Three Sisters (1970) - full transcript

(dramatic music)

(xylophone chords)

- Father died exactly a year ago,

on this very day, May the 5th.

Your saints day Irina.

It was very cold then, snowing hard.

I didn't think that I
could live and bear it,

and you were lying in a dead faint,

and now a year has by,

and we can think of it without distress.

You're already wearing
white, you look radiant.



The clock was striking then too.

I remember that when Father
was being carried away,

there was a band, and a salute
of guns at the cemetery.

Not many people followed the coffin,

although he was a General,
Brigade Commander.

Of course, it was raining
heavily, shards of sleet.

- Why do you bring it all back?

- It's warm today, but the
birch trees are still in bud.

Father got his brigade and left
Moscow with us 11 years ago,

and I can remember perfectly well

that at this time of the year
in May everything in Moscow

is already in bloom, it's warm.

Everything is bathed in sun.

Oh, 11 yeas have gone by,



and I can remember everything
as if we left it yesterday.

Oh God, when I woke up this morning,

and saw the light, spring,

I felt elated and excited.

The urge to go home to
Moscow was so very strong.

- [Baron] (laughing)
Oh, the hell with you,

it's all nonsense of course.

(Masha whistling)

- Don't whistle Masha, how can you?

(chuckles) I spend everyday in the school,

and afterwards teaching
til late in the evening,

so I have a permanent headache,

and my thoughts are already
like an old woman's.

No, it's perfectly true.

During these four years that
I've worked at the school,

I've felt my strength
and my youth ebbing away,

every day drop by drop,

and the only dream

that grows more and
more intense, obsessive,

is to go to Moscow.

- Is to go to Moscow.

Sell the house, draw a
blind over our life here,

and to Moscow.

- Yes, to Moscow, as soon as possible.

- Our brother will be a professor soon.

He certainly won't stay here.

The only trouble is poor Masha.

- Masha will come and spend
every summer in Moscow.

- With God's help, everything
will turn out well.

What a fine day.

I don't know why I've been so happy today.

This morning I remembered
that it was my saints day,

and suddenly I was flooded with joy.

I remembered my childhood
when Mama was still alive,

such thoughts.

Those wonderful thoughts
stared in my brain.

- You look really radiant
today, very beautiful.

Masha too is beautiful.

Andrei could be good looking,

but he's getting fat
and it doesn't suit him,

and as for me, I've aged, getting thin.

Probably because the girls at
school were made so crossed.

Now today I am free, I'm at home.

My head doesn't ache, and I
feel younger than yesterday.

Oh, everything is all right.

Everything is God's will,

and yet somehow I feel,

if i had married and would
stay at home all day,

it would be better.

I would've loved my husband.

(men laughing)

- Oh really, it's all such nonsense.

I simply can't listen to you anymore.

Oh, I forgot to tell you,

our new Battery Commander, Vershinin,

will be coming to visit you today.

- Well, that's very nice.

Is he old?

- Oh, I wouldn't say that,
40, he seems a good sort.

Certainly not stupid.

He does talk too much.

- An interesting man?

- Oh, not bad.

He has a wife and two little
girls, and a mother-in-law,

and he's been married once before too.

Well, he goes visiting everybody,

and he tells them all he's got
a wife and two little girls.

Oh, he'll probably tell you about it too.

His uh, his wife seems
to be a bit unbalanced.

She wears a long maidenly plait,

and speaks in a very high
flown way on philosophy,

and often tries to commit suicide.

Apparently, to annoy her husband.

I'd have left a woman like that long ago,

but he seems to put up with it,

but he does complain a lot.

- I can lift only sixty
pounds with one hand,

but with two hands, I can
lift a hundred and sixty.

Even two hundred pounds.

I deduced from this,

that two men are not only
twice as strong as one,

but three times, even more.

- For falling hair,

take two ounces of naphthaline
in half a bottle of spirits.

Dissolve and use daily.

I must put this down.

So, as I was saying to you,

you stick a cork into the bottle.

Now there's a glass
tube in there, you see.

Then you take a pinch of ordinary--

- Ivan Romanitch, dear Ivan Romanitch.

- My darling, my pet.

- Tell me, what do I feel so happy today?

As though I was ailing with
a wide blue sky over me,

big white birds flying around.

Why is it, why?

- Oh my, my little white bird.

- When I woke up this morning,
got up and got washed,

I suddenly began to think

that everything was clear
to me in this world,

and that I knew how one ought to live.

Dear Ivan Romanitch, I know everything.

Man must work, by the sweat of his brow,

no matter who he is,

and the meaning and the
purpose of his life,

his happiness and his ecstasy
contained in this alone.

Oh, how splendid it is to be a workman

who gets up at dawn and
breaks stones in the street,

or a shepherd, or a teacher
who teaches children,

or an engine-driver.

Dear God, it is better to
be a simple horse, an ox,

and be working,

rather than a young woman
who gets up at midday,

has her breakfast in bed,

then takes two hours to get dressed.

How terrible that is.

I now want to work as desperately

as wanting a drink on a hot day,

and if I don't get up early and work,

you can deny me your
friendship, Ivan Romanitch.

- I will, I will darling.

- Father made us get up at seven o'clock.

Now Irina wakes at seven, and lies in bed,

thinking until at least nine,

(chuckles) and her face
is deathly serious.

- You still look upon me as a little girl.

That's why you find it strange
when I have a serious face.

I'm 20, you know.

- Longing for work.

Oh God, how well I understand that.

I've never done a stroke
of work in my whole life.

Well, I was born in Petersburgh.

In cold, idle Petersburgh,

to a family that never knew
any work, or any trouble.

I remember when I used to
come home from Cadet School,

a footman would pull off my boots,

and when I was naughty,

my mother looked on with adoration,

and was surprised if
others didn't do the same.

I was protected from work,

but not forever let me tell you.

No, the time's come and a great
clouds announcing a storm.

A huge storm's brewing and it's coming.

It's quite near,

and very soon it will sweep away

all this indifference and
laziness and shiftlessness,

putrid boredom from our society.

I will work.

25 or 30 years time,
every man will be working.

(Ivan scoffs)

Every human being.

- I won't work.

- You don't count.

- In 25 years, you won't
be living any longer.

Thank the Lord.

(Ivan chuckles)

In about two to three years,
you will die of a stroke,

or I'll lose my temper,

and put a bullet in
your forehead my angel.

- (laughs) I can safely say,

I've never done a days
work in my whole life.

When I left the University,

I just sat and twiddled my thumbs.

Never read a single book, only newspapers.

For instance, I know by the papers

that there was such a man as Dobrolyubov,

though what he ever wrote, I don't know.

God knows.

(all laugh)

(cane thudding)

There's uh, they're uh,
calling for me downstairs.

Someone has come to see me.

I'll be back in a moment.

Do wait!

- He's up to some mischief.

- Yes, he's got his pompous face on.

Something tells me he's
going to bring you a present.

- How tiresome he is.

- Yes, it's awful, he's always
doing such foolish things.

- A green oak tree beside the main,

and on that oak, a golden chain,

and on that oak, a golden chain.

(Masha whistling)

- You're not in a very
good mood today Masha.

Where are you going?

- Home.

- Home?

(guest chattering)

- Are you going away
from a saints day party?

- What does it matter?

I'll come back again this evening.

Goodbye my dearest.

Once more, I wish you be well, be happy.

In the old days when
Father was still alive,

we used to have 30 or 40 officers

coming to see us on your saints day.

The house was full of noise.

Today, there are one and a half persons,

and it's as silent as a desert.

(piano chords)

Our girl, I'm feeling sad
today, you mustn't listen to me.

We'll talk later, but au revoir for now.

I'll go away somewhere.

- How naughty you are Masha.

- I understand you Masha.

(doorbell ringing)

- When a man philosophizes,

that would be philosophy or sophistry,

but when it's a woman, or
two woman, it's gibberish.

- What do you mean by that,
you terrible, frightening man?

- Nothing.

Before he had time to say oh,
the bear had laid him low.

- Oh, don't snivel.

- Come here good man, come in.

Your boots are clean?

From the local council, from
Protopopov, Mihail Ivanitch.

A cake.

- [Irina] Thank you, tell
him I'm very grateful.

- What did you say?

- [Irina] Tell him I thank him.

- Nyanya dear, give her some cake.

Ferrapont, you can go,
you'll get some cake.

- What was that?

- Go along Ferrapont
Spiridonitch, go along.

- I don't like that
Protopopov, Mihail Ivanitch,

or Potarvich or whatever it is.

He ought not to be invited here.

- I didn't invite him.

- Oh, well, that's all right.

(guests chattering)

- A samovar, oh no,
this is quite dreadful.

- Ivan Romanitch, you
are pass praying for.

- What did I tell you?

- [Irina] What are you doing?

- Oh my dear one, my sweet one.

You're all I have.

You're the ones I cherish
most in this world.

I'm an old man, a useless, lonely old man.

There's nothing good about
me, except my love for you,

and if it had not been for you,

I should not belong to this world.

My dear one, my sweet one.

I've loved you from the day you were born.

I carried you in my arms.

I loved your Mama.

- But why such extravagant presents.

- Oh get along with your
extravagant presents.

Put the samovar over there!

Extravagant presents indeed.

(doorbell ringing)

- My dear, there's a strange
Colonel who is arriving.

He's taken his coat off already.

He's coming straight in.

- That will be Vershinin.

- Now Irina, you should be
nice to him, and polite.

Oh, it's time to have lunch, oh God.

- Colonel Vershinin.

- My compliments.

Vershinin, how very glad I am
to be here with you at last.

Just look at you all.

Hi, hi, hi.

- [Irina] Please sit
down, we're delighted.

- How glad I am, how glad,
but there were three of you.

I remember so well, three girls.

I don't remember their faces,

but I know that your
father, Colonel Prozorov,

had three young girls.

I remember it well, and
saw them with my own eyes.

How time flies, oh, how it flies.

- Alexandr Ignatievich comes from Moscow.

- You come from Moscow?

- Yes.

- [Masha] From Moscow?

- From Moscow.

- [Irina] Ogla!

- When your father was
Battery Commander there,

I was an officer in the same brigade.

I seem to remember your face.

I think.

- I don't remember you.

- Olga, Olga!

Olga, Olga, Colonel
Vershinin comes from Moscow.

- Oh!

- You must be Olga Sergeievna, the eldest.

You are Maria, and you
are Irina, the youngest.

- You come from Moscow?

- Yes, I studied in Moscow and
began my service in Moscow,

and stayed there for a long time.

Then at last became
Battery Commander here.

Here I am, as you see.

(women giggling)

I don't really remember you.

I only know that there were three of you,

but your father remains
so clear in my memory,

I have only to shut my
eyes and I see him now.

I used to come to your house in Moscow.

- Thought I remembered
them all, and now suddenly.

- My name is Alexandr Ignatievich, no?

- So, your from Moscow,
Alexandr Ignatievich.

What a surprise.

- We're moving there you know.

- Yes, we hope to be there autumn.

It's our hometown you see.

We were born there, in Basmannaya Street.

- Basmannaya?

- Now I remember.

The lovesick Major.

(all giggling)

Don't you remember all
of us used to call him?

You were only a Captain, and
you were in love with someone.

We teased you and called you Major.

I don't know why.

- (laughs) Yes, that's
right, the lovesick Major.

Yes, that's right.

- But you only had a mustache then.

You look so much older.

How much older?

- Yes, when you called
me the lovesick Major,

I was young, I was in love.

It's all different now.

- Oh, but you've hardly
a single gray hair.

You may have grown older,
but you're not really old.

- Well, I'm no longer young.

How long is it since you left Moscow?

- 11 years, Masha, why are you crying?

- [Masha] It's nothing.

Where abouts did you live?

- On the Old Basmannaya Street.

- [Irina And Olga] So did we!

- For a time I lived on Nyemetsky.

From there I would go
to the Crimson Barracks,

there's a gloomy bridge there,

with the water rushing noisily under it.

It made a lonely man feel very sad.

Here, how beautiful and wide the river is.

Such a rich river.

- Yes, but it's cold.

It's cold here and there are mosquitoes.

- No no, you're wrong.

The climate here is so good,
so healthy, a real slavonic.

The woods, and the river, and birches too.

Dear modest birches.

I love them more than any
other tree in the world.

It must be so good.

The only odd thing is that
the station is so far away.

20 verst, and nobody seems to know why.

- I know why.

Because if the station were
near, it wouldn't be far,

and since it is far, it can't be near.

- Always ready with a little joke,

aren't you Vassili Vassilich?

- Now I do remember you, yes, I do.

- [Vershinin] I knew your mother.

- [Ivan] What a good woman she was,

may her soul rest in peace.

- [Irina] Mama is buried in Moscow,

- In the Novo-Dyevitchy convent.

- Would you believe it?

I'm already beginning to forget her face.

It'll be the same with us.

We won't be remembered, just forgotten.

- Yes, forgotten.

Such is our fate, there is
nothing we can do about it.

Oh please.

The things that appear
to us to be serious,

significant, important,

will in time be forgotten
or seem unimportant,

and what is interesting is that

we are quite unable to
realize that this moment,

which things will be
valuable and momentous,

and which things will be
ridiculous and pathetic.

Didn't the discoveries of
Copernicus or even of Columbus,

appear at first useless and ridiculous,

while some trifling
rubbish written by a crank

seemed to be truth itself.

And it may well be that
this present life of ours,

to which we are so resigned,

will in time appear strange,
uncomfortable, unintelligent,

not pure enough.

Maybe even sinful.

- Oh who knows,

perhaps our life will be honored,

and remembered with respect.

Well after all, we have no torches,

or executions or invasions nowadays,

but so much suffering.

So much suffering.

- (imitates chicken) The
Baron could do without food,

if only you'll let him philosophize.

- Vassili Vassilich, I do
beg you to leave me in peace.

So boring really.

(Vassili imitates chicken)

This uh suffering, that
which we are witnessing now,

and how much of it there is.

It does prove that our
society has achieved

a certain degree of moral fiber, yes?

- [Alexandr] Of course, of course.

- You've just Baron,

that our life may be praised to the skies,

but people are small,
no matter what you say.

Look how small I am.

When you tell me my life
can be noble and exalted,

you're just trying to
cheer me up, aren't you?

(violin music)

- That is our brother Andrei again.

- [Irina] He's a scientist,
he will be a professor soon.

Papa was a soldier, but his
son chose to be a scientist,

which is what Papa wanted.

- We've been teasing him today.

He thinks he's fallen in love.

- [Irina] Yes, with a young local girl,

she's coming to see us today.

- The way she dresses.

It isn't that it's just
ugly or old fashioned.

It's simply pathetic.

She puts on a weird yellow skirt

with a vulgar little
fringe and a red blouse,

and her cheeks are so utterly
scrubbed, so scrubbed.

Andrei is not in love with her.

I can't believe it.

He's got too much taste.

I heard yesterday that she
was to marry Protopopov.

(Olga gasps)

He's the chairman of the local council,

and he's just right for her.

(knocking on door)

- Andriuska, will you come
in, just for a moment darling?

Colonel Vershinin.

Our new Battery Commander.

- This is my brother Andrei Sergeievitch.

- Vershinin.

- Prozoroff.

You're our new Battery Commander?

- [Irina] Just fancy,

Alexandr Ignatievich comes from Moscow.

- Oh, is that so?

Well, good luck to you.

My sisters won't give you
any peace from now on.

- Oh, I've managed to bore them already.

- Look what a pretty frame
Andrei gave me today.

He made it himself.

- Oh yes, very nice.

- [Irina] He also made
this one on the piano.

- He's a scientist, plays the
violin, and knows carpentry,

in a word, a versatile talent.

Andrei, don't go.

He has a terrible habit of
always going away, come here.

- Come back, Andriuska.

Why are you so touchy today?

We used to call Alexandr Ignatievich,

The lovesick Major once upon a time,

and he wasn't at all offended.

- [Alexandr] Not at all.

- We're going to call
you The lovesick Fiddler.

- [Irina] Or the lovesick Professor.

- [Olga] He is in love, Andriuska.

♫ Oh nature has created
us for love, for love

- Please stop it, that's enough.

Sorry.

I didn't sleep all night.

I'm not at my best, as they say.

I read until four, then
laid down, but all in vain.

I though of this and
that, then it was dawn,

with the sun pouring into my bedroom.

I want to translate a
book from the English,

during the summer while I'm here.

- [Alexandr] You can read English?

- Oh, yes.

Our father, may he rest in
peace, bullied us into learning.

It's so funny, why it's
a silly thing to say,

but since his death, I've
begun to put on weight.

I've grown fat in one year.

As if my body had freed itself

from all that browbeating (laughs).

Well, thanks to father,

my sisters and I know
French, German, English,

and Irina also has some
Italian, but what it cost us.

- To know three languages in this town

is an unnecessary luxury.

Not even a luxury,

but a useless appendage
like a sixth finger.

We have a lot of superfluous knowledge.

- How can you say that?

A lot of superfluous knowledge?

I don't believe there could be a town,

however tedious or dismal,

where an intelligent, educated
person would be superfluous.

Let's us say that there are
a hundred thousand people

in this town, a backward,
an uncouth place of course,

and that there are only
three people like yourself.

It is obvious that you can
not conquer the dark mass

that surrounds you in your own lifetime.

Gradually you'll have to surrender,

and get lost in the crowd.

Life will stifle you,
but you won't disappear.

You're influence will remain.

After you, there will appear
perhaps, six people like you,

then 12 and so on until at last,

people like you will become the majority.

In two or three hundred years,

life on this earth will
be unbelievably beautiful.

Wonderful.

Ah, but that is the
sort of life man needs,

and though it isn't here yet,

he must foresee it,
expect it, dream about it.

Prepare himself for it,

but to do that he must be
able to see and know more

than his father and grandfather
were able to see and know,

and you complain of
having too much knowledge.

- I'll stay to lunch.

- Should've written all this down.

- In two or three hundred years time,

you say life will be beautiful, wonderful?

That is true, but to
participate in it now,

even from afar, we must
prepare oneself for it.

One must work, yes, yes, yes.

- What beautiful flowers you have here,

and such pleasant rooms, I envy you.

All my life I've hung about
in pokey little places

with two chairs, a sofa,

and stoves that were always smoking.

That's the sort of thing
I've missed all my life.

Flowers like this.

Well, that's how it is, yes.

- Yes, one must work.

(Vassili imitates chicken)

(scoffs) I suppose you're
saying to yourself,

he's an emotional
German, but I am Russian.

I don't even speak German.

My father is of the Orthodox faith.

- I often wonder what it would be like

to start life anew with full awareness,

so that one life, which is over,

would be, so to speak, a rough draft,

and the next one, the final version.

In that case, I think each of us

would try not to repeat himself,

or create at least a new background.

A place like this with
flowers and a lot of light.

I have a wife, two daughters,

but my wife is a sick woman,
and so on and so forth.

Well, if I were to begin life
again, I wouldn't marry, no.

- [Ivan] No?

- No (laughs).

- How do you do everybody?

My dear sister, let me congratulate
you on your saints day,

and wish you with all my
heart, the best of health,

and all one can wish
to a girl of your age,

and also, present you
with this little book.

It is the history of our
school for the last 50 years,

written by me, a trifling,
silly, little book

written because of nothing better to do,

but read it all the same (chuckles).

How do you do everybody?

Kuligin, teacher in the local school,

member of the local council.

- Vershinin.

- Eh, you will find in this book,

a list of all those who left the school

in the last 50 years.

(speaking in foreign language)

- But you already gave
me this book for Easter.

(all laughing)

- Oh, in that case, give it back to me,

or even better, give it to the Colonel.

Take it Colonel, you might read
it one day when your bored.

- Thank you.

- [Kuligin] Olga my dear.

- [Alexandr] I'm extremely glad

to have made your acquaintance.

- You're going, oh no?

- [Irina] Please, you must stay to lunch.

- Please do.

- But I find myself expectantly
at a saints day party,

forgive me, I didn't know,
and I didn't congratulate you.

- Today my friends is a
Sunday, a day of rest,

so let us rest today in accordance

of our perspective years and position.

Masha loves me, my wife loves me.

Oh I'm cheerful today, I'm in a good mood.

Masha, we're going to the
Director today at four o'clock,

there's going to be an outing

for the teachers and their families.

- I won't go.

- But dear Masha, why?

- We'll talk about it later.

- But we've been invited.

- Oh very well, I'll go!

Only leave me in peace now.

- I'd rather spend an
evening at the Director's.

In spite of the state of his health,

that man tries above all to be sociable.

He's an excellent, an
enlightened character.

A splendid man.

Yesterday, after the council
meeting, he said to me,

"I'm tired Ilyich, I'm tired."

Oh, your clock is 10 minutes fast.

Yes, he said, "I'm tired."

- Will you please all come
into lunch, there's a meat pie.

- [Irina] Meat pie?

- [Ivan] Meat pie, wonderful.

- Now just one thing,

you're not to have anything
to drink today, you hear me?

It's bad for you.

- Oh my dear lady, I'm
perfectly all right now.

It's two years since I got drunk.

- All the same,

don't you dare have anything
to drink, don't you dare.

I have to spend another boring
evening at the Director's.

God help me.

- I wouldn't go if I were
you, it's quite simple.

- Don't go, don't go darling.

- Don't go, don't go,
it's easy enough to say.

What a damned unbearable life.

- [Ivan] Oh now, Mashinka.

(Vassili imitates chicken)

- That's quite enough, Vassili Vassilich.

(Vassili imitates chicken)

That's quite enough.

(Vassili imitates chicken)

- Your health Colonel.

I'm a teacher and in this
house, I'm one of the family.

Masha's husband, she's kind, very kind.

- I'll have some of that
dark Vodka, thank you.

I feel so happy here.

Your health.

- Masha's out of sorts today.

See, she was married when she was 18,

and he seemed to her,
the cleverest of men.

Well, now it's different.

He's the kindest, but not the cleverest.

- [Olga] Andrei, aren't you ever coming?

- [Andrei] I'm coming.

- [Baron] What are you thinking about?

- Nothing much.

I don't like this Solloni of yours,

and I'm afraid of him,
he talks such nonsense.

- Yes, he's a strange man.

I feel sorry for him.

He does annoy me at times,

but I feel more sorry than annoyed.

I think he must be shy.

You know, when we're alone together,

he can be most intelligent and friendly,

but in company, he gets
coarse and quarrelsome.

Don't go yet.

Let them sit down first.

Let me stay with you for a little while.

