Foma Gordeev (1959) - full transcript
Ignat Matveevich! Ignat Matveevich!
Ignat Matveevich!
But just see how the Volga is working!
She can rend the whole earth apart.
One more time!
Look, look! There goes my barge!
Ignat Matveevich!
Ignat Matveevich!
You're to blame.
O Lord... O Lord...
Glory to Thee, oh Lord!
Thou hast not willed, it appears
that my race should die out!
My sins will not be left
without justification in Thy sight.
He will pray away my sins.
I thank Thee, oh Lord!
Hey! Send someone
to St. Nicholas' Church for the priest!
Say that Ignatiy Matvyeevitch
has got a son
Gentlemen of the merchant class!
I raise my brimming beaker
for Ignat Matveevich, the parent
of the newborn successor
of our class, Foma his name.
Hurrah!
Long live the child!
How are you, Natalya?
I shall not survive it.
Oh Lord! How could it be?
Consider, he cannot get on without you.
For he needs the mother's breast.
Take courage!
Drive away the thought!
Drive it away...
For the little baby...
Forgive me... farewell!
Be careful β see that you don't drink.
Kum, Foma's lost his mother.
Kum, he needs breast feeding.
Kum, my wife is feeding Luba.
She can feed both of them,
Foma will grow together with Lubava.
So summer will pass,
and autumn will pass.
Autumn will pass, winter will arrive,
and then again summer, again winter...
Preserve the child from all evil,
from every cruel thing,
from every storm,
from evil spirits,
of the day and of the night.
And a man is appointed
to organize life on the earth.
In proportion as he circulates in life,
and absorbs tallow and oil,
sweat and tears, mind and soul
are created in him.
And from that time forth
he begins to grow,
both upward and downward.
Eat, Foma,
absorb tallow and oil,
and mind and soul
will be crated in you, Foma.
Eat, Foma.
Grow up, Foma.
Why are you such a shy fellow?
Why don't you laugh more?
Enough of it,
I didn't beget a son for
your benefit.
It is not cheerful for me without him.
My house is empty.
I'll take him.
Fomka! What do you want? Speak!
Presents? Toys?
Come, ask me!
There's nothing in the world
that I will not buy
I have a million!
Do you understand? All is yours.
Do you like it? Yes?
Take it, all is yours. Take it.
Hey, Fomka, wait a bit. In spring
we'll inaugurate a big steamer
a real one, and will float
down the Volga river!
Fomka!
Enough! You're not loading a horse!
And do you hold your tongue.
You're yoked, so don't kick
over the traces.
And if he does suck the blood
out of you
Still, hold your tongue.
Daddy!
What?
Do you suck blood?
Who said that?
He.
He says I'm using too much oil.
Greedy like a devil.
Greedy...
Look, our employer.
Who sucks blood?
And ain't I right?
Aren't you going to suck it?
Give it to me.
Why do you frown?
You are very strong.
I? Well, God has not been
unkind to me on that score.
Wha-at a crack you hit him a while ago!
You mean Pashka?
Yes, you brought blood.
Are you sorry for him?
Sorry!
There's no occasion for pitying him.
He got what he deserved.
And you keep away from them.
They're not fit companions for you.
You are their master,
they are your servants.
When we finish,
we can fling every man of them ashore.
They are as plentiful everywhere
as dogs with undipped tails.
Take it.
Little you are,
can't understand my words.
I must teach you how to live.
Ekh, Fomka...
My dear little son, my joy,
Learn, learn well while I am alive.
Whose son are you?
Gordeev's.
And you?
Smolin African.
And I'm Ezhoff, if you like,
I will always prompt you?
The teacher doesn't punish the rich boys.
But I'm a poor hanger-on,
I have to study hard.
For what?
Poor fellows have to study a lot,
so that they may become doctors,
or officials. And what
are you going to be?
I don't know.
Tisn't necessary for you to be anything.
Eh, you little patty-boxes!
Hand chow-down over,
and I will help you for that.
Sit down. Hand it over.
Eh, what good things
you do have to eat!
Patties with green onions!
I'm awfully fond of them!
Hey you, karamora,
show what you have.
You're a beggar, a pauper!
All right, go ahead!
I won't prompt you any more
and you'll be as dumb as a rock!
Why are you abusing each other?
Look! Look!
Is the owl completely blind by day?
Yes. Some men just like the owl -
They thrash about in life,
search for their place,
struggle, and struggle,
only the feathers fly off them,
and the accomplish nothing.
Eh, woe to such men, woe!
Life is such thing that
as soon as you walk unsteadily,
it will yell at you
with a thousand voices,
and will beat you,
and knock you off your feet.
O Lord, forgive my sins.
A man, my dear fellow,
is just like the pilot on a ship.
In youth and in flood-tide,
go straight ahead!
Come on, Ignatich! 54 kopeikas!
Our burdock is going
to blossom into a scarlet poppy!
I can't understand him!
I feel something strange in him.
He's a handsome girl, and not
a young man at all!
Now, there's Afrikan Smolin,
who's two years older -
and just see what he is!
Pitch him, head over heels
into some urgent business or other!
Gold is tried by fire.
- Just wait...
- Why wait?
He'll circulate on the Volga for two
or three years, and then will marry.
There's my Liuboff, a fine girl.
Hello, Liuboff!
Foma, what a good thing
that you have come!
What's the matter with you?
Ah, Foma! What a book
I have been reading!
It seems as though doors flew open
into some other realm.
The whole life is different.
They're inventions, delusions.
You are mistaken!
You have never read books.
Drop it... you'll get no good
out of your books!
There's your father - he doesn't read
books, but isn't he a clever one!
And you'll be just such
another skinflint.
Ah! My children, my dark-blue doves!
What were you cooing about chiefly?
Oh, various trifles.
Who asked you? Hold your tongue.
Go and prepare us some refreshments.
I'll teach you, Foma.
I'll instruct you in the real, genuine
science and philosophy.
If you understand it,
You will live without making mistakes.
Life, my dear Foma,
is very simply regulated.
Bite everybody,
or lie in the mud.
Every mortal affair
has two faces, Foma.
One, which is visible to everyone,
that's the false one,
and the other concealed,
which is the real one.
In the person of the merchant class
we see our brothers in Christ.
This feast was organised
by our brother Ignat
on the occasion of prosperity in trading
and building a shelter
for orphans and dispossessed people.
Let's turn to the Almighty
with our thoughts.
Enjoy your meal!
Music!
Play!
Son'ka Medinskaya,
wife of the architect.
Sofya Pavlovna
This is her husband.
He's strong for eating.
Sofya Pavlovna?
Hello.
Please.
Are you still collecting contributions
from us poor people, Sofya Pavlovna?
Haven't I a fine son?
He's not bad.
In favour of the poor!
I am deeply grateful to you!
Here's your souvenir.
A charming dog.
To hold in arms this creature
is allowed only for the happy
chosen one of it's owner.
If you throw much money -
you will go bankrupt.
Pretty little woman, isn't she?
You'll gape at her
and she'll devour your whole insides.
She is sticking fast to your father.
She has enticed seventy-five thousand
rubles out of his pocket.
Has my father made her his mistress?
God, you are out of your mind!
To get up a mistress
at the age of sixty-three
and at such a price.
We merchants, we trading people,
have carried Russia
on our shoulders for centuries,
and are still carrying her!
For Russian merchants!
Hurrah!
Quick hands you have, Ignat.
Snatched wheat from under my nose!
Of course, I cheat you, you cheat me.
Put no trust in people,
do not expect much from them.
We all live for the purpose of taking,
not of giving.
Gentlemen of the merchant class!
To the health of Sofya Pavlovna!
Music, play!
So you began?
And then you'll bow all the time,
and keep a fast, eh?
Oh, the old raven! In his eyes,
my money and his own
are the same thing. He has an object.
He wants to unite the money.
I will not marry Luba.
But why?
I don't like her.
Pray tell me, sir, what sort are
most to your taste?
The very simple ones.
She's there
with the students and her books
She will laugh at me.
She's clever and religious,
everything is in Liuboff.
Anyway, I'll not marry her.
And why you stare too much at
Sofya Pavlovna?
She's like birch-wood coals.
They seem to be cold, but if you take
them in your hand, they burn.
Vodka is bad for you.
Who are you talking to? To your father?!
See here, I'll squeeze so that the tears
will burst out of your heels.
You've run up rapidly!
Go away. Go away.
Your Honor!
Let's make a carousel!
Guys, let's make a carousel!
How much have you given
in favour of the poor?!
I gave a thousand!
I gave five thousand!
And I gave seventy five!
To the health of Sofya Pavlovna!
Hurrah!
To the health of Sofya Pavlovna!
If you don't sin
you can't repent,
and if you don't repent,
you can't save your soul.
You mustn't break down today
like a weakling.
See what a crowd of people.
Seventy-five thousand rubles β
'tis a sum for which
one has a right to demand
so many mourners.
Look, here's Sofya Pavlovna,
the benefactrix.
You're the leader of an army
in battle, now.
