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The Star of Captivating Happiness

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The Star of Captivating Happiness
Directed byVladimir Motyl
Written byVladimir Motyl
Oleg Osetinsky [ru]
Mark Zakharov
StarringIgor Kostolevsky
Irina Kupchenko
Aleksey Batalov
Natalya Bondarchuk
Oleg Strizhenov
CinematographyDmitriy Meshiev
Edited byYe. Sadovskaya
Music byIsaak Schwarz
Production
company
Release date
  • November 11, 1975 (1975-11-11)
Running time
167 min.
CountrySoviet Union
LanguageRussian

The Star of Captivating Happiness (Russian: «Звезда пленительного счастья», romanized: Zvezda plenitelnogo schastya) is a 1975 Soviet historical romance.[1] The title is an allusion to a line from the poem To Chaadayev by Alexander Pushkin.[2] It is a drama with the dedication "to the women of Russia".

Plot

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The story is set in the aftermath of the Decembrist revolt against Tsar Nicholas I in 1825. The revolt is suppressed, the investigation proceeds, and five Decembrists are executed. Other military officers involved are sentenced to exile in Siberia, leaving their wives, known as the Decembrists' women (Dekabristki), to decide whether to follow them.

In the center of the plot is the fate of Decembrist Ivan Annenkov and his beloved, French seamstress Polina Gueble, whose exile to Siberia unexpectedly provides a chance for them to find happiness together. Polina, without title or wealth, works in a fashionable shop in Moscow, and their marriage would have been impossible before the uprising. After Annenkov’s arrest, trial, and sentence to exile, Polina relentlessly pursues permission to join him, ultimately overcoming resistance from Annenkov’s proud mother and the emperor himself. Alongside Polina are Ekaterina Trubetskaya, who fights for the right to join her husband, Sergei Trubetskoy, out of deep mutual love, and Maria Volkonskaya, who follows her husband to Siberia despite having married him under family pressure. Through flashbacks, the film recounts moments of the Decembrists' lives, including the uprising, trial, and consequences, all while highlighting the sacrifices and resolve of these remarkable women.

Cast

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Production

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After making the 1970 hit film White Sun of the Desert, Motyl received no directorial projects for five years.

When Motyl got the green light from Goskino to make a film about the Decembrists, he still had problems and had to do many rewrites because the authorities believed that the picture had too many parallels to the Soviet regime and allusions about Soviet dissidents.

Nevertheless, the screenplay was rejected. Then Motyl went to Leningrad, to the regional party committee. He handed the script to the secretary on ideology; the woman did not have time to read it and instead gave the text to her daughter who ended up adoring it. The mother called Filipp Yermash [ru], Soviet Minister of Cinematography and declared that "The Leningrad Regional Committee is interested in the film about the Decembrists!" Thus the script got to Lenfilm, but the budget was cut to 1.5 million rubles from the initial 3.5 million.[3][4]

The locations of the film included the Peterhof Palace and the Winter Palace.[5]

References

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  1. ^ "Звезда пленительного счастья. Х/ф". Russia-K.
  2. ^ К Чедаеву (Пушкин)  (in Russian) – via Wikisource.
  3. ^ ""Звезда пленительного счастья", или как судьбу легендарного фильма решили д". Argumenty i Fakty. 21 December 2010.
  4. ^ "Звезда пленительного счастья". VokrugTV.
  5. ^ ""Звезда пленительного счастья". Сорок лет на экране". Культура.рф. culture.ru.
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