What're you thinking about?

You are 20, and I'm (clears
throat) not yet thirty.

How many years we have in front of us.

A long, long line of days all
filled with my love for you.

- Nikolai Lvovich, don't
talk to me about love.

- I have a desperate desire
to love, to fight, to work.

This desire is mingled
with my love for you Irina.

It so happens you are beautiful.

(chuckles) Therefore, life
seems beautiful to me.

What're you thinking about?

- You say life is beautiful.

Yes, but what if it only seems to be so.

For us real life has
not yet been beautiful,

it's stifled, just like ugly weeds.

Stifled flowers of the garden.

I'm crying, I mustn't cry.

One must work, yes work,

it's because we don't know what work is

that we are sad and look
upon life so gloomy.

You see, we were born of people

who had nothing but contempt for work.

- Exactly.

- They've started lunch already, I'm late.

Dear Irina Sergeievna, my congratulations.

You have so many visitors,
I feel quite embarrassed.

How do you do Baron?

- Is that Natalia Ivanovna,
how do you do my dear.

- Once more, congratulations.

There are so many visitors, I
do feel terribly embarrassed.

- You shouldn't be embarrassed.

It's only old friends.

Dear, a green belt, it's quite wrong.

- Why, is there some
superstition about it?

- No, it's just a little
um, wrong, somehow odd.

- Really?

Well, it's not so very green,
it's rather a tasteful shade.

- Do bring her in.

(guest laughing and chattering)

- May I introduce Natalia
Ivanovna, Colonel Vershinin.

- How do you do?

- I'm very happy to meet you.

- Bonjour.

- I wish you a nice future husband Irina.

Time for you to marry.

- Natalia Ivanovna, I
wish you a fiance too.

- Natalia Ivanovna
already has a fiance eh?

(guest laughing and chattering)

- I'm going to drink some wine.

- [Kuligin] Good for
you Masha, my darling.

- To our jolly life.

(speaking in foreign language)

- Come what may.

(Ivan laughing)

- Come on.

- You get a bad mark for conduct.

- Well.

(guest laughing and chattering)

- This is delicious,
what is it flavored with?

- Cockroaches.

- (laughs) That's disgusting.

- We are having roast turkey
and apple pie for supper.

Thank God I was home all day.

In the evening too, please
all come this evening.

- May I come too?

- Oh please do Colonel.

- They're not fussy in this house.

♫ For nature has created
us for love, for love

- Oh stop all this.

Aren't you tired of all of it?

- They're lunching already.

- Oh lunch, this is splendid.

(guest clapping and chattering)

- Everyone look this way please.

Everybody look this way.

Thank you.

One more please.

Thank you.

Irina a second.

- Quite splendid,

I've been walking all
the morning with my boys.

I'm Sportsmaster of schools.

- You may move it in a
second, and you may move.

You're looking very attractive today.

I bought a musical top
for you, by the way.

It makes a wonderful
sound, listen everyone.

Listen to this.

(light organ music)

(guests gasping)

- [Kuligin] Oh, I've never
heard one with three cords.

- Shh shh shh.

- A green oak tree beside the main,

and on that oak, a golden chain.

Why do I keep saying that?

It's been going through
my mind all the morning.

- The wise old cat to be detached,

goes round and round, is it bewitched?

(guests laughing)

- [Rode] We are 13 at the table.

- Do you really attach any
accord with that superstition.

(guests laughing and chattering)

- If there are 13 at the table,

it means that somebody is in doubt.

Would it be you Ivan Romanitch?

Don't be, sir.

- I know I'm an old sinner,

but why Natalia Ivanovna has blushed,

that I can not understand.

(guest laughing)

- Wait, please, please, wait.

- I feel so ashamed.

What's happening, they're all teasing me.

I know it's bad manners
to get from the table

as I did just now, but I can't--

- No please my dearest,

I beg you, I implore you, don't be upset.

I assure you, they're only joking.

They're teasing you in a
perfectly good natured way.

Oh my dearest, my sweet one,
they're all good, kind people.

They're fond of both of us.

Come with me here,
where they can't see us.

- I'm so unaccustomed
to social gatherings.

- Youth, wonderful, beautiful youth.

Oh my dearest, my sweet
one, please don't be upset.

Believe me, believe me.

I feel so happy.

My soul is full of love, of ectasy.

They don't see us, they can't.

Why, oh why did I fall in love with you

when I did (chuckles).

I can't understand anything.

My dearest, my darling, my pure one.

Be my wife?

I love you.

I love you as I've never loved before.

- What've they been up too, prepare.

(guests shouting and clapping)

- [Kuligin] Here they come, what, what?

(guests laughing and chattering loudly)

(xylophone chords)

(wind howling)

(knocking on door)

- [Natalia] Andriuska,
what're you doing Andriuska?

It's nothing.

I just wanted see there
were no unnecessary lights.

- [Andrei] What is it Natasha?

- I was just seeing about the lights.

It's carnival week.

The servants are all in a state,

so I've got to keep one's eyes open

to see that nothing happens.

Well, last night at midnight,

I was going through the dining room,

and there was a candle,
a light on the table.

I couldn't even get anyone
to tell me who did it.

What is the time?

- Quarter past eight.

- Oh my, neither Olga
or Irina are home yet.

They aren't back from work.

Driving themselves hard, the poor girls.

Olga at the teachers meeting,
Irina the telegraph office.

Well, this morning, I said to your sister,

"Take care of yourself Irina darling."

But she won't listen.

You said it's a quarter past eight?

- Yes.

- I'm afraid Bobik is not at all well.

Why is he so cold?

Yesterday he had a temperature,

and today he's icy cold from head to foot.

I'm so afraid.

- It's nothing Natasha,
the boy's all right.

- Still, it's better
that he stays on a diet.

I'm afraid for him.

Also, they told me that
some of the carnival people

are coming here at about 10.

It's better that they
shouldn't come Andriuska.

- I don't think I can
do anything about it.

They were invited, after all.

- (laughs) The child woke up this morning,

looked at me, and suddenly smiled.

He must've recognized me.

I said to him,

"Good morning Bobik, good
morning my little boy."

and he kept on smiling,

but children understand.

I assure you they understand perfectly,

so I'll go and tell the servants

that the carnival people
shouldn't be allowed in.

- That is for the sisters to decide.

They are the mistresses here, after all.

- I'll tell them too, they're kind.

I ordered some sour milk for supper.

The doctor says you're to
eat nothing but sour milk,

or you'll never get thinner.

Bobik feels so cold.

I'm afraid he may be too cold in his room.

He ought to be moved into another room,

at least until the warm
weather settles in.

For instance, Irina's room.

Oh, now that's just right for a child.

It's dry and sunny all day long.

I must tell her.

She can sleep for a time
in the same room as Olga.

Anyway, she's never at home
during the day, only at night.

Andriuska darling, why
don't you say something?

- I was thinking about something.

Anyway, what is there to say?

- Yes.

Oh, what was it I wanted to tell you?

Oh yes, Ferrapont, he's come
from the council office,

and wants to see you.

- Tell him to come in.

Good evening old fellow.

What have you got for me?

- Chairman sent a book,
and a paper of some kind.

Here it is.

- Thank you.

Why do you come so late?

It's past eight o'clock.

- What did you say?

- I said you're late!

It's gone eight.

- Oh yes sir, I came
when it was still light,

but they wouldn't let me in.

The Master's busy they said.

Well, if he's busy, he's
busy, I said, I'm in no hurry.

What did you say?

- Nothing.

It's a holiday tomorrow.

Oh, I'll come into the
office all the same.

I'll find something to do.

Too boring at home.

Dear old man.

Tired, deceptive life for me.

How abruptly it can change.

This morning, because I
had nothing better to do,

out of sheer boredom,
I picked up this book.

My old university lectures.

I couldn't help laugh.

Oh, what a waste.

I'm secretary of the local council.

Protopopov is chairman, I'm the secretary.

All I can hope for is to become
a member of that council.

I who dream every night

that I'm a professor at
the Moscow University.

Famous scientist of whom
my native land is proud.

- Sorry, didn't catch that.

Can't hear very well.

- If you could hear, I probably
wouldn't be talking to you.

I've got to talk to somebody!

My wife doesn't understand me!

But for some reason, I'm
afraid of my sisters.

I'm afraid that they should ridicule me.

Make me feel ashamed.

I don't drink, I loath taverns,

but how happy I would be

to be sitting now in Tyestov's in Moscow,

or the great Moskovsky Hotel, my friend!

- The foreman was telling us

in the Town Hall a few days ago,

that in Moscow, a group of
merchants were eating bleenies,

and one of them had 40 of them,

and was supposed to have died.

(Andrei laughing loudly)

(laughing) It was 40 or
50, I don't remember.

- You sit in a restaurant
in Moscow, a big restaurant,

you know nobody, nobody knows you,

but you don't feel a stranger,

but here, you know everybody,
everybody knows you,

but you don't belong.

No, no, I'm lonely and you don't belong.

- [Ferrapont] What was that?

- Oh nothing.

- The same foreman said,

"Maybe you would like
that an enormous rope

"is stretched right across Moscow."

- A rope, what for?

- I don't know sir.

That's what the foreman said.

- It's rubbish.

Have you ever been to Moscow?

- No I haven't, God didn't grant it.

(doorbell ringing)

May I go sir?

- Oh yes, yes, you may go, keep well.

You'll come to collect
these papers in the morning.

You must go now.

Hmm, he's gone.

(doorbell ringing)

What a life, yes, what a life.

- I don't know, I don't know.

I suppose a lot depends on habit.

For instance, for a long
time after Father's death,

we couldn't get used to
not having orderlies,

but no, I don't think it is habit.

I believe I'm stating a simple fact.

Maybe they're different in other places,

but in this town,

the most decent, educated,

civilized people are the military.

I was only 18 when I was married.

I was afraid of my husband.

He was a schoolmaster,

and I'd only just finished
high school myself.

He seemed to be then,
so terribly educated,

intelligent, important.

Alas, it isn't the same now.

- I see.

- Oh, I'm not really
talking about my husband.

I've got used to him,

but among civilians in general,

there are so many offensive,
uneducated people.

I'm upset, I feel insulted by vulgarity.

I suffer when I find that a man

hasn't sufficient subtlety,
gentleness, courtesy.

When I'm with my husband's
colleagues, I really suffer.

- Yes.

I really am very thirsty, I
would love a glass of tea.

- It'll be served presently.

- High flown ideas, how very
characteristic of the Russian,

but tell me, why does he
aim so low in life, why?

- Why?

- Why is he always unhappy
with his wife and children?

Why is his wife and
children unhappy with him?

- You sound rather depressed today.

- Maybe,

but I haven't eaten
anything since this morning.

My daughter is unwell,

and when my girls are unwell,

I'm overcome with anxiety,
eaten up with remorse,

because they have such a mother.

Oh, if you could've seen her this morning.

What a mediocre person she is.

We began to quarrel at seven o'clock.

At nine I banged the door and went away.

I never talk about it,

but it is strange that it is
only to you I can complain.

Don't be angry with me.

I have no one in the
world except you, no one.

- What a noise this stove makes.

Shortly before my father died,

the wind howled in the
chimney just like that.

- Are are superstitious?

- Yes.

- That is strange.

You are a remarkable, a wonderful woman.

Yes, remarkable, wonderful.