Πnd you must command
your soldiers bravely.
And your soldiers are rubles.
Stand proud, for the esteem
should descend to the heir.
Esteem is the same as money.
As it said in Solomon's sayings:
"Wealth attracts many friends".
Drink, you feel relieved.
Be more affable, more talkative
Why are they gobbling here?
Have they come to an eating-house?
Pray come to the table!
I'm not going to eat.
It's his grief, you know. Ignat was
father and mother both to him.
Please sit down!
The pancakes will be served immediately.
Please, sit down.
Foma,
You know, you're as unlike a merchant
as possible.
And you're very unlike
a merchant's wife
Thank heaven!
Why are you glad?
That we are not like our parents.
To the founder of the house,
eternal memory!
Now we lay the foundation
of a lodging-house,
a shelter for orphans
and the dispossessed ones,
that'll be built on 75000 rubles,
given by
Ignat Matveevitch Gordeev.
I watched your face
on the day of the funeral,
and my heart ached.
'Heavens,' I said to myself, 'how he
must be suffering!'
I am deeply grateful to you!
My poor boy! Can I address you thus?
I am quite an old woman.
You?
Am I not? Don't you believe
that I am an old woman?
I do believe you,
only, that is not true!
What you mean?
That you believe me?
No! not that, but that
I... You...
Forgive me! I do not
know how to express myself!
There's no need to feel
troubled over that.
They are men who have pure hearts,
who are confiding, sincere as children,
and aren't you one of those people?
I am deeply grateful to you!
Perhaps, some day,
you will just drop in?
I... thank you!
Why are you, immortal old man,
everywhere with your umbrella?
Your Excellency,
the umbrella protects me
not only from rain and sun
but also from evil eye.
Be careful, Foma. She'll turn your head.
What things I know about her!
You lie.
Lie!
How repulsive everything is.
I want to talk with a man,
and there's not a man about.
There's not a living soul about.
Since my mother's death,
my father has chased everyone away.
I'm disgusted.
Disgusted... What live for?
What's the matter with you?
How I wish that
everything should disgust you
and that you
should be disgusting to yourself!
You simply are... a goose.
You haven't been inside my soul.
And there are men who
never sparing themselves,
they toil and suffer and perish!
Ezhoff was excluded
from university for that.
They do want something?
Happiness for all men!
Well, I don't understand that.
Foma, you ought to wish
to be better.
Well, and don't I wish that?
Here, now you know that there's
a building named after Ignat Gordeeff.
God rest his soul.
Depart from evil and prepare us
some refreshments.
Consider, Foma, what are they for -
those night lodging-houses and other
institutions of that sort? For what?
What is there to consider?
For the beggars.
But what is a beggar?
A beggar is a man who is forced, by fate
to remind us of Christ,
he is the bell of the Lord,
and rings in life
for the purpose of awakening
our conscience.
But men have so ordered their lives
That it is utterly impossible to act
in accordance with Christ's teaching.
And Jesus Christ has become
entirely superfluous for us,
God forgive me.
Not once but, in all probability,
a thousand times,
we have given Him over
to be crucified,
but still we cannot banish Him
from our lives,
so long as His poor brethren sing
His Name in the streets,
And so now we have hit on the idea
of shutting up the beggars
in such special buildings, so that they
may not roam about the streets
and stir up our consciences.
Forgive me, O Lord!
So then, god-son! Investigate!
That's cle-ever!
Ecclesiastes said that a crooked thing
one is not able to make straight.
and one can't count something
that doesn't exist.
Time goes, time comes.
But the relation of the honorary
chairman to our patroness
has become such, that
should have become.
He's in love.
How are you, Sofya Pavlovna?
Let's go, I'm tired of all those men.
Save, God, your servant,
Foma in the name,
from tortures of our patroness.
They will walk for long,
and will return late.
Do you love me?
How many times have you asked that?
I need to know.
You are playing with me.
How am I playing with you?
What does the word mean?
I love you! I love you!
Is it possible not to love you?
But you want only that.
There, you have said it!
Would you like to kiss my hand?
Recruited.
Go away, my dear one,
I am weary and wish to rest.
Sofya Pavlovna! Sofya Pavlovna! Dear!
Wait, wait.
Good bye, my friend, don't forget me.
I'm always glad to see you.
You are so good.
I am deeply grateful to you!
Foma!
Foma!
What?
You go to see Son'ka
very often indeed.
What business have you
to call her Sonka?
As for calling her Son'ka -
everybody knows about that.
What does she represent?
An insect for the adornment of Nature
and nothing else!
Enough.
Wait, why are you so irritated?
Come here.
Who else except myself will warn you?
Come here.
Do you often make gifts to her?
What gifts?
Why?
Do you mean to say
that she lives with you
simply for love?
You're an old man,
but it's shameful to listen to you!
Well, and man is stupid in his youth!
Fie on you!
Has she been leading you by the nose
all winter?
Ah, whore of Babylon!
For Christ's sake, don't say that!
Well, the thing is clear.
Go to Son'ka if you
can't get along without it.
And tell her plainly:
"I want to be your lover,
don't charge much".
Who's there?
It is I.
I'm glad to see you, sit down!
Why haven't you been
for such a long while?
What's the matter with you,
my good one?
And if I am good, then
things ought to go well with me!
And the good always have a worse time
on the earth than the bad!
Bless, O Lord!
Sofya Pavlovna! Make an end of it!
This is what I came here
to say to you: Enough!
You must deal with me in a
straightforward manner, openly.
I see you do understand
with what object I have come to you.
Oh, cease.
I will not! I will speak!
I know all about you!
All!
Yes?
So much the better for me.
So you have learned all
and you have condemned me?
I would like to be your sister.
And you look at me
in such an unfriendly way.
Do you believe me? Yes?
No...
I don't know. I did believe.
But now?
But now it is better
that I should go away!
I understand nothing,
And I don't understand myself.
Understand me, I am sorry for you!
Sorry?
I don't want that.
You have not treated me well,
you allure a man.
Am I your plaything?
All I wanted was
to see you near me.
Oh, you!
God gave you angelic beauty,
but where is your heart?
Farewell!
Farewell!
Perhaps I have said something
which offends you,
Forgive me! But, you see,
I love you.
No, you have not offended me.
Go, and God be with you.
Well then, farewell!
Yes.
Yes, Foma Ignatievitch disappeared.
He hasn't been here for a year.
He's mourning.
Yes.
How are you, my modest millionaire!
Where've you been for so long?
Do you know, Foma Ignatievitch,
Our incomparable patroness
is going abroad
to be gone all summer.
- Sofya Pavlovna?
- Yes.
Foma Ignatievitch, my dear,
How are you?
Have you heard of Sofya Pavlovna?
The sun of my life will set.
And, perhaps, the sun of your life also?
Medinskaya goes?
Splendid! I'm delighted!
There'll be one cocotte less in town.
Sir Knyazeff...
How do you know that she is a coquette?
I didn't say a coquette.
I said cocotte.
But if you do not understand it,
I can explain.
Yes, you certainly will explain.
Gentlemen! Gentlemen!
A cocotte, if you care to know
is a venal woman.
Don't revile behind a person's back
but rail straight to his face!
Come away! My dear fellow,
for God's sake!
Wait till I give him a kick.
Come away, come away,
my dear fellow.
Music, continue!
You can't! You can't!
Oh, you scoundrel! I have children!
Everyone knows me!
Rascal!
Savage!
Duel!
Listen!
Excuse me, but it was savage!
Deuce take it, 'tis the first time
I have ever seen such a thing.
The dear man! Wasn't he
worth the trouncing?
Of course, he does.
He's a scamp and a sharper.
But, bearing in mind that the lady,
in whose defence you came forward...
Sir, you must not say anything bad
about her to me.
She is dear to me.
But it wasn't for her sake
that you beat him?
For whom, then?
Oh Lord!
Sofya Pavlovna's going away...
Stop thinking about that little lady.
She's poisonous food for you.
No, hold on! What's the meaning of it?
Am I worse than other men?
I understand nothing, my dear fellow.
One person says this, another that.
And how to live?
I thought, I should become a man
by her side!
Eh, my dear sir! This won't do!
Life is given us for life,
that's the philosophy!
If you like, I'll make you acquainted
with such a virulent specimen.
Somewhat epic.
I'm ashamed to.
Why are you ashamed?
Let's go, eh?
All right, let's go!
And when I get screwed up,
I'll break loose, after all this β
look out!
Ai-ai-ai, he sent barge to the bottom.
If the deceased Ignat
could read in the, newspapers
about his son's indecent life,
he'd kill his Fomka!
You see how he is described?
He deserves it!
That sharp fellow described
Foma's behavior adroitly.
We-ell now, Efimushka,
I'll flay you alive.
Where's the steamer, captain?
I didn't do it!
You didn't?
The master himself.
Fomka?
And you... what were you doing?
I was lying under the hatchway.
A-a! You were lying.
I was bound.
Wha-at?!
Permit me to tell you in proper order.
Well?
