| The Dying Swan | |
| Native Name: | Russian: Умирающий лебедь |
| Director: | Yevgeni Bauer |
| Producer: | Aleksandr Khanzhonkov |
| Cinematography: | Boris Zavelev |
| Runtime: | 49 minutes |
| Country: | Russian Empire |
The Dying Swan (Russian: Умирающий лебедь) is a 1917 drama film directed by Yevgeni Bauer and starring Vera Karalli, Aleksandr Kheruvimov, Vitold Polonsky, Andrej Gromov, and Ivane Perestiani.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Vera Karalli plays Gizella, a melancholy young woman who cannot speak, but is a gifted ballet dancer. A young man becomes interested in her beauty, but loses interest for another woman. She cannot take this disappointment and appeals to her father (through writing) to get her out of their town, because she will surely die if forced to remain in her current circumstances. Her father fights for a theatre company to give her a trial despite her handicap, and she is reluctantly accepted.
Gizella becomes a sensation, her exquisite performances in the ballet of The Dying Swan earning her widespread attention and fame. Count Valeriy Glinskiy, a man with an unrelenting fixation on death, is entranced. Ecstatic at finally finding a muse for his idée fixe, he begs her to let him paint her in the moment of the swan's death, to capture that feeling of perfect peace forever.