My Sweet and Tender Beast (1978)

Мой ласковый и нежный зверь

A forester's beautiful young daughter marries a rich old man, and a passionate magistrate cannot let her go.

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Year
1978
Director
Emil Loteanu
Starring
Galina Belyaeva, Oleg Yankovsky, Kirill Lavrov, Leonid Markov
Genre
Drama, Romance
Running time
1 h 47 min
Based on
The Shooting Party by Anton Chekhov
Language
Russian, English subtitles
Studio
Mosfilm

About the film

Olenka, the daughter of a poor forester, is young, beautiful and ready to be married. She agrees to marry Urbenin, the much older estate manager, for security rather than love.

But the local magistrate Kamyshev, bored, reckless and in love, will not accept it. Passion and jealousy lead the story towards a crime.

Loteanu's lush, romantic adaptation of Chekhov's only full-length novel is famous for its costumes, its landscapes and above all its waltz.

Did you know?

  • It is based on The Shooting Party, the only novel Chekhov wrote.
  • Galina Belyaeva was a teenage ballet student when she was cast.
  • Eugen Doga's waltz from the film became one of the most famous pieces of Soviet film music.

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