, is the Russian rhymed equivalent for the English rags-to-riches phrase. Leo Tolstoy’s idea of moral self-perfection sends the hero of his story in the opposite direction. Prince Kasatkii, a young, handsome army officer with a brilliant career ahead of him, learns of an unpleasant episode from the amorous past of his beloved fiancée. This is how his social downfall (read: his spiritual ascension) begins: from being the priest Father Sergius, to being a holy hermit, and, finally, to being an ambulant nobody, a righteous bum. The various ages and stages of life depicted herein make this part attractive for actors (more than one film version of Tolsloy’s story has been produced, including a relatively recent version by the Taviani brothers); in addition, much like Saint Antony, Father Sergius goes through a series of lustful temptations, one of which results in him “chopping off the wrong member,” as Vladimir Nabokov cynically remarked in his novel Ada or Ardor.

Live Musical Accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis