Silent Films Illustrated With Commentaries By:

About Boris Barnet's "Dom Na Trubnoy" (1928)

Silent Guest Stars: Herr Miller Robert und Herr Mike Gebert

Herr Miller Robert wrote: "My dear Count, although you refer to comrade Barnet as "not very well-known," he is, nevertheless, Russia's foremost silent-comedy director, and some of his films are available on commercial DVD in the USA.
I refer you to a previous AMS thread of a couple years ago, when we were celebrating a Barnet festival, screened by Facets Multimedia in Chicago."

Und Herr Ferdinand Von Galitzien replied: "Hmmm... probably because Herr Barnet was the only, unique Russian with a sense of humour... an exceptional case, certainly...
MEIN GOTT!!!.... how you dare???... Russian film comedies avaliable in the Mack Sennet land??!!... It seems that finally the Russians conquered the capitalist land..."

And then Herr Mike Gebert said: "Exceptional, but not unique-- I would also recommend Bed and Sofa, which is somewhat similar in tone (and also available on DVD in the US). The difference would seem to be that Barnet maintained the comic sensibility throughout his career when it sees to be unique to that one film of Abram Room's (though who actually knows?)".

But Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien added: "This German Count would not say that "Tretya Meshchanskaya" ( Bed Und Sofa ) it is a comic, hilarious film, it is an remarkable oeuvre but for different reasons in tone and in comparison with Barnet films; Herr Abram Room directed a bold, dissolute film on behalf of "ménage à trois", a funny subject for German aristocrats, certainly, but a serious and dangerous matter for Bolsheviks".

And finally Herr Mike Gebert wrote: "Well, closer in tone than either of them is to, say, The General Line or Three Songs of Lenin".


Published in "alt.movies.silent"