He didn't manage and sent
the laden barge to the bottom.
He has a very strong character.
When he's sober, he's silent most of
the time, and goes about thoughtfully,
but when he wets his springs
with liquor, - he gets wound up.
Hold your tongue!
Where is Foma?
There, on the spot.
They are going to raise the barge.
Probably they have already begun.
Is he alone there?
He has a lady with him,
a swarthy sort of...
The woman doesn't seem to have quite
all her wits. She's eternally singing.
She sings very well,
It's a great scandal.
I'm not asking you about her!
I'm going.
Calm yourself, dear papa!
Perhaps the loss is not great.
Not great?
What do you understand
about it, you fool?
Is it that the barge was smashed?!
Ekh, you...
A man's character was smashed!
That's where the trouble lies!
And, you see, I needed him!
I needed him, you stupid devils!
Well, wait, dear god-son.
I'll cover you.
I'll cover you.
I dreamed that I was singing a solo,
and opposite me stood
a great big dirty dog,
and I knew that it would devour
me as soon as I stopped singing.
So I kept on singing, and singing.
What does it portend?
Stop your jabber!
See here, tell me,
what do you know about me?
Why, I know that you have waked up.
What sort of a man am I,
in your opinion?
A drunken man...
Don't trifle! Tell me, conscientiously,
what do you think of me?
You're better than the others.
And how am I better?
Why - in this way!
When a fine song is sung, you weep,
if a man does a mean thing,
you thrash him.
With women you are simple.
And you can be
audacious, on occasion.
You're not telling me the right thing.
Well, I don't know what you want.
They're raising the barge...
What shall we do?
I'm not going to get drunk any more!
Nonsense!
What do you think about it?
Is it well to live so?
What is better?
A cockroach crawls, but he knows
where he wants to go and why.
But how about you?
Where are you going?
Stop! What have you to do with me?
You take from me what you want,
but don't you try
to creep into my soul!
Soul! Can an individual
who has a soul live as you live?
In the soul fire burns,
it feels shame.
What are you looking at?
Eekh, you...!
But what am I?
Don't you dare
to speak about my soul.
You have nothing to do with it!
It's nothing that
I'm a woman of gay habits!
A man in the mire may lives more cleanly
than he who strolls about in silks.
You ought to know
what malice I cherish against life.
Ekh, you...
And I feel the same.
Something is springing up in my soul.
Ekh, I will express myself in my own
words when the time comes.
Against whom?
Against everyone!
Against falsehood. I'll ask!
Ask whether the samovar is ready?
Go to the devil!
Go to the steamer!
We'll lift the barge and go to Kazan.
Hey, come here.
Why are you so happy?
Work's pleasant,
to anyone who likes it.
It's regular play.
It's like fondling a woman.
And you know me, Foma Ignatievitch.
Don't you remember?
We have prepared everything,
Foma Ignatievitch,
everything is in good shape now.
We'd better ask a blessing and begin.
Well, begin.
Bless, O Lord! O, all-holy Birth-Giver
of God and Saint Nicholas.
Gi-i-i-Ive wa-a-ay!
Gi-i-Ive wa-ay! Heave-ho!
He-eave a-awa-ay, heave away, heave!
I congratulate you on
a successful ending, Foma Ignatievitch!
Glory to Thee, O Lord!
I think you must be tired?
I'm not tired.
Get out! Get out!
There's forest spirit!
Go to the hold, maybe there's a woman.
2,8 millions kilograms,
like a radish from a garden-bed!
Your Honor!
Are we to have the liquor, hey?
Your Honor!..
Will you give us for a bucket?
All you want is to get drunk!
You ought to reflect, why?
You ought to understand.
It isn't our place
to ponder over our work!
Just so.
You must do such work,
so that men may say,
a thousand years later:
See, the Bogorodskoe peasants did that.
Are we to drink the Volga dry?
But even if we were
to drink the Volga dry,
and eat up yonder mountains to boot,
even that would be forgotten,
Foma Ignatievitch.
It is not for us to do such deeds
as stand out big above all the others.
Here understanding is needed.
Well...
I make you a gift
of three buckets of liquor!
He's strange!
What's the matter?
I'm disgusted, Alexandra!
I wish you'd do something
with me, can't you?
Ekh, you, baby!
I don't want to live like that.
How are you, dear god-son?
Whither are you pleased to journey,
Foma Ignatievitch?
About my own business.
Very laudable, my dear sir!
And who is the lady with feathers?
She's my mistress.
I must have a talk with you.
Will you come to the hotel with me?
Yes, but not for long.
Well, come along. And couldn't you
drown that lady for the time being?
Go to the town, Sasha, and engage
a room. I'll be there before long!
I'm ready!
Why have you come hither?
You've been behaving
outrageously yonder.
I want to see - how much.
You're troubling yourself for nothing.
Now, see here, papa. Either give me
complete independence,
or else take my entire business
into your own hands.
Take everything,
and have done with it!
But I shall be free to go
where I please!
I can't live on like this,
I want to live in freedom.
I will search out life for myself.
Otherwise, what am I? A prisoner.
Ekh, you have gone astray.
And you are babbling nonsense.
Papa! It has been done - men have
abandoned all their possessions,
they've gone away...
Not in my time!
Nobody whom I know intimately!
I'd have shown them!
Papa! Why won't you do it?
Calves don't roar like bears!
Don't talk drivel, don't try to climb
where you have no business.
You have millions.
What fun in them?
Is it possible that a man is born
to accumulate money,
beget children, and die?
No, we must consider why we are living.
There's no sense in our life.
Ekh, you don't understand
the power of money.
Who does understand it?
I! And so does every sensible man.
Thousands of persons have staked
their lives on your money.
And you can fling
all that money into the fire,
and watch, how it burns.
And you will regard yourself
as the master.
Through business the masses are fed,
and you are the master
over all those masses.
A man craves power. And what,
except money, gives power?
Why do you play the fool?
You want freedom!
And all of you people of the present day
will perish through freedom.
The devil has laid hold of you.
All right! You won't do it?
Then there will be nothing!
I'll get rid of everything! And we have
nothing more to say to each other.
Farewell!
Do you know how I can deal with you?
As you please!
Here then. If I choose,
I can go to town and have it arranged
that you shall be declared crazy,
and put in the lunatic asylum.
Is it possible?
Everything is possible with us,
my dear fellow.
I pledged my word to your father
to set you on your feet.
If you don't remain standing,
I'll hoop you with iron.
I'll cover you up from the head down!
I'll put a bell-glass over you.
It's an awkward thing to jest with me.
So there is no alternative for me?
You have an alternative - go ahead!
But I will guide you.
Why do you brag?
What have you to brag about?
Ekh, you manager of life!
Come now, you're clever,
you know everything.
Tell me, why do you live?
What have you done for life?
By what are men going
to remember you?
Hold your tongue, puppy!
I'll carouse and spend everything
We'll see!
You'll see what I'll do.
Can't I have a drink of seltzer water?
Hello!
Hello.
Don't you recognize me,
Foma Ignatievitch?
Ezhoff.
Heavens! Is it really you?
I myself, my dear fellow,
can hardly believe it,
but it's an actual fact.
How old you have grown!
Life has robbed you.
I assume, from my troubled soul,
that you also, my friend,
do not find a jolly life
very jolly, eh?
What is my life like?
Something outrageous.
This is curious!
For it proves that the holy spirit
of dissatisfaction with life
has made its way even into
the bed-chambers of the merchant-class.
Come, tell me, what one ought to do,
in order to live calmly?
So that one will be satisfied
with himself?
To that end, one must live uneasily,
and avoid, like the plague,
even the possibility
of being satisfied with himself.
Well, and dare you talk like that
to men, to their faces?
On every convenient occasion.
And every Sunday, in the newspaper.
No, this is not
what is needed. If only...
If only my fod-father
could be set out against them.
To show them up.
They're a pretty mischievous
sort of people
I'll show you!
Our hopes of Foma are poor.
O Lord...
Ain't I clever? Ain't I sharp?
Dear papa! Do not grieve.
And I'd better be quick
about marrying you off.
I've been casting my eyes on a fellow.
He's not stupid,
has been polished up abroad.
Is it Smolin?
And if it is he, what then?
I don't know him.
We'll introduce you,
arrange a nice hearty little feast
Set old silver on the table
I want him to be impressed.
Why that?
Because a lass is not a horse, you
can't get her off without the harness
Foma, I can't stand it...
Take me away...
Let's get away from here.
What a weak creature you are, brother.
The song is good.
You think I'm drunk?
My body is drunk,
but my soul is sober.
My fate has wronged me!
Why have I toiled
for twelve years without a rest?
In order to learn?
So what?
What faith have I won for myself?
Only the belief
that everything in this life
is of no use even to the devil.
Everything ought to be pulled down!
Broken up!
But I saw people who worked
and sang. Interesting!
If you are bored,
then where are you going?
What can you understand in songs?
- I'm going.
- I'm going too.
Vassa, dress yourself.
Stepan! Get things together!
You beast!
You! Don't touch him!