It is dark here,

but I can see your eyes shining.

- And there's more light here.

- I love.

I love.

I love.

I love your eyes, the way you move,

which I see in my dreams.

A wonderful, remarkable woman.

- (giggles) When you
say such things to me,

I can't help laughing, I don't know why,

even though I'm frightened.

Don't say it again, I beg of you.

Oh never mind, go on, say it again.

What does it matter?

What difference does it make?

(Baron and Irina chattering)

There's somebody coming,
talk about something else.

- People always think that I'm German,

and I don't really know why.

Possibly it's my name,
I have a triple surname.

It is Tusenbach-Krone-Altschauer,

but I am Russian.

Orthodox like yourself.

There's very little German left in me.

Possibly only patience,

and the stubbornness
with which I pester you.

I see you home every evening.

- [Irina] How tired I am.

- And I shall come and see
you home from the Post Office

for the next 10 or 20 years,

if you haven't sent me
packing before then.

(upbeat piano music)

It's you.

How are you?

- At least I'm home.

A woman came just before I left

to send a telegram to
her brother in Saratov,

to tell him that her son died today,

and she couldn't remember the address,

so she just sent it off
without one to Saratov.

She was crying,

and for no reason at
all, I was rude to her.

I've no time for you, I said.

So silly of me.

The carnival people are coming tonight?

- Yes.

- [Irina] I want to rest, I'm so tired.

- When you come home from work

you seem such a young,
pathetic, little thing.

- No, I don't like the Post Office.

I don't like it.

- You've grown thin,

and you do look younger too.

Someone how like a boy.

- That's the way she does her hair.

- I must look for another job.

This one doesn't suit me.

Somehow it lacks everything
that I wanted so much.

It's work without poetry,
without any thought behind it.

(cane thudding)

That's the doctor knocking.

Answer him Nicolai Lvovich.

I can't, I'm too tired.

(light piano music)

(heel thudding)

He'll be coming at once.

Yesterday, he and Andrei were at the club,

and again they lost all
their money gambling.

We really must do something about it.

I was told that Andrei
lost two hundred rubles.

- [Masha] What can we do?

- A fortnight ago he lost money.

All that in December.

Oh, I wish he'd hurry up and lose it all.

Perhaps then we could leave this town.

Dear God, I dream of Moscow every night,

as if I'm going mad.

Moving there in June,

and there's still February,
March, April, May,

almost half a year.

- All we can do is to make sure

that Natasha doesn't find out about it.

- [Irina] Oh, I don't think she cares.

- There he is.

Has he paid his rent?

- [Irina] (chuckles) No, not a penny

for the last eight months.

- How common does he look sitting there?

(all laughing)

- Why are you so silent
Alexandr Ignatievich?

- I don't know.

I want some tea.

♫ Half a kingdom for a glass of tea

I haven't eaten anything
since this morning.

- [Ivan] Irina Sergeievna.

- What is it?

- [Ivan] Come over here.

(speaking in foreign language)

I can't be without you.

(light piano music)

- [Alexandr] Well, if
we are to have any tea,

let's philosophize.

- Yes let's, what about?

- What about?

Well, the life that will come after us

in two or three hundred years.

- After us, men will
fly about in balloons,

and suits will be cut
in a different fashion.

Yes, perhaps the sixth sense

will be discovered and developed,

but life will be the
same as it's always been.

A hard life.

Full of mystery and happiness,

and even in a thousand years,

man will still go on sighing,
oh, how hard life can be,

and at the same time, just as now,

he will be afraid of death.

He won't want to die.

- Let me think.

If you ask me,

everything will gradually
change on this earth,

and is already changing before our eyes.

In two or three hundred
years or even a thousand,

it doesn't really matter how long.

A new happy life will be established,

but of course, we won't be part of it,

but we do live for it now.

Work, yes, and suffer, building it up,

and this alone is the
aim of our existence.

Happiness will be the
reward of our descendants.

(Masha laughs)

- [Baron] What's the matter?

- I don't know.

I've been laughing like
that since this morning.

- According to you,

one shouldn't even dream of happiness,

but what if I am happy?

- No!

- (laughs) It's perfectly clear

that we don't understand one another.

Now, how can I convince you?

(Masha laughing loudly)

Go on, laugh,

but not in two or three hundred years,

but even in a million years,

life will be the same as it's always been.

It doesn't change, it's constant.

It follows it's own rules,

which don't concern us,

or which each we will ever learn about.

- All the same, the meaning?

- The meaning?

Look, it's snowing.

What's the meaning of that?

- One must know what one is living for.

Otherwise, everything is nonsense.

It's not worth a stroke.

(Baron laughing)

- All the same, it is a
pity that youth has gone by.

(Baron laughing loudly)

- Gogol said how tedious it is

to live in this world my friends.

- (laughs) I say, what a task it is

to argue with you my friends.

To hell with you.

- [Ivan] Balzac was married in Berdychiv.

Hmm, I must put that down in my book.

Balzac was married in Berdytchev.

- Balzac was married in Berdytchev.

- [Baron] The die is cast.

Did you know Maria Sergeievna,

I've handed in my resignation.

- I heard about it.

I don't see that any good can come of it.

I don't like civilians.

- Oh, never mind, I'm
not even good looking.

What sort of soldier do I make?

(snickers) Well, never
mind anyway, I'll work.

I'll work at least one day in my life,

so that I can come home in the evening,

and drop into bed exhausted,
fall asleep at once.

Workmen probably sleep like logs.

- I've just bought you these crayons

from Pyzhikov's in the Moscofskyr.

and this little penknife.

- (giggles) Still treat
me like a little girl,

but I'm grown up, you know.

Charming.

- I also bought one for myself.

Look at it.

It has one blade, and another,

and it has one for cleaning your ears,

another for cleaning your nails.

- [Vassili] Doctor, how old are you?

- Me, 32.

I'll show you another page
when your finished this.

- Heavens, what a wind.

- (chuckles) Yes, I'm tired of the winter.

I've almost forgotten
what summer was like.

- Masha my dear, come and have your tea.

- [Masha] Oh, bring it here
Nyanya, I won't go there.

- Please Your Honor, forgive me sir.

I've forgotten your name.

- [Natalia] Nyanya.

- [Nyanya] Coming.

- Breast fed babies understand everything.

I say to him,

"Good morning Bobik, good
morning my little boy."

He looks at me in a special way.

(giggles) Oh, you probably think

that it is the mother in me speaking,

but no, no, I assure you,
he is a remarkable child.

- If that child were mine,

I would have it grilled
in a pan and eat it.

(all chuckling)

- Such a rude, uneducated man.

- Happy people don't notice
whether it's summer or winter.

If I lived in Moscow,

I wouldn't care what the weather was like.

- I've been reading recently,

the diary of a French cabinet
minister, written in prison.

He had been found guilty
in the Panama Canal affair.

With what ectasy and delight
he speaks of the birds,

which he sees from his cell window,

to which he never noticed before.

(Masha giggles)

Now of course, being free once more,

he doesn't notice the birds,

in the same way you won't
notice Moscow when you live it.

We have no happiness,
and won't ever have any.

All we do is wish for it.

- [Baron] Where are the sweets?

- [Irina] Solloni ate them all.

- [Baron] But all of them?

- A letter for you sir.

- From my daughter.

Yes, of course.

Forgive me Maria Sergeievna
if I slip away quietly.

I won't stay for tea.

These eternal dramas.

- What is it?

May I know?

- My wife has tried to take poison again.

I'll go without disturbing anyone.

It's all so dreadfully unpleasant.

My dearest, wonderful, wonderful woman.

I'll slip away quietly.

- Now where's he gone,
just as I brought the tea.

What a strange man.

- Oh get out of the way,
and stop pestering me!

I'm sick to death of
you, you old nuisance.

- [Nyanya] Oh, what are you
so touchy about Mashinka?

- Oh come on, let somebody sit down!

Spreading the cards all over
the table, it's teatime!

- [Irina] You're a spitfire Masha.

- Well, if I'm a spitfire,

don't talk to me, and don't touch me!

- Don't touch her, don't touch her!

- Oh you, you're sick.

You babble away like a little schoolboy!

Nobody ever knows what the
hell you're talking about!

- Oh, Masha dear, why
use such expressions?

With your beautiful appearance,

you could be, if I may say so,

quite fascinating and decent society,

if it were not for your
manner of speaking.

(speaking in foreign language)

- (laughing) Ah, maybe
there's some more brandy.

(speaking in foreign language)

(Baron laughing)

- He's awake!

He's not been very well today.

I shall go to him.

- [Irina] Where did the Colonel go?

- He's gone home.

He's got some peculiar
trouble with his wife again.

- Let's make peace, shall we?

Let's have some brandy, hmm?

I shall probably have to
play the piano all night.

Nothing but rubbish, I expect--

- Now why make peace, I
never quarreled with you?

- You always give the impression

there's something wrong between us.

You have a strange nature, I must admit.

- I may be strange, but who is not?

- Aleko can't be wrong, Pushkin.

- Yes, yes.

What's Aleko go to do with it?

(both laugh)

- I'm all right when
I'm alone with someone.

I'm just like everybody else,

but as soon as there's a crowd around me,

I'm gloomy, shy, and I
talk absolute rubbish.

All the same, I'm more honest
and straightforward than most,

and I can prove it.

- I'm often cross with you.

You will keep pestering me

when we're no fun to the others.

For all that, for some
reason I, I like you.

Mm, I'm gonna get drunk tonight,

let's have some more brandy, shall we?

- Well, let's.

I never had anything against you Baron,

but I have the nature of Lermontov.

Well, people say I'm even
a little like Lermontov.

Curt, a duelist.

- I've handed in my resignation.

(laughs) Basta, I've
been hesitating about it

for five years and now I made up my mind.

I'm going to work.

- Aleko, can't be wrong.

- I am going to work.

- Forget your dreams.

- The meal, was it too Caucasian style?

Onion soup followed by
tchehartma as a meat dish.

- Tchehartma isn't meat, it's
a vegetable like an onion.

- No my angel, tchehartma is not an onion,

it's a meat like our mutton.

- And I tell you that tchehartma is onion.

- And I tell you that
tchehartma is mutton.

- And I tell you that tchehartma is onion.

- What's the point of arguing with you.

You've never been to the Caucasus,

and you've never eaten tchehartma!

- I haven't eaten it because I dislike it.

It stinks that tchehartma just like onion.

- (laughs) Stop it gentlemen.

Please, I beg of you.

What time are the carnival people coming?

- They promised about nine,
they should be here in a minute.

- Oh my porch.

- My porch, my lovely
porch, lattice, oh my porch.

- Made of maple wood, my
floors and lattice work.

- Lattice and lattice, oh my porch.

- Oh my porch.

♫ Oh my porch, I love my porch

♫ My new, my lovely porch

♫ Made of maple wood, my porch

♫ Yes, and lattice on my porch, hey

- Damn it all Andrei, let's get drunk.

Let's drink to brotherhood,

and off we go together
to The Moscow University.

- Which one?

There are two.

- No, there is only one
university in Moscow.

- I tell you there are two.

- Well, I don't care if there
are three, all the better.

- There are two Moscow universities.

The old and the new,

and if my words ever take you,

if you don't wish to listen to me,

I can remain silent.

I can even go to another room.

- Bravo, bravo!

Oh come on my friend, I'm
going to play, you can start.

