Another Man's Wife and a Husband Under the Bed (film) explained

Another Man's Wife and a Husband Under the Bed
Native Name:Чужая жена и муж под кроватью
Director:Vitaly Melnikov
Screenplay:Vladimir Valutskiy
Starring:Oleg Tabakov
Oleg Yefremov
Marina Neyolova
Nikolai Burlyayev
Stanislav Sadalsky
Marina Shimanskaya
Music:Timur Kogan
Distributor:Lenfilm
Runtime:64 minutes
Country:USSR
Language:Russian

Another Man's Wife and a Husband Under the Bed (Russian: Чужая жена и муж под кроватью|Chuzhaya zhena i muzh pod krovatyu) is a 1984 Soviet TV comedy film directed by Vitaly Melnikov. It is based on the 1848 story by Fyodor Dostoevsky of the same name.

Plot

The film is a vaudevillian story about a solid, venerable, jealous husband (Oleg Tabakov) who is searching for his frivolous wife (Marina Shimanskaya). He winds up in someone else's apartment, and finds himself under the bed of an unknown woman (Marina Neyolova). He shares the hiding place with an unknown man (Stanislav Sadalsky), who is also there by accident.

Filming

According to Vitaly Melnikov, everyone had fun making the movie. The only difficulty was getting from under the antique bed which could've collapsed anytime, so Stanislav Sadalsky had to stay down there. He was then joined by Oleg Tabakov, and during pauses both of them simply fell asleep. Yuri Bogatyryov had only one free day, so he invented his costume and changed closes on the way from Moscow to Leningrad, thus upon arrival everyone witnessed a 19th-century nobleman casually walking out of a Soviet train.[1]

Critics

Writer Yevgeni Popov called the original story "an amusingly talented, funny, light, playful thing" written by a "then-lad Dostoevsky", and noted that a significant part of future absurdists such as Daniil Kharms or Nikolay Oleynikov owed him. Popov also recommended to watch the movie, highlighting the acting and Oleg Yefremov's work in particular. "Usually such a severe man flexing his jaw muscles, here he appears as an elderly relaxed gentleman".[2]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Vitaly Melnikov (2011). Life. Cinema. — Saint Petersburg: BXV-Peterburg, pp. 293—294
  2. https://web.archive.org/web/20050503071649/http://www.tvkultura.ru/news.html?id=12064&cid=1646 Yevgeni Popov: The twentieth-century literature came out of Dostoevsky