What?
Don't touch him!
Stepan!
Cut the connections.
Your Honor, rafts will drift away...
Hold your tongue!
Cut, I want to serve my country,
I want to purify the earth of
worthless people. Cut!
As you wish.
Forgive me, O Lord.
Music! Our guests depart!
Your Honor, I'm not responsible.
Have no fear.
Hey, you! Farewell!
Drowning! People drowning!
Are you people?!
I'm cold.
Did I offend you? Don't be angry.
No, I'm not angry.
You'll disappear
if don't do your business.
My business is all fraud.
My soul aches. How to live?
You know, I'll go away.
Where?
I don't know. When my time comes,
I shall grow sad and then
I shall disappear.
But it's early for me yet.
Ah, and then, come what may.
And I, also, shall disappear?
Of course! All such people disappear.
Farewell, Foma Ignatievitch!
Sasha!
Hello!
What do you think of him?
I venture to hope that you
have not forgotten your old play-mate.
I thank you for invitation.
How goes life with you
Liuboff Yakovlevna?
She finds life with me
very tiresome
She's my housekeeper.
The whole management lies on her,
she doesn't have time to amuse herself
And no place, either,
you ought to add.
I am not fond of merchants' balls
and evening parties.
But the theatre?
I rarely go there.
I have no one to go with.
Theatre! Tell me, pray, why
it has become so much the fashion
to represent the merchant
as a wild fool?
It's very amusing,
but it's incomprehensible,
because it isn't true!
Of course, if you are giving
a historical play,
for example, 'Life for the Tzar',
with singing and dancing,
or 'Hamlet',
truth to nature is not required.
The matter is past, and
does not concern us.
No matter whether it is true or not,
so long as it's good.
But if you're representing
the present day,
then don't lie!
And show the man as he is!
Why are you laughing? Isn't it true?
You may go, for the present, Liubava,
while he and I finish
our little confab.
Will you excuse me,
Liuboff Yakovlevna?
Pray do not stand on ceremony.
Now, Afrian Mitritch, explain yourself
Ah, Lubava, Lubava,
father thinks that you are not capable of
attracting the attention of a man,
and deck you out with silver.
For four years
I diligently studied
the position of Eussian leather
in foreign markets.
All these petty leather-producers
cannot raise product
to the proper degree of merit.
So your present intention is
to establish
such a huge factory,
that for all the others
only a coffin and its cover?
You've understood me.
It will require about
three hundred thousand.
Father won't give that much
as my dowry.
My factory will turn out leather goods
in the shape of trunks, shoes,
harnesses, and...
What per cent do you dream of making?
I am not dreaming, I am reckoning
I've drawn up a little record,
founded upon my
personal study of cattle-breeding
and the consumption of meat in Russia.
I see, upon personal
return of cattle-breeding
and the consumption of meat.
He's like dear herald.
It's an awkward thing to jest with me.
Why don't you come, Foma?
We are like family to you.
Don't bristle up.
Will you come to dinner?
What dinner?
Kononoff is going to inaugurate
a new steamer, "Ilya Murometz".
I haven't been invited.
What are you saying?
I promised to come with you.
Partner of "Smolin and Mayakin" firm.
Brothers, help, I can't live.
Nothing suits me.
If I perceive that everything is a fraud?
We plug up the emptiness of our soul...
Fomushka!
Brothers, kill me to death!
This is the sense of all philosophy...
I want to die!
There's no one to talk.
Everyone is a rascal.
Foma! Why are you wandering?
Come here.
Come to us!
I'll introduce you to my friend,
He's cleverer than we both.
He's read Deuce knows
how much good books.
Travelled through half of Russia.
Sit down.
How are you?
Hello, Foma Ignatievitch!
Hello!
Are you acquainted?
Yes, for a long time.
So 'Ilya Murometz' belongs to Kononov?
Yes.
It should have been called
Nightingale the Robber.
and his owner is a chieftain.
No, chieftain is his immortal old man.
Have you heard? The merchant class
are pushing your god-father
to the head of the city.
He'll get his share of the cake.
But you, you dry stump,
are you gradually decaying?
Well, I'm waiting, and then
I'll say such words...
You cannot liberate yourself with words.
So, it's Kononoff's.
Welcome.
Hello! Hello!
Please, gentlemen.
How are you? Please, dear guests.
Silence! Yakov Tarasovitch's going
to give a speech!
Gentlemen of the merchant class!
Which is the best town on the Volga?
In which there are the most merchants.
To whom do the finest houses
in the town belong? The merchants!
Who takes the most care of the poor?
The merchant!
Who builds the churches?
We do!
Who gives the most money
of all to the empire? The merchants!
We alone love order in life
and our work is in plain sight,
gentlemen of the merchant class!
Seeing in you, as I do,
the most prominent people in life,
I now, with all my heart,
with respect and love for you,
raise my brimming beaker
to the glorious, strong in spirit
merchant-class!
Long life to you!
Hurrah-rah!
Hurrah-rah!
It's all ours!
We're the masters of life.
the Volga! Here she is,
our own dear mother!
Look, how much treasure, and all is ours!
We are the principal people in life and
the real masters in our fatherland.
All is ours! And those who says about us...
Are you?
You are masters of life? Are you?
Who's that snarling?
We can't help behaving outrageously!
Gordyeeff!
What are you opening your eyes
at me for?
But wait a bit, my dear soul,
who invited you here?
It's me. Ekh, Fomka! Here you are
disgracing my old age again.
He's drunk!
I'm more sober than all of you!
You can't plaster up my mouth now.
There's no chance
to turn me out here.
But if anyone so much as
puts a finger on me,
I'll kill him!
Well, it has been stated
that you have made this life,
That you have made it of the most
genuine and truthful sort.
O, you rascals!
You have not made life -
but a prison,
chains on men you have forged.
It's close, suffocating,
there's no place
for a living soul to turn!
Man is perishing!
You are murderers!
You are alive only through
the long-suffering of mankind.
Gordyeeff! Look out, you're
talking improperly.
For such speeches, oi, oi, oi!
Gentlemen! I earnestly entreat you,
don't hinder him.
Let him snarl away,
let him amuse himself.
His words won't break you.
Swindlers!
Kononoff!
Haven't you been tried 20 years ago
for an arson?
They will try you soon
for the little girl
All right, I won't forget that.
The constructors of life!
And you Lup, open that gay house
again, and strip your guests there
like linden-trees.
Scoundrel!
Zuboff! What are you laughing at?
How many people have you turned out of
house with such a holy face?
Ah! You attack me also?
I'll go to the Bishop! Freemason!
You'll go to the galleys
Bind him!
You can't bind the truth,
you're talking nonsense!
See here, gentlemen
of the merchant class!
I beg that you will admire,
just what he is!
By a puppy...
Act, Yakoff! We will all be witnesses.
It's a riot! Bind him!
Come on!
Beat, beat, beat him!
O Lord, hide thy face from our sins,
and blot out all our iniquities.
What now,
you thunder-like prophet, hey?
Do you feel sweetness
of the Babylonian Captivity?!
What sort of life is now
possible to you?
For now, not one of us
will even want to spit on you!
Well, your business is done for, Fomka.
You charlatan!
What have you done to yourself?
Little shit!
Rascal!
Wait! Until I get rested...
You haven't gagged my tongue.
Rest here, rascal.
Unbind me!
Well, no!
Call my god-father.
Let me.
Well, Foma?
Order them to unbind me
No, you may lie as you are.
I won't say another word.
I am not drunk.
Not drunk...
Do you swear that
you will not be turbulent?
O Lord! I will not.
Unbind him.
You got your own way.
We always shall.
Are you laughing?
Get up! I think, you've rested.
Come on.
Give me some vodka.
More!
That will do!
Well, Fomka, do you understand now,
what you have done?
For you there is no pardon!
I forgot to speak about you, papa.
You have not heard anything from me.
There, sir! You see?
Drunkard! Worthless scamp!
I am not drunk!
I was entirely sober.
Consequently, you were right, Yakoff
Tarasovitch: he's out of his mind.
I? I am in my right mind!
I understand what I wanted.
I wanted to speak the truth.
I wanted to convict you.
Hold on to him!
It is not given to everyone
to speak the truth!
Leave me alone! You've had your
way completely! What more do you want?
And nevertheless, you are
entirely to blame!
You have spoiled life!
You are accursed!
Damn you all!
Unbind my hands!
Fool! Holy fool!
Don't make noise, we'll take you
straight to the asylum
I am ruined... I know that!
Only, not by your power
but through my own weakness.
And wait! You shall choke...
I am ruined through blindness.
I have seen much, and become blind.
Like an owl.
Look, he's weeping.
Unbind my hands! Unbind my hands!
Unbind my hands!
Today we open this house
a shelter for orphans
and dispossessed people, built
on 75000 rubles, given by
a great son of our class,
Ignat Matveevitch Gordeev
Come on, come on.
For centuries people
will remember torments!
You weren't building life. You've made
filth and closeness by your business!
How much blood have people wept
because of your great deeds?
