(The Outskirts, Boris Barnet, USSR 1933, 98 min., 35mm, Russian with English intertitles)
The use of sound in motion pictures was never as daring and experimental as in the early 1930s:
there were no rules to break and no stereotypes to follow. Still, Boris Barnet’s The Outskirts
stood out. Primarily known and loved for his lyrical silent comedies, Barnet plunged into sound
cinema with the ease and verve that were expected of him. The ingenious “editing puns” gained
his sound debut immediate fame and have ever since been studied in film schools around the
world. The opening scenes of The Outskirts promise yet another comedy. But just as the
audience grows attached to the bizarre and touching inhabitants of a provincial town in Imperial
Russia of the 1910s, comes the First World War and sweeps down upon the fragile and charming
world like a steamroller. One of the critics determined the genre of The Outskirts as "bashful tragedy".
Only one 35mm print of the original release version is known to exist in the US. It was
generously provided for this rare screening by the Harvard Film Archive.
Post-screening discussion with Senior Curator Peter Bagrov.