What a funny, old devil that Solloni is.

- The Golden Loop, give way to my lady.

("Vienna Waltz")
(guest humming and chattering)

- Stop it!

Keep the noise down!

Didn't I tell you he was ill!

("Vienna Waltz")
(guest humming and chattering)

Stop this please!

Ivan, Ivan Romanitch!

Will you please!

("Vienna Waltz")
(guest humming and chattering)

- [Ivan] All right, all right, all right!

All right, please, please!

- [Irina] What is it?

- It's time to go home.

Goodbye.

- It's time to go.

Eh, goodnight.

- [Irina] Well, wait a minute,

what about the carnival people?

- There won't be any.

You see, my dear Natasha
says that Bobik is not well.

- Not well?

- [Andrei] Well, I don't
really know and I don't care!

- [Ivan] Andrei, Andrei.

- [Irina] Bobik is not well.

- Oh, what does it matter?

If we're being thrown
out, we may as well go.

It isn't Bobik who's not
well, it's she, here.

Little bourgeois.

- What a shame, I was looking
forward to this evening,

but still, if the little baby's not well.

Tomorrow I'll bring him some toys.

- Hey, I purposely had
a good nap after dinner,

thinking I'd be dancing all
night, it's not even nine.

- Oh, let's get out of this house.

- Yes, it's not even nine o'clock.

- Let's get outside.

We can make up our minds
what to do after that.

- [Andrei] Where are we going?

- I don't really know my dear boy.

Of course, I don't know about marriage,

because life, shh, flashed
by like lightening.

Also, because I was,

most desperately in love with your mother,

who, after all, was married.

- One should never marry.

One shouldn't, because it is so boring.

- (chuckles) That is so, of course.

On the other hand, there's the loneliness.

You can say what you like my dear boy,

but loneliness is a terrible thing.

Although, if really makes
much difference, one can--

- Come on, let's go.

- What's the hurry,
we've got plenty of time.

- My wife might stop me.

I won't play tonight.

I'll just sit and watch.

I don't feel very well.

What should I do for
breathlessness, Ivan Romanitch?

- Good boy, why ask me.

I don't know, I don't remember.

(doorbell ringing)

- Let's go to the kitchen.

- The carnival people are here.

- Nyanya, say that there's no one at home.

Apologize.

- [Vassili] No one here?

Where have they gone?

- Gone home.

- [Vassili] It's kind of strange.

Are you here alone?

- Yes.

Goodnight.

- I behaved in a tactless
and stupid way a moment ago,

but you aren't like the others.

You're pure and above them.

You're aware of truth.

You alone can understand me.

I love, I love infinitely and deeply.

- Goodnight, I'm going to bed.

- I can't live without you.

My goddess, my happiness,

who's wonderful, beautiful,
incredibly beautiful eyes,

as I've never seen such
eyes on a woman before.

- [Irina] Stop Vassili Vassilich.

- If this is the first time
I've spoken to you of my love,

I feel as though I were on another planet.

Not on this earth.

Oh, never mind.

You can't force love of course,

but I will not tolerate successful rivals,

I will not, I swear on all that's holy,

I will kill any rival.

Oh my goddess.

(heels thudding)

- Andrei still in there?

I'll let him go on reading.

Oh, forgive me Vassili Vassilich.

I didn't know you were still there.

I'm not suitably dressed.

- I don't care, goodnight.

- You're tired?

Oh my darling, little girl,
you should go to bed early.

- Is Bobik asleep?

- Yes, oh but he's restless.

Oh by the way dear, I've
been meaning to speak to you,

but either you're not
here, or else I'm busy.

I think that Bobik's present
room is cold and damp,

and your room is so suitable for a child.

Dearest, couldn't you move over to Olga's?

- Where?

- You'll share Olga's room for a time,

and I'll take your room for Bobik.

(chuckles) Oh, he's such a sweet child.

I said to him today,
"Bobik, you're mine, mine."

and he sat staring up at
me with his little peepers.

(doorbell ringing)

Oh, Olga probably, how late, hmm.

What of Protopopov?

But.

How odd.

Protopopov has come,

and asks if I'll go for a
ride with him in the troika.

(giggles) Oh, what strange
creatures these men are.

(doorbell ringing)

There's someone else at the door.

Well, maybe I should go for
quarter of an hours drive.

Tell him I'll be down in a moment.

(doorbell ringing)

There is someone at the door.

(chuckles) Olga, probably.

- Well, what does this mean?

They said they were going to have a party.

- Very strange, I left
not half an hour ago,

and they were expecting some
people from the carnival.

- Everybody's gone.

- Masha too?

Well, where did she go?

Why is Protopopov waiting
downstairs in the troika?

Well, who is he waiting for?

- Stop asking me questions, I'm tired.

- You're being very difficult.

- Teachers meeting's only just ended.

I'm exhausted.

Our Headmistress is ill, and
I have to take her place.

Oh, my head aches.

My poor head.

Andrei lost 200 rubles
at cards last night.

The whole town's talking about it.

- Yes, I got tired at the meeting too.

- My wife took it into her
head to frighten me just now.

She almost died of poisoning.

Now it's all over and
I'm happy, well relieved.

Must we really go?

Well, let me wish you goodnight.

Feodor Ilyich, let's
go together somewhere.

I, I can't go back home
now, I really can't.

Let's go.

- I'm too tired, no I can't go out.

My wife has gone home?

- [Irina] Probably.

- Goodnight.

Well, tomorrow and the day
after will be days of rest.

All the best.

I want some tea very badly.

I had counted on a pleasant evening.

(speaking in foreign language)

The accusative case and an exclamation.

- Well, I'll go by myself then.

Goodnight.

(Alexandr whistling)

- Oh my head aches, my poor head.

Andrei's lost his money.

The whole town's talking about it.

I'm going to bed.

Tomorrow I've got the day off.

God, how wonderful that is,

free tomorrow, free the day after.

Oh my head, my poor head.

- Everybody's gone,
there's nobody left here.

- I'll be home in half an hour.

Just going for a little drive.

(xylophone chords)

- To Moscow.

(xylophone chords)

To Moscow.

(xylophone chord)

To Moscow.

(xylophone chords)

(bells tolling)

- You know, they're sitting
below, under the stairs.

I told them please go upstairs.

You can't go on like that, I said,

but they just go on crying.

In the yard, there are more
people, aren't dressed.

- Oh don't, take all of them.

There are several
scarves and even dresses.

What a disaster, my God.

Kirsanovsky Street must've
been completely destroyed.

This, that, oh, and this.

The poor Vershinin's had a fright.

They're house had a narrow escape.

Let them spend the night here.

You can't let them go back home.

Poor Fedotik's belongings have
all been burnt, nothing left.

- Call Ferrapont.

- Come here somebody.

Whoever is, ah, Ferrapont.

Take these and carry them downstairs.

Those young Kolotilin girls
are standing under the stairs,

give them to them, and this too.

- [Ferrapont] Yes, Lady.

In 1812, Moscow was burning.

Got to imagine the French
were taken by surprise.

- Go, please go.

- [Ferrapont] Yes, Lady.

- Oh Nyanya, give everything away.

We don't need anything,
give everything away.

Oh, I'm tired, I can
hardly stand on my feet.

Oh, now the Vershinin's mustn't go home.

The girls can sleep in the spare room,

and uh Alexandr Ignatievitch,
downstairs with the Baron.

Fedotik can go there too,

or else he can sleep in the ballroom.

On top of everything
else, the Doctor is drunk.

Very drunk indeed, and nobody
can be put into his room.

Vershinin's wife can go in
the spare room with the girls.

- Olga, my dearest, don't tell me to go.

Don't send me away.

- Don't talk nonsense Nyanya,
who's telling you to go?

- My dearest, my golden one.

I work hard.

When I'm unable to work
anymore, then tell me go.

Are you see that I go, right away.

I'm over 80 you know.

I'm in my 80s, second year.

- Now, you just sit there
quietly, and don't cry.

You're tired my poor soul.

You have a good rest.

How pale you are.

- They're already talking
of organizing a fund

to help the victims of the fire.

Well, it's a splendid idea.

The poor should be helped.

They're in urgent need of it.

It's the duty of the rich.

Bobik and Sophie are fast
asleep as if nothing's happened.

The house is so full of people.

Crowds of them wherever you go.

You can't see the fire from this room.

It's quiet here.

There's an epidemic of
influenza in the town.

I'm afraid the children might catch it.

I must be quite disheveled.

People say I've got fatter.

It isn't true.

It isn't true at all.

Oh, Masha's asleep.

Tire out, the poor girl.

(Nyanya whimpers)

How dare you sit down in front of me!

Get up!

Leave the room!

Why you keep that old woman
here, I don't understand.

- [Olga] Forgive me, but
I also don't understand.

- Well, she's only a peasant.

She ought to be living in the country.

She's quite useless here.

You're spoiling her.

I like order in the house.

No idlers here.

You're tired my darling?

Our Headmistress is tired?

When my Sophie grows up,

and goes to your school,
I'll be afraid of you.

- I'll never be Headmistress.

- Oh, you'll be elected, all
that's as good as settled.

- No, I shall refuse, I can't,
it's beyond my strength.

(Natalia scoffs)

You were so rude to
Nyanya just now (cries).

Forgive me, but really, I'm
quite unable to bear it.

I feel quite faint.

- Forgive me, Olga.

Forgive me, I didn't want to upset you.

- You must try and understand, my dear.

We have been brought up in
a strange fashion perhaps,

but I simply can't bear it.

- Will you ever forgive me?

Oh my dearest, please.

- That kind of behavior upsets
me terribly, it makes me ill.

I collapse completely at
the slightest rudeness,

even an indelicate word.

- Well, I know I often
say the wrong thing,

but you must admit my dear,

she could very well live in the country.

- She's been with us for 30 years.

- But she can't work anymore now.

- Oh!

- Either I don't understand you,

or else you don't want to understand me.

She is incapable of work.

She merely sleeps or sits about.

- Let her sit about!

- What do you mean, let her sit about?

She's a servant, isn't she?

- Oh, don't say that!

- Oh, I do no understand you Olga!

I have a nurse, a wet nurse, a cook,

a housemaid, a serving maid.

What do we want this
old woman for, what for?

- I've aged 10 years tonight.

- We must come to an agreement Olga.

You're at the school, I'm at home.

You teach your lessons, I run the house,

and if I say something about the servants,

I know what I am saying!

I know what I am saying,

and I don't want that old
thing, that old witch,

that old whiner in this
house for another day,

and don't you dare to undertake me!

Don't you dare!

(Olga cries)

We are done.

If you don't move downstairs,

we shall always be quarreling.

It's quite dreadful.

- Where's Masha?

Time to go home.

This fire is dying down.

Only one street has been burned down,

but to begin with it
looked as if the whole town

was on fire with this wind.

Oh, I'm tired Olga dear.

I often think, if it were not for Masha,

I'd have married you
Olechka, you're very sweet.

Oh, I'm tired.

(door thuds)

- What is it?

- The Doctor would chose this night

to have one of his drinking bouts.

He's dreadfully drunk.

You'd think he did it on purpose.

Oh, he's coming her I
think, can you hear him?

(Ivan mumbling)

Yes, he's on his way.

- He hasn't been drinking for two years,

and now he suddenly goes and gets drunk.

- Oh, what a rascal really.

I'm going to hide.

An absolute rogue.