You are worms! Worms! You will choke!
Ignat Matveevich!
But just see how the Volga is working!
She can rend the whole earth apart.
One more time!
Look, look! There goes my barge!
Ignat Matveevich!
Ignat Matveevich!
You're to blame.
O Lord... O Lord...
Glory to Thee, oh Lord!
Thou hast not willed, it appears
that my race should die out!
My sins will not be left
without justification in Thy sight.
He will pray away my sins.
I thank Thee, oh Lord!
Hey! Send someone
to St. Nicholas' Church for the priest!
Say that Ignatiy Matvyeevitch
has got a son
Gentlemen of the merchant class!
I raise my brimming beaker
for Ignat Matveevich, the parent
of the newborn successor
of our class, Foma his name.
Hurrah!
Long live the child!
How are you, Natalya?
I shall not survive it.
Oh Lord! How could it be?
Consider, he cannot get on without you.
For he needs the mother's breast.
Take courage!
Drive away the thought!
Drive it away...
For the little baby...
Forgive me... farewell!
Be careful β see that you don't drink.
Kum, Foma's lost his mother.
Kum, he needs breast feeding.
Kum, my wife is feeding Luba.
She can feed both of them,
Foma will grow together with Lubava.
So summer will pass,
and autumn will pass.
Autumn will pass, winter will arrive,
and then again summer, again winter...
Preserve the child from all evil,
from every cruel thing,
from every storm,
from evil spirits,
of the day and of the night.
And a man is appointed
to organize life on the earth.
In proportion as he circulates in life,
and absorbs tallow and oil,
sweat and tears, mind and soul
are created in him.
And from that time forth
he begins to grow,
both upward and downward.
Eat, Foma,
absorb tallow and oil,
and mind and soul
will be crated in you, Foma.
Eat, Foma.
Grow up, Foma.
Why are you such a shy fellow?
Why don't you laugh more?
Enough of it,
I didn't beget a son for
your benefit.
It is not cheerful for me without him.
My house is empty.
I'll take him.
Fomka! What do you want? Speak!
Presents? Toys?
Come, ask me!
There's nothing in the world
that I will not buy
I have a million!
Do you understand? All is yours.
Do you like it? Yes?
Take it, all is yours. Take it.
Hey, Fomka, wait a bit. In spring
we'll inaugurate a big steamer
a real one, and will float
down the Volga river!
Fomka!
Enough! You're not loading a horse!
And do you hold your tongue.
You're yoked, so don't kick
over the traces.
And if he does suck the blood
out of you
Still, hold your tongue.
Daddy!
What?
Do you suck blood?
Who said that?
He.
He says I'm using too much oil.
Greedy like a devil.
Greedy...
Look, our employer.
Who sucks blood?
And ain't I right?
Aren't you going to suck it?
Give it to me.
Why do you frown?
You are very strong.
I? Well, God has not been
unkind to me on that score.
Wha-at a crack you hit him a while ago!
You mean Pashka?
Yes, you brought blood.
Are you sorry for him?
Sorry!
There's no occasion for pitying him.
He got what he deserved.
And you keep away from them.
They're not fit companions for you.
You are their master,
they are your servants.
When we finish,
we can fling every man of them ashore.
They are as plentiful everywhere
as dogs with undipped tails.
Take it.
Little you are,
can't understand my words.
I must teach you how to live.
Ekh, Fomka...
My dear little son, my joy,
Learn, learn well while I am alive.
Whose son are you?
Gordeev's.
And you?
Smolin African.
And I'm Ezhoff, if you like,
I will always prompt you?
The teacher doesn't punish the rich boys.
But I'm a poor hanger-on,
I have to study hard.
For what?
Poor fellows have to study a lot,
so that they may become doctors,
or officials. And what
are you going to be?
I don't know.
Tisn't necessary for you to be anything.
Eh, you little patty-boxes!
Hand chow-down over,
and I will help you for that.
Sit down. Hand it over.
Eh, what good things
you do have to eat!
Patties with green onions!
I'm awfully fond of them!
Hey you, karamora,
show what you have.
You're a beggar, a pauper!
All right, go ahead!
I won't prompt you any more
and you'll be as dumb as a rock!
Why are you abusing each other?
Look! Look!
Is the owl completely blind by day?
Yes. Some men just like the owl -
They thrash about in life,
search for their place,
struggle, and struggle,
only the feathers fly off them,
and the accomplish nothing.
Eh, woe to such men, woe!
Life is such thing that
as soon as you walk unsteadily,
it will yell at you
with a thousand voices,
and will beat you,
and knock you off your feet.
O Lord, forgive my sins.
A man, my dear fellow,
is just like the pilot on a ship.
In youth and in flood-tide,
go straight ahead!
Come on, Ignatich! 54 kopeikas!
Our burdock is going
to blossom into a scarlet poppy!
I can't understand him!
I feel something strange in him.
He's a handsome girl, and not
a young man at all!
Now, there's Afrikan Smolin,
who's two years older -
and just see what he is!
Pitch him, head over heels
into some urgent business or other!
Gold is tried by fire.
- Just wait...
- Why wait?
He'll circulate on the Volga for two
or three years, and then will marry.
There's my Liuboff, a fine girl.
Hello, Liuboff!
Foma, what a good thing
that you have come!
What's the matter with you?
Ah, Foma! What a book
I have been reading!
It seems as though doors flew open
into some other realm.
The whole life is different.
They're inventions, delusions.
You are mistaken!
You have never read books.
Drop it... you'll get no good
out of your books!
There's your father - he doesn't read
books, but isn't he a clever one!
And you'll be just such
another skinflint.
Ah! My children, my dark-blue doves!
What were you cooing about chiefly?
Oh, various trifles.
Who asked you? Hold your tongue.
Go and prepare us some refreshments.
I'll teach you, Foma.
I'll instruct you in the real, genuine
science and philosophy.
If you understand it,
You will live without making mistakes.
Life, my dear Foma,
is very simply regulated.
Bite everybody,
or lie in the mud.
Every mortal affair
has two faces, Foma.
One, which is visible to everyone,
that's the false one,
and the other concealed,
which is the real one.
In the person of the merchant class
we see our brothers in Christ.
This feast was organised
by our brother Ignat
on the occasion of prosperity in trading
and building a shelter
for orphans and dispossessed people.
Let's turn to the Almighty
with our thoughts.
Enjoy your meal!
Music!
Play!
Son'ka Medinskaya,
wife of the architect.
Sofya Pavlovna
This is her husband.
He's strong for eating.
Sofya Pavlovna?
Hello.
Please.
Are you still collecting contributions
from us poor people, Sofya Pavlovna?
Haven't I a fine son?
He's not bad.
In favour of the poor!
I am deeply grateful to you!
Here's your souvenir.
A charming dog.
To hold in arms this creature
is allowed only for the happy
chosen one of it's owner.
If you throw much money -
you will go bankrupt.
Pretty little woman, isn't she?
You'll gape at her
and she'll devour your whole insides.
She is sticking fast to your father.
She has enticed seventy-five thousand
rubles out of his pocket.
Has my father made her his mistress?
God, you are out of your mind!
To get up a mistress
at the age of sixty-three
and at such a price.
We merchants, we trading people,
have carried Russia
on our shoulders for centuries,
and are still carrying her!
For Russian merchants!
Hurrah!
Quick hands you have, Ignat.
Snatched wheat from under my nose!
Of course, I cheat you, you cheat me.
Put no trust in people,
do not expect much from them.
We all live for the purpose of taking,
not of giving.
Gentlemen of the merchant class!
To the health of Sofya Pavlovna!
Music, play!
So you began?
And then you'll bow all the time,
and keep a fast, eh?
Oh, the old raven! In his eyes,
my money and his own
are the same thing. He has an object.
He wants to unite the money.
I will not marry Luba.
But why?
I don't like her.
Pray tell me, sir, what sort are
most to your taste?
The very simple ones.
She's there
with the students and her books
She will laugh at me.
She's clever and religious,
everything is in Liuboff.
Anyway, I'll not marry her.
And why you stare too much at
Sofya Pavlovna?
She's like birch-wood coals.
They seem to be cold, but if you take
them in your hand, they burn.
Vodka is bad for you.
Who are you talking to? To your father?!
See here, I'll squeeze so that the tears
will burst out of your heels.
You've run up rapidly!
Go away. Go away.
Your Honor!
Let's make a carousel!
Guys, let's make a carousel!
How much have you given
in favour of the poor?!
I gave a thousand!
I gave five thousand!
And I gave seventy five!
To the health of Sofya Pavlovna!
Hurrah!
To the health of Sofya Pavlovna!
If you don't sin
you can't repent,
and if you don't repent,
you can't save your soul.
You mustn't break down today
like a weakling.
See what a crowd of people.
Seventy-five thousand rubles β
'tis a sum for which
one has a right to demand
so many mourners.
Look, here's Sofya Pavlovna,
the benefactrix.
You're the leader of an army
in battle, now.
Πnd you must command
your soldiers bravely.
