Majakovsky: a Movie from 1918

Vladimir Majakovsky and Lili Brik, 1918
no copyright infringement intended
(http://pilt.delfi.ee/en/picture/10930283/)

Was this movie a love poem for Lili Brik? Majakovsky wrote the screenplay, co-directed the movie and played in it. The plot follows a story written by Edmondo de Amicis in 1895 (La maestrina degli operai - The Workers’ Young Schoolmistress), adapting it to the Russian universe of 1918, and to the universe of Russian avant-garde: the story of de Amicis breathes here of Constructivism; poetry, enthusiasm and a very realist depiction of society, far from the triumphalism of later Soviet movies.

A young schoolmistress comes to a remote village to teach pupils who are between 10 and 50. A bum comes to the school having in mind to seduce her, but he is falling in love. The bum is played, you gotcha, by Mayakovsky himself. The schoolmistress feels terrorized by him, while realizing little by little his true love. The guy will die after a fight in the village, the woman will come to give him a kiss: the first and the last.

Chaplin would have made a very special poem from such a story, delicate like a ballet, but don't think at Chaplin: think at Mayakovsky, at all Constructivists, Vertov or Rodchenko, Klutsis or Lissitzky, whoever comes first. It's love here, while this is just an episode in the construction of the new epoch: the schoolmistress will continue to teach her pupils with ages from 10 to 50, as the new world needs qualified workers. Was Lili Brik okay with such a love poem? Well, I think so: after all she remained in history as the Muse of the Russian Avant-Garde!

It's Барышня и Хулиган (Baryshnia i Khuligan - The Young Lady and the Hooligan): a silent movie shot in April 1918; Majakovsky wrote the script in less than two weeks. A score was created by Dmitri Shostakovich and Valery Gavrilin to accompany the representations.

Барышня и Хулиган (Baryshnya i Khuligan): Part 1/4
(video by KidaCut)

Барышня и Хулиган (Baryshnya i Khuligan): Part 2/4
(video by KidaCut)

Барышня и Хулиган (Baryshnya i Khuligan): Part 3/4
(video by KidaCut)

Барышня и Хулиган (Baryshnya i Khuligan): Part 4/4
(video by KidaCut)

In the same year, 1918, Mayakovsky wrote the scenario for the movie Закованная фильмой (Chained by the Film), in which he and Lili Brik starred. The footage has been lost, with the exception of a few trial shots.

(Wikipedia)

(Majakovsky)

(Filmele Avangardei)

(Russian and Soviet Cinema)