(Ivan mumbling)

- They think because I'm a doctor,

I can cure any illness.

In fact, I know nothing, horribly nothing.

Forgotten it all.

I remember nothing now.

I remember nothing now.

Really, nothing.

Oh, damn it to hell.

Last Wednesday, I treated a
woman at Zaraysk, and she died.

I bear the guilt for her death.

Yes, about 25 years ago,
I used to know something.

I remember nothing now, nothing.

Maybe I'm not a man at all.

I just pretend that I
have arms, legs, a head.

Maybe I don't exist at all.

Imagine that I eat, sleep, walk about.

(cries) If only I didn't exist!

(Ivan crying)

What the devil!

Last evening in the club,

they were talking about um,

Shakespeare and Voltaire.

I never read either of them.

All lies, but I looked as though I had.

The others did the same.

How low can one get?

How despicable can one be?

Then I thought of the woman I killed.

It all came over me, I felt
such a swine, such a scoundrel.

Went out and got drunk!

- [Irina] Let's sit in here,
but nobody will come in.

- The whole town would've burned down,

if it hadn't been for the soldiers.

What a fine lot they are, fine.

- [Ivan] Excellent lot.

- [Kuligin] What time is it gentlemen?

- Past three, dawn's breaking.

- Everybody's sitting in the ballroom.

Nobody is leaving.

Your Solloni is also there.

Why don't you go to bed Doctor.

- [Ivan] I'm all right.

- There you go.

- A few too many, eh, Ivan Romanitch?

Good for you.

(speaking in foreign language)

As they used to say.

- They're asking me to organize a concert

in aid of the victims.

- Who would you get to play?

- We could do it, if we wanted to.

Maria Sergeievna plays the piano
beautifully, in my opinion.

- She does.

- Uh huh.

Three whole years since
she's played serious.

- Well, in this town, nobody
understands music, not a soul,

but I do understand it,

and you can take my word for it,

Maria Sergeievna plays wonderfully.

Almost like a professional.

- You're right Baron,
I love Masha very much,

she's a dear girl.

- To be able to play like that,

and realize at the same time
that nobody appreciates you.

- Yes, but would it be
quite proper for her

to take part in a concert.

Oh, I know nothing about
such things gentlemen.

Maybe it would be a good thing.

I must confess, our director,
who is a very good man indeed,

has certain views that is
not his business of course,

but all the same,

if you'd like, I'll have a word with him.

- I got myself in a
dreadful mess at the fire.

I look like nothing on earth.

May I, thank you.

Yesterday I, I heard a rumor

that our brigade was to be
transferred somewhere far away.

Someplace far, some to Chita, Siberia.

- Yes, I heard that too.

Well, in that case, the
town will become a desert.

- We'll go away too.

(glass crashing)
(Ivan gasps)

- To break such a valuable piece.

Ivan Romanitch, Ivan Romanitch,

you get the blackest of marks for conduct.

- It belonged to Mama.

- (laughs) Maybe, if it was
your Mama's, it was you Mama's!

Maybe I didn't break it at
all, it only seems that I had,

and maybe it only seems
to us that we exist.

In fact, we don't.

I know nothing, nobody knows anything.

What are you all staring at me for?!

Natasha has a lovely, little
affair with Protopopov,

and you don't see it.

You sit there and you see nothing,

while Natasha has an
affair with Protopopov.

♫ For nature has created us for love

How'd you like that little tidbit?

- Yes, how strange it all is.

When the fire started I ran
home as quickly as I could.

As I drew nearer I could see the house

was safe and out of danger,

but my two little girls

were standing at the door
in their underclothes.

Their mother wasn't there.

People were rushing about,

horses and dogs were running loose.

The children had fear,
anxiety, and entreaty,

I don't know what else
written all over their faces.

My heart sank when I saw them.

My God, I thought,

what will those girls have to go through

in the long lives?

I seized hold of them and I ran,

thinking all the time of what
they would have to go through.

When I arrived, their
mother was here already,

shouting, angry.

Forgive me, I'm philosophizing again.

Will you let me to go on?

I want terribly to philosophize.

Such as my mood at the moment.

(bell tolling)

You seem to be asleep, all of you.

So, as I was going to say,

what a life it will be in
two or three hundred years.

Can't you imagine it?

(Masha giggles)

There are three women
like you in this town now,

but in future generations,

there will be more, and more.

(Masha giggles)

The time will come, when
everything will change

from the way you once lived.

People will live in the way you do,

then even you will become obsolete.

(Masha laughs)

People will be born who
will be better than you.

I am really in a special mood today.

Such a tremendous urge to live.

♫ Of all the ages love has mastered

♫ It's power all good what is mastered

(Masha whistling)

(Alexandr whistling)

(Masha whistling)

(Alexandr whistling)

- Burned to ashes (laughs loudly).

All my belongings, burned
to ashes (laughs loudly).

- Has everything of
yours really been burned?

- Oh everything, there's nothing left.

My guitar, my photographs, my letters.

I was going to present
you a little notebook,

but that's been burned too (laughs).

- [Irina] No, Vassili
Vassilich, please go away.

You can't come in here.

- Why can the Baron in and I can't?

- Yes, we must all go.

It's time we went.

How's the fire?

- They say it's dying down.

Yep, it seems to me rather peculiar

that the Baron can come in and I can't.

- Let's go to the ballroom.

- [Fedotik] Very well.

- We'll make a note of it.

To make my meaning yet more clear,

beware of freezing geese,
my dear (imitates chicken).

- Dreadful Solloni, he's
filled the room with smoke.

- Green oak tree beside the main,

and on that oak, a golden chain.

- The Baron's asleep.

Baron, Baron.

- Oh, oh dear, how tired I am.

A brick factory.

No, it's not delirium.

I am going to work in a brick factory.

I've already arranged it all.

Oh, pale one.

How beautiful, fascinating.

Your paleness lights up the dark

like a ray of sunshine.

You're sad, you're dissatisfied with life.

Come away with me, we'll work
together, we'll go which--

- Nikolai Lvovich, go away.

- Oh, I, I didn't see you there.

Yes, I'm, I'm going.

As I look at you now,

I remember your saints day long ago.

How you spoke about the joys of work.

You were so gay, so full of life.

So happy the future seemed to be.

Where is it now?

Your eyes are full of tears.

Go to bed my dearest.

Dawn's breaking, it's light already.

Oh, I'd give my life for you.

- Natalia Lvovich, do go
away, it's time, really.

- Yes, I'm going.

- Are you asleep Feodor?

- What did you say?

- Why don't you go home?

- My dear Masha, my dearest Masha.

- She's tired, do let
her rest awhile Feodor.

- I'm going at once.

My dear wife, my wonderful one.

I love you, my only one.

(speaking in foreign language)

- (laughs) Truly, she is remarkable.

I've been married to you for seven years.

It seems as though it were yesterday.

Word of honor, you really,
you are a remarkable woman.

I'm so content.

I couldn't be more content.

- And I'm so bored, I
couldn't be more bored,

and there's something I
can't stop thinking about.

It keeps hammering away at my brain.

I think it's outrageous.

I mean about Andrei.

He's mortgaged this house,

and his wife has taken all the money.

Surely, the house doesn't
belong only to him.

It belongs to all four of us.

He must know that, if
he's any honest a man.

- Why bring it up Masha,
what does it matter to you?

Andrei is hopelessly in debt.

Well, what can we do about it?

Leave him alone.

- But it is outrageous.

- We are not so poor, you and I.

I work, I teach, I give lessons.

I'm an honest man, a simple man.

(speaking in foreign language)

As they say.

- I don't want anything.

I just can't bear injustice.

Goodnight Feodor.

- You're tired.

Have a little rest, and I'll
sit at home and wait for you.

Sleep well.

I'm so content.

So content.

- Here's how shallow Andrei has become.

He's aged and gone completely insane

since he married that woman.

There was a time when he
was going to be a professor.

Yesterday he was actually boasting,

because of being elected
the local council.

Being a member and
Protopopov as the chairman.

The talk of the town,
everybody laughs at him.

He knows nothing, sees nothing.

See everybody around at the fire,

but he just sits in his
room and pays no attention.

Just plays his violin.

Dreadful, just dreadful,
I can't bear it anymore.

- What's this?

(Irina cries)

Oh, oh, Mama's clock.

- You must send me away,
I mean, throw me out.

Nothing matters anymore.

- What is it, what it it, my dear?

- Well, where is it all going to, where?

God help me, I've forgotten everything.

My head is just the problem.

I don't remember what
Italian is for window.

Ceiling for instance.

I forget everything,
everything, every day even more.

Life slips away, and will
never, never come back,

and we shall never go to Moscow!

I feel that we won't go!

- Dearest, dearest.

- I'm so miserable.

I can't work, I won't work,
I've done enough of it.

Worked for the Post Office,

now I work for the county council,

and I hate and despise
everything to do with it.

Nearly 24 and I worked for
years, my brain is dried up.

Consumed, ugly and old,

and I've gotten no satisfaction out of it.

Time goes by, it's as if I'm
moving further and further

from a real beautiful life,
moving further toward an abyss.

I'm sick of it!

I barely feel I'm alive!

I'll kill myself before--

- [Olga] Don't cry, don't cry my dearest.

I suffer so for you.

- No crying anymore.

I'm not, see.

I'm not crying anymore.

Enough, enough.

- Dearest, if you want my advice,

the advice of a sister, of a friend,

marry the Baron.

You respect him, you know
he's a good man, after all.

He may not be handsome, but
he's so decent, so pure.

People don't have to
marry for love, you know,

but to fulfill a duty.

Well, that's my opinion anyway,

and I would marry without love myself.

Whoever wanted me, I would marry,

as long as he were a decent man.

I'd even marry an old man.

- I kept hoping that
we'd be going to Moscow,

and I'd meet the real one.

Trapped here, trapped here.

It's all turned out to be
nonsense, just foolishness.

- Oh, my dear, my lovely
sister, I understand it all.

When the Baron resigned from the Army,

and came to see you in civilian clothes,

he seemed so ugly, I
started to cry (laughs).

He said to me, "Why are you crying?"

What could I say to him?

But is it but God's will
that he should marry you?

I would be happy.

That's something quite
different, quite different.

- She walks about with that candle,

as though she'd started the fire herself.

- Masha, you're silly.

Of the whole family, you're the silliest.

Forgive me please.

- Oh, I want to confess
my dearest sisters.

I want to confess to you now,

and then never again to anyone ever,

but I'll tell it to you now, I promise.

It is my secret, but you must all know it.

I can't keep it to myself.

I'm in love, in love.

I love that man, and you've just seen him.

Oh, what's the use, why don't I say it.

I love Vershinin.

- Stop it.

I'm not listening anyway.

- Oh, don't be silly Olga.

Well, what can I do?

First he seemed to me so strange,

and I was sorry for him,

and then I fell in love, and I love him.

His voice, everything he says.

His troubles, his two little girls.

- I'd like you to know
that I'm not listening.

You may say all the
foolish things you like.

I'm not listening.

- Oh Olga, I love him.

That is, and must be, my fate, my destiny,

and he loves me.

It's all very frightening,

and it's wrong too, isn't it?

Oh, my dearest sister.

What is to become of us?

How shall we go on living
the rest of our lives?

When you read about in a novel,

it all seems so familiar
and straightforward,

but when you fall in love yourself,

you realize that nobody
knows anything about it,

or that every man must decide for himself.