And your soldiers are rubles.
Stand proud, for the esteem
should descend to the heir.
Esteem is the same as money.
As it said in Solomon's sayings:
"Wealth attracts many friends".
Drink, you feel relieved.
Be more affable, more talkative
Why are they gobbling here?
Have they come to an eating-house?
Pray come to the table!
I'm not going to eat.
It's his grief, you know. Ignat was
father and mother both to him.
Please sit down!
The pancakes will be served immediately.
Please, sit down.
Foma,
You know, you're as unlike a merchant
as possible.
And you're very unlike
a merchant's wife
Thank heaven!
Why are you glad?
That we are not like our parents.
To the founder of the house,
eternal memory!
Now we lay the foundation
of a lodging-house,
a shelter for orphans
and the dispossessed ones,
that'll be built on 75000 rubles,
given by
Ignat Matveevitch Gordeev.
I watched your face
on the day of the funeral,
and my heart ached.
'Heavens,' I said to myself, 'how he
must be suffering!'
I am deeply grateful to you!
My poor boy! Can I address you thus?
I am quite an old woman.
You?
Am I not? Don't you believe
that I am an old woman?
I do believe you,
only, that is not true!
What you mean?
That you believe me?
No! not that, but that
I... You...
Forgive me! I do not
know how to express myself!
There's no need to feel
troubled over that.
They are men who have pure hearts,
who are confiding, sincere as children,
and aren't you one of those people?
I am deeply grateful to you!
Perhaps, some day,
you will just drop in?
I... thank you!
Why are you, immortal old man,
everywhere with your umbrella?
Your Excellency,
the umbrella protects me
not only from rain and sun
but also from evil eye.
Be careful, Foma. She'll turn your head.
What things I know about her!
You lie.
Lie!
How repulsive everything is.
I want to talk with a man,
and there's not a man about.
There's not a living soul about.
Since my mother's death,
my father has chased everyone away.
I'm disgusted.
Disgusted... What live for?
What's the matter with you?
How I wish that
everything should disgust you
and that you
should be disgusting to yourself!
You simply are... a goose.
You haven't been inside my soul.
And there are men who
never sparing themselves,
they toil and suffer and perish!
Ezhoff was excluded
from university for that.
They do want something?
Happiness for all men!
Well, I don't understand that.
Foma, you ought to wish
to be better.
Well, and don't I wish that?
Here, now you know that there's
a building named after Ignat Gordeeff.
God rest his soul.
Depart from evil and prepare us
some refreshments.
Consider, Foma, what are they for -
those night lodging-houses and other
institutions of that sort? For what?
What is there to consider?
For the beggars.
But what is a beggar?
A beggar is a man who is forced, by fate
to remind us of Christ,
he is the bell of the Lord,
and rings in life
for the purpose of awakening
our conscience.
But men have so ordered their lives
That it is utterly impossible to act
in accordance with Christ's teaching.
And Jesus Christ has become
entirely superfluous for us,
God forgive me.
Not once but, in all probability,
a thousand times,
we have given Him over
to be crucified,
but still we cannot banish Him
from our lives,
so long as His poor brethren sing
His Name in the streets,
And so now we have hit on the idea
of shutting up the beggars
in such special buildings, so that they
may not roam about the streets
and stir up our consciences.
Forgive me, O Lord!
So then, god-son! Investigate!
That's cle-ever!
Ecclesiastes said that a crooked thing
one is not able to make straight.
and one can't count something
that doesn't exist.
Time goes, time comes.
But the relation of the honorary
chairman to our patroness
has become such, that
should have become.
He's in love.
How are you, Sofya Pavlovna?
Let's go, I'm tired of all those men.
Save, God, your servant,
Foma in the name,
from tortures of our patroness.
They will walk for long,
and will return late.
Do you love me?
How many times have you asked that?
I need to know.
You are playing with me.
How am I playing with you?
What does the word mean?
I love you! I love you!
Is it possible not to love you?
But you want only that.
There, you have said it!
Would you like to kiss my hand?
Recruited.
Go away, my dear one,
I am weary and wish to rest.
Sofya Pavlovna! Sofya Pavlovna! Dear!
Wait, wait.
Good bye, my friend, don't forget me.
I'm always glad to see you.
You are so good.
I am deeply grateful to you!
Foma!
Foma!
What?
You go to see Son'ka
very often indeed.
What business have you
to call her Sonka?
As for calling her Son'ka -
everybody knows about that.
What does she represent?
An insect for the adornment of Nature
and nothing else!
Enough.
Wait, why are you so irritated?
Come here.
Who else except myself will warn you?
Come here.
Do you often make gifts to her?
What gifts?
Why?
Do you mean to say
that she lives with you
simply for love?
You're an old man,
but it's shameful to listen to you!
Well, and man is stupid in his youth!
Fie on you!
Has she been leading you by the nose
all winter?
Ah, whore of Babylon!
For Christ's sake, don't say that!
Well, the thing is clear.
Go to Son'ka if you
can't get along without it.
And tell her plainly:
"I want to be your lover,
don't charge much".
Who's there?
It is I.
I'm glad to see you, sit down!
Why haven't you been
for such a long while?
What's the matter with you,
my good one?
And if I am good, then
things ought to go well with me!
And the good always have a worse time
on the earth than the bad!
Bless, O Lord!
Sofya Pavlovna! Make an end of it!
This is what I came here
to say to you: Enough!
You must deal with me in a
straightforward manner, openly.
I see you do understand
with what object I have come to you.
Oh, cease.
I will not! I will speak!
I know all about you!
All!
Yes?
So much the better for me.
So you have learned all
and you have condemned me?
I would like to be your sister.
And you look at me
in such an unfriendly way.
Do you believe me? Yes?
No...
I don't know. I did believe.
But now?
But now it is better
that I should go away!
I understand nothing,
And I don't understand myself.
Understand me, I am sorry for you!
Sorry?
I don't want that.
You have not treated me well,
you allure a man.
Am I your plaything?
All I wanted was
to see you near me.
Oh, you!
God gave you angelic beauty,
but where is your heart?
Farewell!
Farewell!
Perhaps I have said something
which offends you,
Forgive me! But, you see,
I love you.
No, you have not offended me.
Go, and God be with you.
Well then, farewell!
Yes.
Yes, Foma Ignatievitch disappeared.
He hasn't been here for a year.
He's mourning.
Yes.
How are you, my modest millionaire!
Where've you been for so long?
Do you know, Foma Ignatievitch,
Our incomparable patroness
is going abroad
to be gone all summer.
- Sofya Pavlovna?
- Yes.
Foma Ignatievitch, my dear,
How are you?
Have you heard of Sofya Pavlovna?
The sun of my life will set.
And, perhaps, the sun of your life also?
Medinskaya goes?
Splendid! I'm delighted!
There'll be one cocotte less in town.
Sir Knyazeff...
How do you know that she is a coquette?
I didn't say a coquette.
I said cocotte.
But if you do not understand it,
I can explain.
Yes, you certainly will explain.
Gentlemen! Gentlemen!
A cocotte, if you care to know
is a venal woman.
Don't revile behind a person's back
but rail straight to his face!
Come away! My dear fellow,
for God's sake!
Wait till I give him a kick.
Come away, come away,
my dear fellow.
Music, continue!
You can't! You can't!
Oh, you scoundrel! I have children!
Everyone knows me!
Rascal!
Savage!
Duel!
Listen!
Excuse me, but it was savage!
Deuce take it, 'tis the first time
I have ever seen such a thing.
The dear man! Wasn't he
worth the trouncing?
Of course, he does.
He's a scamp and a sharper.
But, bearing in mind that the lady,
in whose defence you came forward...
Sir, you must not say anything bad
about her to me.
She is dear to me.
But it wasn't for her sake
that you beat him?
For whom, then?
Oh Lord!
Sofya Pavlovna's going away...
Stop thinking about that little lady.
She's poisonous food for you.
No, hold on! What's the meaning of it?
Am I worse than other men?
I understand nothing, my dear fellow.
One person says this, another that.
And how to live?
I thought, I should become a man
by her side!
Eh, my dear sir! This won't do!
Life is given us for life,
that's the philosophy!
If you like, I'll make you acquainted
with such a virulent specimen.
Somewhat epic.
I'm ashamed to.
Why are you ashamed?
Let's go, eh?
All right, let's go!
And when I get screwed up,
I'll break loose, after all this β
look out!
Ai-ai-ai, he sent barge to the bottom.
If the deceased Ignat
could read in the, newspapers
about his son's indecent life,
he'd kill his Fomka!
You see how he is described?
He deserves it!
That sharp fellow described
Foma's behavior adroitly.
We-ell now, Efimushka,
I'll flay you alive.
Where's the steamer, captain?
I didn't do it!
You didn't?
The master himself.
Fomka?
And you... what were you doing?
I was lying under the hatchway.
A-a! You were lying.
I was bound.
Wha-at?!
Permit me to tell you in proper order.
Well?
He didn't manage and sent
the laden barge to the bottom.
He has a very strong character.
