A TV-play adaption of Двенадцать стульев, which instead of looking cheap, actually feels like a minimalist post-modernist movie, akin to Dogville or something. Most of decorations are simplistic line-drawings on white walls. They faithfully read the original textб but don’t bother to follow it in costumes, even when it would cost nothing. The film doesn’t deviate from the core and the text of the book, but skips a lot of the events for budgetary reasons. It actually starts fairly detailed, but by the end it just rushes through the events, not always having a fitting flow. As such there are some parts which should’ve been just omitted. They are iconic punchlines from the book, but every punchline requires a proper setup first.
The film’s aspect ratio is unclear. Public broadcasts and user sources claim it to be 4:3, but that’s obviously too narrow. During that time USSR didn’t have standardized TV, and every production studio had their own consumer TV-set. It’s a Leningrad production, but i can’t find any more information. Some scenes look only a little bit squished, others look okay only after stretching them to widescreen. The low competence with cameras, their lenses and film formats is the only part which actually feels low-budget here.
The second part uses Мама, что мы будем делать as a musical theme. For my generation it’s associated mostly with Кин-дза-дза!, so it’s kind of uncanny. But back in the day research indicates it was a fairly popular meme.
Bender plays fine and is fairly charismatic, but he isn’t a young hot Apollo. The performance is overdosed on skinship with other plump dads. From two later films I never could understand how Shchukin could hook up with Ella. But this fat flamboyant version actually fits the bill. This reading of Vorobyaninov skips the shaving and delivers different tone to later adaptations.
Yeah, it’s funny. The good text is lusciously delivered by fine narrators. The first half is really good, but the technical errors and the messy second half drag it down.