Oh my sister, my dearest sister,

and now that I've confessed,
I'll say nothing more.

I'll be like Gogol's madman.

Silent, silent.

- What is it you want?

I don't understand.

- Andrei Sergeievitch,
I repeated it 10 times.

In the first place, I'm not
Andrei Sergeievitch to you!

I'm, Your Honor.

- The firemen, Your Honor,

asked to be allowed to go to
the river through the garden.

They've been having to go
round and round all this time.

It's a real misery.

- Yes, very well.

Tell them they can!

How tiresome they are.

Where's Olga?

- What is it?

- I've come to ask you for the
key to the estate cupboard,

I've lost mine.

You do have a key, don't you?!

Dreadful fire.

It seems to be dying down.

Oh, terrible thing that
Ferrapont, he made me so angry,

I said something quite idiotic.

Your Honor, indeed.

(Andrei chuckles)

Why don't you say something Olga?

Oh come on, stop this nonsense!

Sulking like this for no reason.

Masha's here, so is Irina.

Very well, come, let's have
it out, once and for all.

Now what have you got
against me, what is it?

- Don't go on Andrei, let's
talk about it tomorrow.

What a dreadful night.

- Look, there's no reason to get upset.

I'm asking you quite calmly,
what it is you have against me.

Be frank.

(Alexandr whistling)

- Goodnight Olga, God bless you.

Goodnight Irina, sleep well.

Goodbye Andrei, do go away.

Talk about it tomorrow, I'm dead tired.

- Well Andrei, let's
leave it until tomorrow.

Time to go to bed.

- Yes, very well.

No, I'll say what I have
to say and then I'll go.

Now, first of all,

you seem to have something
against Natasha, my wife.

I've been aware of it from
the day we got married.

Natasha is a wonderful, honest person.

Straightforward, full of integrity.

That's my opinion.

I love my wife, and I respect her.

Do you hear me?!

I expect others to respect her too.

(heels thudding)

- Masha is not here?

Where could she be?

It's very strange.

Masha.

- They're not listening to me.

Natasha's a wonderful, honest person.

When I married her, I
thought we would be happy.

Happy, all of us.

Oh God.

My dear, dear sister.

My dearest sister.

Don't believe me!

Don't believe me, don't!

- Where is Masha?

Masha is not here.

Very strange indeed.

(cane thudding)

- [Irina] Olga, who's
knocking on the floor?

- [Olga] The Doctor, he is drunk.

- [Irina] What a restless night.

Olga, have you heard

the brigade are being taken away from us?

They're being transferred far away.

- [Olga] It's only a rumor.

- [Irina] We'll be left quite alone.

Olga?

- Well, what is it?

- Darling dearest, I respect him.

I know what a good man the Baron is.

I'll marry him, I will,

but let's go to Moscow.

I implore you, let's go.

There's nothing better
than Moscow in the world.

Oh, let's go Olga, let's go.

(triumphant music)

(moves into upbeat symphony music)

- [Baron] You're a good lad,

and we've been such good friends.

Once more, goodbye,
goodbye my good fellow.

- [Irina] Au Revoir.

- [Fedotik] Au Revoir, goodbye.

We'll never see one another again.

- Oh, who knows, you've
made me cry now (laughs).

- We'll meet perhaps somewhere, sometime.

- In 10 or 15 years time,
we'll be almost like strangers.

We'll hardly know one another.

Oh, stand still please, for the last time.

- We'll never see one another again,

thank you, thank you for everything.

- [Fedotik] Wait a bit, you ass.

Thank you.

- Come now, we'll meet again,

now write to us, don't fail to write us.

- [Rode] Goodbye trees!

Echo, goodbye echo!

- I wouldn't be surprised if
you got married in Poland.

A polish wife who is a kochany,

and put her arms around you (laughs).

- There's barely an hour
left, before we have to go.

It's only Baron Vassili Vassilich
that travels on the barge.

The rest of us march with the division.

Three batteries today, and three tomorrow.

There will be peace and quiet in the town.

- And a natural boredom.

(all laugh)

- Hey, where is Maria Sergeievna?

- [Kuligin] Oh, Masha's
in the garden somewhere.

Yes, there she is.

- [Fedotik] We must say goodbye to her.

Goodbye, I really must go,
or I'll burst into tears.

We had a wonderful life here.

- Here's a little memento for you.

It's a notebook and a pencil.

I must say goodbye to Maria Sergeievna.

- [Rode] Oh ho!

- [Fedotik] Maria Sergeievna, goodbye.

- [Kuligin] Goodbye.

- They're gone.

- They forgot to say goodbye to me.

- [Irina] What about you?

- Somehow, I forgot too.

Oh well, I'll be seeing them soon.

I go tomorrow.

One more day.

Only one more day.

In a years time I'll retire,

and then I'll come and spend
the rest of my days beside you.

Only one more year
before I get my pension.

I'll come back here,

and I'll change my way of life entirely.

I'll become a quiet, deep,

decorous, well-behaved little person.

(all laugh)

- Yes, it really would be a good idea

to change your ways my dear friend.

- I don't think so.

- Do that won't you?

(Ivan humming)

- Incorrigible, Ivan
Romanitch, incorrigible.

- Should've taken me in hand long ago.

- Feodor shaved off his mustache.

I can't bear to look at him.

- You don't like it?

- I'd give anything in the world

to say what you look like now,

but I can't.

- Well, it's the fashion.

Modus vivendi, you know.

Our director shaved his mustache,

and I did the same when
I became the Inspector.

Nobody likes it, but it's all
the same to me, I'm contented.

With or without a mustache,
I'm equally contented.

- Ivan Romanitch, my dear old
friend, I'm terribly worried.

You were in the square last
night, what happened there?

- What happened, I don't
know, nothing, eh nothing,

mere nonsense, eh, it doesn't matter.

- Well, the story goes,

it was Vassili Vassilich and the Baron

met yesterday in front
of the theater and--

- Stop it please.

(scoffs) Really, what's the use?

- In front of the theater,

Vassili Vassilich started
to pester the Baron.

Who in turn, lost his temper,
and said something insulting.

- I don't know anything
about it, it's rubbish!

- In class one day,

a teacher scribbled rubbish
on a pupils composition,

and the pupil couldn't read it,

and thought it was a Greek
word (laughs loudly).

That's funny isn't it?

- [Ivan] Yes.

- They say that Vassili
Vassilich is in love with Irina,

and has taken a dislike to the Baron.

It's very understandable.

Irina's a good girl, she's
even a little like Masha.

Always wrapped in thought.

Only, you have a softer nature, Irina.

Masha too, has a nice disposition.

I love Masha.

(guns firing)

(men shouting)

- Everything frightens me today.

If only you knew how hard it is has been

for me to live here alone without Olga.

Now that she's the Headmistress
living at the school,

I hardly ever see her,

and I've been here alone,
bored, nothing to do.

Hating my life.

My packing's finished.

After dinner, I'm sending away my luggage.

Tomorrow, the Baron and
I are getting married,

and immediately afterwards, the same day,

we leave for the brick factory.

The very next, I start
working the school there.

So the new life begins, God help me.

When I got my teaching
diploma, I cried with joy.

The cart for the luggage
should be here any minute.

- Well, that sounds very fine,

but somehow, not very convincing.

Too many ideas, too
little real seriousness.

Though, of course, I wish you luck.

- My good girl.

My darling, my dearest.

You've grown so far ahead of me.

I'll never catch up with you.

Left behind like a migrating bird,

who's grown old, and can't fly any longer.

Fly my darling.

Fly away, go on.

Shouldn't have shaved off
your mustache, Feodor Ilyich!

- That's enough (laughs).

The military will go today,

and everything will be as before.

Whatever you may say, Masha
is a good, honest woman.

I love her very much, and
I'm happy with my lot.

People have such different fates.

There's an excise clerk
here, a certain Kozirev,

he went to school with me.

He was expelled in his fifth year,

because he was unable to
understand ut consecutivum.

He's dreadfully poor now, sick man.

When I meet him, I always say to him,

"Hello, ut consecutivum."

As he replies, "Precisely, consecutivum."

Then starts coughing.

Where as, I've been lucky
all my life, I'm happy.

I've even been given the
order of Stanislav 2nd Class,

and am now teaching others
that same old ut consecutivum.

I'm an intelligent man, of course,

far more so than many others,

but happiness does not
line merely in that.

- After tomorrow night,

I shan't being hearing that
Maiden's Prayer anymore.

I will not be meeting Protopopov either.

Protopopov, by the way, is
sitting in the drawing room.

He's come again today.

- The Headmistress.

- [Kuligin] The Headmistress
has arrived, let's go.

(guests laughing and chattering)

(Ivan humming)

- Oh here you are my dear,
taking it easy as usual.

- Why not.

- Oh, no reason at all.

You loved my mother, didn't you?

- Yes, I did.

- And did she love you?

- Don't remember.

- Is my man here?

We used to have a cook, Marfa,

who always called her policeman, my man.

Is he here?

- Not yet.

- When you grasp at happiness in snatches,

little pieces and then lose it as I do.

You gradually find yourself

becoming hardened and evil tempered.

There's something boiling inside me here.

There's Andrei, a fine little brother.

All hope for him is lost.

Once upon a time, a crowd of people

were hauling up a huge church bell.

It cost them a great
deal of labor and money,

then suddenly it fell,
and broke into pieces.

Suddenly, without any rhyme or reason.

It's the same with Andrei.

(guests laughing and chattering)

- What's that noise everywhere?

When oh when will we have
some peace in this house?

- Very soon.

My watch is an old fashioned thing,

strikes the hour, listen.

(watch chiming)

Now wait a minute.

(watch chiming)

(Ivan laughs)

The first, second, and fifth battery

leave punctually at one, after tomorrow.

- [Andrei] Forever?

- No, I'll come back in a year.

Double take, it's all the same really.

- The town will be quite deserted.

Like a shroud has been pulled over it.

Something happened yesterday,
outside the theater.

- No, no.

- Everybody's talking about
it, I don't know what it was.

- No, it's sheer, sheer nonsense.

Vassili Vassilich started
to goad the Baron,

until finally, the Baron lost
his temper and insulted him.

Upon which, of course,

Vassili Vassilich promptly
challenged him to a duel.

Time now, half past 12,
in the public woods there,

beyond the river.

Vassili Vassilich Solloni.

Imagines himself to be another Lermontov.

Even writes poetry.

All joking aside, it is his third duel.

- Who's.

- Solloni's of course.

- And the Baron?

- What about him?

- Surely, such things
ought not be allowed.

He may wound the Baron, or kill him.

- Yes, the Baron is a good man.

One Baron, more or less,
does it really matter.

Let them fight.

- [Man] Hey oh!

- Oh, you can wait a bit!

He's gone soft, one of the
2nd, he's sitting in a boat.

- Well, in my opinion,
to take part in a duel,

or to be present at one,

even in the capacity of a
doctor, is simply immoral.

- Only seems so.

It only seems to us that we
exist, in fact, we don't,

and in any case, it doesn't really matter.

- Talk, talk, talk, nothing but talk.

Isn't it bad enough having
to live in this climate.

Snow might start falling any minute,

and on top of everything, I
have to listen to that talk.

(gun firing)

Oh, I won't go into that house.

I simply can't go in there.