When he's sober, he's silent most of
the time, and goes about thoughtfully,
but when he wets his springs
with liquor, - he gets wound up.
Hold your tongue!
Where is Foma?
There, on the spot.
They are going to raise the barge.
Probably they have already begun.
Is he alone there?
He has a lady with him,
a swarthy sort of...
The woman doesn't seem to have quite
all her wits. She's eternally singing.
She sings very well,
It's a great scandal.
I'm not asking you about her!
I'm going.
Calm yourself, dear papa!
Perhaps the loss is not great.
Not great?
What do you understand
about it, you fool?
Is it that the barge was smashed?!
Ekh, you...
A man's character was smashed!
That's where the trouble lies!
And, you see, I needed him!
I needed him, you stupid devils!
Well, wait, dear god-son.
I'll cover you.
I'll cover you.
I dreamed that I was singing a solo,
and opposite me stood
a great big dirty dog,
and I knew that it would devour
me as soon as I stopped singing.
So I kept on singing, and singing.
What does it portend?
Stop your jabber!
See here, tell me,
what do you know about me?
Why, I know that you have waked up.
What sort of a man am I,
in your opinion?
A drunken man...
Don't trifle! Tell me, conscientiously,
what do you think of me?
You're better than the others.
And how am I better?
Why - in this way!
When a fine song is sung, you weep,
if a man does a mean thing,
you thrash him.
With women you are simple.
And you can be
audacious, on occasion.
You're not telling me the right thing.
Well, I don't know what you want.
They're raising the barge...
What shall we do?
I'm not going to get drunk any more!
Nonsense!
What do you think about it?
Is it well to live so?
What is better?
A cockroach crawls, but he knows
where he wants to go and why.
But how about you?
Where are you going?
Stop! What have you to do with me?
You take from me what you want,
but don't you try
to creep into my soul!
Soul! Can an individual
who has a soul live as you live?
In the soul fire burns,
it feels shame.
What are you looking at?
Eekh, you...!
But what am I?
Don't you dare
to speak about my soul.
You have nothing to do with it!
It's nothing that
I'm a woman of gay habits!
A man in the mire may lives more cleanly
than he who strolls about in silks.
You ought to know
what malice I cherish against life.
Ekh, you...
And I feel the same.
Something is springing up in my soul.
Ekh, I will express myself in my own
words when the time comes.
Against whom?
Against everyone!
Against falsehood. I'll ask!
Ask whether the samovar is ready?
Go to the devil!
Go to the steamer!
We'll lift the barge and go to Kazan.
Hey, come here.
Why are you so happy?
Work's pleasant,
to anyone who likes it.
It's regular play.
It's like fondling a woman.
And you know me, Foma Ignatievitch.
Don't you remember?
We have prepared everything,
Foma Ignatievitch,
everything is in good shape now.
We'd better ask a blessing and begin.
Well, begin.
Bless, O Lord! O, all-holy Birth-Giver
of God and Saint Nicholas.
Gi-i-i-Ive wa-a-ay!
Gi-i-Ive wa-ay! Heave-ho!
He-eave a-awa-ay, heave away, heave!
I congratulate you on
a successful ending, Foma Ignatievitch!
Glory to Thee, O Lord!
I think you must be tired?
I'm not tired.
Get out! Get out!
There's forest spirit!
Go to the hold, maybe there's a woman.
2,8 millions kilograms,
like a radish from a garden-bed!
Your Honor!
Are we to have the liquor, hey?
Your Honor!..
Will you give us for a bucket?
All you want is to get drunk!
You ought to reflect, why?
You ought to understand.
It isn't our place
to ponder over our work!
Just so.
You must do such work,
so that men may say,
a thousand years later:
See, the Bogorodskoe peasants did that.
Are we to drink the Volga dry?
But even if we were
to drink the Volga dry,
and eat up yonder mountains to boot,
even that would be forgotten,
Foma Ignatievitch.
It is not for us to do such deeds
as stand out big above all the others.
Here understanding is needed.
Well...
I make you a gift
of three buckets of liquor!
He's strange!
What's the matter?
I'm disgusted, Alexandra!
I wish you'd do something
with me, can't you?
Ekh, you, baby!
I don't want to live like that.
How are you, dear god-son?
Whither are you pleased to journey,
Foma Ignatievitch?
About my own business.
Very laudable, my dear sir!
And who is the lady with feathers?
She's my mistress.
I must have a talk with you.
Will you come to the hotel with me?
Yes, but not for long.
Well, come along. And couldn't you
drown that lady for the time being?
Go to the town, Sasha, and engage
a room. I'll be there before long!
I'm ready!
Why have you come hither?
You've been behaving
outrageously yonder.
I want to see - how much.
You're troubling yourself for nothing.
Now, see here, papa. Either give me
complete independence,
or else take my entire business
into your own hands.
Take everything,
and have done with it!
But I shall be free to go
where I please!
I can't live on like this,
I want to live in freedom.
I will search out life for myself.
Otherwise, what am I? A prisoner.
Ekh, you have gone astray.
And you are babbling nonsense.
Papa! It has been done - men have
abandoned all their possessions,
they've gone away...
Not in my time!
Nobody whom I know intimately!
I'd have shown them!
Papa! Why won't you do it?
Calves don't roar like bears!
Don't talk drivel, don't try to climb
where you have no business.
You have millions.
What fun in them?
Is it possible that a man is born
to accumulate money,
beget children, and die?
No, we must consider why we are living.
There's no sense in our life.
Ekh, you don't understand
the power of money.
Who does understand it?
I! And so does every sensible man.
Thousands of persons have staked
their lives on your money.
And you can fling
all that money into the fire,
and watch, how it burns.
And you will regard yourself
as the master.
Through business the masses are fed,
and you are the master
over all those masses.
A man craves power. And what,
except money, gives power?
Why do you play the fool?
You want freedom!
And all of you people of the present day
will perish through freedom.
The devil has laid hold of you.
All right! You won't do it?
Then there will be nothing!
I'll get rid of everything! And we have
nothing more to say to each other.
Farewell!
Do you know how I can deal with you?
As you please!
Here then. If I choose,
I can go to town and have it arranged
that you shall be declared crazy,
and put in the lunatic asylum.
Is it possible?
Everything is possible with us,
my dear fellow.
I pledged my word to your father
to set you on your feet.
If you don't remain standing,
I'll hoop you with iron.
I'll cover you up from the head down!
I'll put a bell-glass over you.
It's an awkward thing to jest with me.
So there is no alternative for me?
You have an alternative - go ahead!
But I will guide you.
Why do you brag?
What have you to brag about?
Ekh, you manager of life!
Come now, you're clever,
you know everything.
Tell me, why do you live?
What have you done for life?
By what are men going
to remember you?
Hold your tongue, puppy!
I'll carouse and spend everything
We'll see!
You'll see what I'll do.
Can't I have a drink of seltzer water?
Hello!
Hello.
Don't you recognize me,
Foma Ignatievitch?
Ezhoff.
Heavens! Is it really you?
I myself, my dear fellow,
can hardly believe it,
but it's an actual fact.
How old you have grown!
Life has robbed you.
I assume, from my troubled soul,
that you also, my friend,
do not find a jolly life
very jolly, eh?
What is my life like?
Something outrageous.
This is curious!
For it proves that the holy spirit
of dissatisfaction with life
has made its way even into
the bed-chambers of the merchant-class.
Come, tell me, what one ought to do,
in order to live calmly?
So that one will be satisfied
with himself?
To that end, one must live uneasily,
and avoid, like the plague,
even the possibility
of being satisfied with himself.
Well, and dare you talk like that
to men, to their faces?
On every convenient occasion.
And every Sunday, in the newspaper.
No, this is not
what is needed. If only...
If only my fod-father
could be set out against them.
To show them up.
They're a pretty mischievous
sort of people
I'll show you!
Our hopes of Foma are poor.
O Lord...
Ain't I clever? Ain't I sharp?
Dear papa! Do not grieve.
And I'd better be quick
about marrying you off.
I've been casting my eyes on a fellow.
He's not stupid,
has been polished up abroad.
Is it Smolin?
And if it is he, what then?
I don't know him.
We'll introduce you,
arrange a nice hearty little feast
Set old silver on the table
I want him to be impressed.
Why that?
Because a lass is not a horse, you
can't get her off without the harness
Foma, I can't stand it...
Take me away...
Let's get away from here.
What a weak creature you are, brother.
The song is good.
You think I'm drunk?
My body is drunk,
but my soul is sober.
My fate has wronged me!
Why have I toiled
for twelve years without a rest?
In order to learn?
So what?
What faith have I won for myself?
Only the belief
that everything in this life
is of no use even to the devil.
Everything ought to be pulled down!
Broken up!
But I saw people who worked
and sang. Interesting!
If you are bored,
then where are you going?
What can you understand in songs?
- I'm going.
- I'm going too.
Vassa, dress yourself.
Stepan! Get things together!
You beast!
You! Don't touch him!
What?
Don't touch him!
Stepan!