When Vershinin comes, you let me know.

Oh, look at the birds.

Flying away already.

Oh my dear ones.

Oh happy ones.

- The house will be quite empty.

You will go, the officers will go.

My sister will get married.

I'll be all alone in this house.

- What about your wife?

- My wife, is my wife.

She's honest, decent,
even kind I would say.

Despite all this, there
is something in her

that reduces her to the level

of a mean, lying sort of,
bristly coated little animal.

Anyway, she's certainly not a human being.

I'm saying all this to you as a friend.

Someone I can open my heart to.

I love Natasha.

Yes, I do,

but sometimes, well, she's
so incredibly vulgar.

Then I'm bewildered.

I can not think how I
ever came to love her.

What makes me love her?

Boredom made me love her.

- Well, my boy,

tomorrow I go away.

Perhaps you and I will
never see each other again.

Now, here's my advice to you,

take your hat, grab your stick, and go.

Go, and don't stop, or look back.

The further you go, the better.

Do you understand me?

Now!

- Doctor, it's time, half past 12.

- [Ivan] I'm coming,

I'm sick to death of the whole lot of you.

Andrei, if anyone asks for me,

you better say I'll be
back in a minute of two.

- Before he had time to say
oh, the bear had laid him low.

(Ivan scoffs)

Now, what are you snorting like that for?

- [Ivan] Need you ask?

- You needn't be so upset old man.

I won't indulge myself,

just clip his wings a
little, like a snipes.

You know, I've poured a
whole bottle on them today,

and they still stink.

Stink like a corpse.

Do you remember Lermontov?

And he the rebel seeks the storm,

although the storm they were repose.

- Yes, before he had time to say, oh,

the bear had laid him low.

- [Man] Hey, hey!

- Just go away.

Leave me alone!

- Just, just sign these papers.

- Oh, get out, leave me alone.

- [Ferrapont] What are papers for,

unless they're to be signed?

- Masha, hey Masha!

Masha, Masha!

- I believe he's the only man
in town who's glad about it.

- That's understandable, after all.

How empty our town will be.

- Dearest, I'll be back in a moment.

- Well, where are you going?

- Well I, I have to slip back to town.

Then I'll see the boys off.

- Nikolai, that's not true.

Why are you so absent minded today?

Tell me, what happened yesterday

outside the theater, please.

- I'll be back in an hour,

and I'll be back with you again.

Precious one.

It's five years since I
first fell in love with you.

I still can't get used to it.

To me you've become more,
more beautiful every day.

Your hair, your eyes.

Your lovely, lovely smile.

I, I'll take you away tomorrow.

We'll, we'll work
together, we'll grow rich.

All my dreams will come to life again.

You'll be happy.

You, there's only one thing,

only one.

You don't love me.

- That's in my power.

I will be your wife.

A loyal and obedient wife,

but I don't love you, I don't.

God help me.

I've never loved anyone in my life.

Oh, I've had such dreams about love.

Such dreams, had them for so long now.

Day and night, so silly,

but my heart is like a
piano that nobody plays.

The lid is locked, and the key is lost.

You look troubled.

- I didn't sleep all night.

I've got nothing to be frightened of,

nothing that could really scare me.

Only this lost key of yours.

It torments me, it keeps me awake.

Say something to me.

Say something.

- What should I say, what?

- Anything.

- Don't my dear, don't.

- (chuckles) Isn't it strange
how silly little things

suddenly become of great
importance in one's life

for no reason at all.

Let's talk about that, I feel happy.

It's as if I see these
birches, fir trees, maples,

for the first time in my life,

and everything's watching me
with curiosity and expectation.

Oh, what beautiful, beautiful trees.

When you think of it,

how beautiful life ought to
be beside such trees as those.

(men shouting)

Well, I must go, it's time.

There's a dead tree.

It still sways in the wind
together with the others.

The same way I believe when I die,

I shall still take part in
life, in one way or another.

Goodbye my dearest.

The papers you gave me are on
my desk, under the calender.

- [Irina] I'll come with you.

- [Baron] No.

Irina!

- [Irina] Yes?

- I didn't have my coffee this morning.

Ask them to get some
ready for me, will you?

(woman chattering)

Where did it all go to?

Where is my past?

I was young, I was intelligent.

My thoughts and feelings
were full of grace.

My present and my future,
will it help me cope,

and why did we become so boring?

Calous, uninteresting, lazy, indifferent,

useless and miserable as soon as, no,

almost before we begin to live.

Our town has existed for 200 years.

It has 100 thousand inhabitants,

and not one who isn't like all the others.

They just eat, sleep,
drink, then they die.

The wives unfaithful to the
husbands, the husbands lie.

Pretend they hear and see nothing.

(guests laughing and chattering)

- [Natalia] That's, that's Aunt Olga.

- Nyanya.

- How are you my dear.

Oh my dear, what a life
I'm having, what a life!

Living in the school, for nothing.

Together with Olga.

Yes, God's been kind to
me, old thing that I am.

A whole room to myself, and a bed,

and all paid by the state.

I wake up in the night and oh Lord,

oh dear Mother of God,

there isn't a happier
occasion in the world.

- We must go now Olga Sergeievna,
it's time for me to go.

I wish you all, all happiness.

Where is Maria Sergeievna?

- [Irina] She must be
somewhere in the garden.

I'll go and get her.

- Do please, I must hurry.

- [Nyanya] I'll go look for her too.

Masha!

- Everything comes to an end.

We now have to say goodbye.

- [Nyanya] Masha!

- The town gave us a
sort of farewell lunch.

We drank champagne, the
mayor made a speech.

I ate, and I listened, but
my heart was here with you.

You've become a part of me.

- Shall we ever meet again, someday?

- Probably not.

My wife and the two girls

will stay on here for a month or two.

Please, if anything happens,
if they needed anything.

- Yes, yes, of course.

You mustn't worry.

Tomorrow there won't be a
single soldier left in the town.

There will be nothing left, but a memory,

and of course, a new
life will begin for us.

Everything happens differently
from the way we choose.

I didn't want to be a
Headmistress, and yet I am one now,

and it means we won't be living in Moscow.

- Well, thank you again for everything.

Forgive me, if I've done anything wrong.

I know I talk too much, so
forgive me for that too,

and don't think too badly of me.

- [Olga] Why is Masha taking such a time?

- What more can I say in farewell?

What can I philosophize about now?

Life is hard.

It's time for me to go now.

In bygone days, the human race
did nothing but wage wars.

It's very existence was taken up

with campaigns, invasions, victories,

and now all this is obsolete,

and in it's place, a huge vacuum in which,

for the moment, can't be filled.

Men are desperately trying to find

something to fill it with.

They will certainly succeed.

If only it could be soon.

I really must go now.

- [Olga] Here she is.

- I've come to say goodbye.

- My love, goodbye.

- Don't, don't.

- My dearest, don't
forget me, write to me.

Now let me go.

(Masha whimpers)

I must.

Olga Sergeievna, take her from me please.

(Masha cries)

I really must go now.

I'm late already.

(Masha cries)

- Masha darling, Masha dear.

Shh, that's enough, that's enough.

- Never mind.

Let her cry, let her.

My good Masha, my kind Masha.

You are my wife, and I am
happy, whatever else I may be.

I'm not complaining, I'm not
reproaching you, not at all.

Olga is my witness.

We'll start life over again as before,

and I'll never say a
word, not a word mind you.

- The green oak tree beside the main,

and on that oak, a golden chain.

I'm going mad.

- Masha dear, calm down,
there's a good girl.

Get her some water.

- I'm not crying anymore.

- She's not crying anymore.

(gun firing)

She's kind.

- The green oak tree beside the main,

and on that oak, a golden
chain, a green chain.

I've got into a muddle.

It's all over, I don't want anything.

My life is a failure.

I'll calm down in a minute.

A green oak tree beside the main.

What does it mean, beside the main?

Why does that phrase stick in my mind?!

- You must try and calm
down, there's a good girl.

Let's go in.

- No, I won't go into that house!

I won't go in there anymore.

- Let's all sit here together.

Quietly, silently.

Tomorrow, I'm going away, you know?

- Yesterday, I took a
false beard and mustache

away from a boy on the 3rd floor.

I look like the German teacher.

(all laughing)

(speaking in foreign language)

- Yes, yes it's true, you
do look like him, you do.

- Very like him, indeed.

- What is it?

(speaking in foreign language)

Oh, what a nuisance these children are.

Irina darling, you're
really going tomorrow.

What a pity.

Why not stay for another week.

(yells in foreign language)

(Natalia screams)

Oh go away, but you scared me.

I got so used to having you here,

and you think it'll be
easy for me without you?

I'll have Andrei with his
violin moved in to your room.

Oh, let him stow away in there,

and then Sophie will go into his room.

Oh, she's such a sweet, lovely child.

She gave me such a special look today,

and then said, "Mama."

- Wonderful child, that's true.

- So tomorrow, I'll be all alone here.

First thing I'll do is have
that row of fir trees cut down,

and then that maple over there.

It is so ugly in the evening.

Oh, Irina darling, that belt,
it doesn't suit you at all.

It's not in good taste.

You should have something brighter,

and then I'll have flowers
planted, everywhere around here.

Lots and lots of flowers (laughs),

and they'll smell so sweet.

What is this fork doing out here?

What is this fork doing
out here, I ask you?

A fork, in the middle of a garden?!

The garden?!

- (laughs) There's no holding her.

(triumphant music)

- [Olga] They're going.

- [Masha] Our soldiers are going.

Safe journey to them.

(triumphant music)

It's time to go home.

Where's my hat and coat?

- [Kuligin] I took them into the house.

I'll bring them at once.

- [Masha] We can all go home now.

- [Olga] It's time.

- [Ivan] Olga Sergeievna.

- Yes?

What is it?

- Nothing really.

I have something I have to tell you.

- [Olga] No, it can't be.

- [Ivan] Yes, it's bad business.

I'm so tired, I'm exhausted.

I don't want to say anymore.

- [Masha] Well, what's happened?

- A terrible thing.

I simply don't know how to
break the news to you, my dear.

- It's all right.

What is it, tell me quickly.

Oh God!

- [Ivan] The Baron's just
been killed in a duel.

- I knew.

I knew.

- Let them cry, let them cry.

- Oh listen to that band play.

They are leaving us.

One of them is gone forever,

and we'll be left here alone
to begin our lives again.

One must go on living.

One must go on.

- And working, yes, working.

Tomorrow I will go on my own.

I will teach in that school,

and give my whole life
to those who may need it.

It is autumn now.

Winter will come soon and
cover everything in snow,

and I'll be working.

Yes, working.

(triumphant music)

- [Olga] The band is playing so gaily.

So buoyantly, and one
can't help wanting to live.

Oh merciful God.

The years will pass, and
we will be gone forever.

We'll be forgotten,

Our faces and our voices
will be forgotten,

and there will be nobody to know

even how many of us there were,

but our sufferings will
be transformed into joy

for those who live after us.

Happiness and peace will reign on earth,

and then we'll be remembered with charity,

and we'll be blessed.

Oh my dear sister.

Our life has not yet come to an end.

Let us live.

The band is playing so gaily, so joyfully,

and perhaps in a little while,

we will know why we live, why we suffer.

If only we could know, if only we could.

If we only knew, if we only knew.

("The Internationale" by Pierre De Geyter)

(moves into light orchestral music)