Cut the connections.
Your Honor, rafts will drift away...
Hold your tongue!
Cut, I want to serve my country,
I want to purify the earth of
worthless people. Cut!
As you wish.
Forgive me, O Lord.
Music! Our guests depart!
Your Honor, I'm not responsible.
Have no fear.
Hey, you! Farewell!
Drowning! People drowning!
Are you people?!
I'm cold.
Did I offend you? Don't be angry.
No, I'm not angry.
You'll disappear
if don't do your business.
My business is all fraud.
My soul aches. How to live?
You know, I'll go away.
Where?
I don't know. When my time comes,
I shall grow sad and then
I shall disappear.
But it's early for me yet.
Ah, and then, come what may.
And I, also, shall disappear?
Of course! All such people disappear.
Farewell, Foma Ignatievitch!
Sasha!
Hello!
What do you think of him?
I venture to hope that you
have not forgotten your old play-mate.
I thank you for invitation.
How goes life with you
Liuboff Yakovlevna?
She finds life with me
very tiresome
She's my housekeeper.
The whole management lies on her,
she doesn't have time to amuse herself
And no place, either,
you ought to add.
I am not fond of merchants' balls
and evening parties.
But the theatre?
I rarely go there.
I have no one to go with.
Theatre! Tell me, pray, why
it has become so much the fashion
to represent the merchant
as a wild fool?
It's very amusing,
but it's incomprehensible,
because it isn't true!
Of course, if you are giving
a historical play,
for example, 'Life for the Tzar',
with singing and dancing,
or 'Hamlet',
truth to nature is not required.
The matter is past, and
does not concern us.
No matter whether it is true or not,
so long as it's good.
But if you're representing
the present day,
then don't lie!
And show the man as he is!
Why are you laughing? Isn't it true?
You may go, for the present, Liubava,
while he and I finish
our little confab.
Will you excuse me,
Liuboff Yakovlevna?
Pray do not stand on ceremony.
Now, Afrian Mitritch, explain yourself
Ah, Lubava, Lubava,
father thinks that you are not capable of
attracting the attention of a man,
and deck you out with silver.
For four years
I diligently studied
the position of Eussian leather
in foreign markets.
All these petty leather-producers
cannot raise product
to the proper degree of merit.
So your present intention is
to establish
such a huge factory,
that for all the others
only a coffin and its cover?
You've understood me.
It will require about
three hundred thousand.
Father won't give that much
as my dowry.
My factory will turn out leather goods
in the shape of trunks, shoes,
harnesses, and...
What per cent do you dream of making?
I am not dreaming, I am reckoning
I've drawn up a little record,
founded upon my
personal study of cattle-breeding
and the consumption of meat in Russia.
I see, upon personal
return of cattle-breeding
and the consumption of meat.
He's like dear herald.
It's an awkward thing to jest with me.
Why don't you come, Foma?
We are like family to you.
Don't bristle up.
Will you come to dinner?
What dinner?
Kononoff is going to inaugurate
a new steamer, "Ilya Murometz".
I haven't been invited.
What are you saying?
I promised to come with you.
Partner of "Smolin and Mayakin" firm.
Brothers, help, I can't live.
Nothing suits me.
If I perceive that everything is a fraud?
We plug up the emptiness of our soul...
Fomushka!
Brothers, kill me to death!
This is the sense of all philosophy...
I want to die!
There's no one to talk.
Everyone is a rascal.
Foma! Why are you wandering?
Come here.
Come to us!
I'll introduce you to my friend,
He's cleverer than we both.
He's read Deuce knows
how much good books.
Travelled through half of Russia.
Sit down.
How are you?
Hello, Foma Ignatievitch!
Hello!
Are you acquainted?
Yes, for a long time.
So 'Ilya Murometz' belongs to Kononov?
Yes.
It should have been called
Nightingale the Robber.
and his owner is a chieftain.
No, chieftain is his immortal old man.
Have you heard? The merchant class
are pushing your god-father
to the head of the city.
He'll get his share of the cake.
But you, you dry stump,
are you gradually decaying?
Well, I'm waiting, and then
I'll say such words...
You cannot liberate yourself with words.
So, it's Kononoff's.
Welcome.
Hello! Hello!
Please, gentlemen.
How are you? Please, dear guests.
Silence! Yakov Tarasovitch's going
to give a speech!
Gentlemen of the merchant class!
Which is the best town on the Volga?
In which there are the most merchants.
To whom do the finest houses
in the town belong? The merchants!
Who takes the most care of the poor?
The merchant!
Who builds the churches?
We do!
Who gives the most money
of all to the empire? The merchants!
We alone love order in life
and our work is in plain sight,
gentlemen of the merchant class!
Seeing in you, as I do,
the most prominent people in life,
I now, with all my heart,
with respect and love for you,
raise my brimming beaker
to the glorious, strong in spirit
merchant-class!
Long life to you!
Hurrah-rah!
Hurrah-rah!
It's all ours!
We're the masters of life.
the Volga! Here she is,
our own dear mother!
Look, how much treasure, and all is ours!
We are the principal people in life and
the real masters in our fatherland.
All is ours! And those who says about us...
Are you?
You are masters of life? Are you?
Who's that snarling?
We can't help behaving outrageously!
Gordyeeff!
What are you opening your eyes
at me for?
But wait a bit, my dear soul,
who invited you here?
It's me. Ekh, Fomka! Here you are
disgracing my old age again.
He's drunk!
I'm more sober than all of you!
You can't plaster up my mouth now.
There's no chance
to turn me out here.
But if anyone so much as
puts a finger on me,
I'll kill him!
Well, it has been stated
that you have made this life,
That you have made it of the most
genuine and truthful sort.
O, you rascals!
You have not made life -
but a prison,
chains on men you have forged.
It's close, suffocating,
there's no place
for a living soul to turn!
Man is perishing!
You are murderers!
You are alive only through
the long-suffering of mankind.
Gordyeeff! Look out, you're
talking improperly.
For such speeches, oi, oi, oi!
Gentlemen! I earnestly entreat you,
don't hinder him.
Let him snarl away,
let him amuse himself.
His words won't break you.
Swindlers!
Kononoff!
Haven't you been tried 20 years ago
for an arson?
They will try you soon
for the little girl
All right, I won't forget that.
The constructors of life!
And you Lup, open that gay house
again, and strip your guests there
like linden-trees.
Scoundrel!
Zuboff! What are you laughing at?
How many people have you turned out of
house with such a holy face?
Ah! You attack me also?
I'll go to the Bishop! Freemason!
You'll go to the galleys
Bind him!
You can't bind the truth,
you're talking nonsense!
See here, gentlemen
of the merchant class!
I beg that you will admire,
just what he is!
By a puppy...
Act, Yakoff! We will all be witnesses.
It's a riot! Bind him!
Come on!
Beat, beat, beat him!
O Lord, hide thy face from our sins,
and blot out all our iniquities.
What now,
you thunder-like prophet, hey?
Do you feel sweetness
of the Babylonian Captivity?!
What sort of life is now
possible to you?
For now, not one of us
will even want to spit on you!
Well, your business is done for, Fomka.
You charlatan!
What have you done to yourself?
Little shit!
Rascal!
Wait! Until I get rested...
You haven't gagged my tongue.
Rest here, rascal.
Unbind me!
Well, no!
Call my god-father.
Let me.
Well, Foma?
Order them to unbind me
No, you may lie as you are.
I won't say another word.
I am not drunk.
Not drunk...
Do you swear that
you will not be turbulent?
O Lord! I will not.
Unbind him.
You got your own way.
We always shall.
Are you laughing?
Get up! I think, you've rested.
Come on.
Give me some vodka.
More!
That will do!
Well, Fomka, do you understand now,
what you have done?
For you there is no pardon!
I forgot to speak about you, papa.
You have not heard anything from me.
There, sir! You see?
Drunkard! Worthless scamp!
I am not drunk!
I was entirely sober.
Consequently, you were right, Yakoff
Tarasovitch: he's out of his mind.
I? I am in my right mind!
I understand what I wanted.
I wanted to speak the truth.
I wanted to convict you.
Hold on to him!
It is not given to everyone
to speak the truth!
Leave me alone! You've had your
way completely! What more do you want?
And nevertheless, you are
entirely to blame!
You have spoiled life!
You are accursed!
Damn you all!
Unbind my hands!
Fool! Holy fool!
Don't make noise, we'll take you
straight to the asylum
I am ruined... I know that!
Only, not by your power
but through my own weakness.
And wait! You shall choke...
I am ruined through blindness.
I have seen much, and become blind.
Like an owl.
Look, he's weeping.
Unbind my hands! Unbind my hands!
Unbind my hands!
Today we open this house
a shelter for orphans
and dispossessed people, built
on 75000 rubles, given by
a great son of our class,
Ignat Matveevitch Gordeev
Come on, come on.
For centuries people
will remember torments!
You weren't building life. You've made
filth and closeness by your business!
How much blood have people wept
because of your great deeds?
You are worms! Worms! You will choke!