Page 175 - Inside the Film Factory New Approaches to Russian and Soviet Cinema

156 INSIDE THE FILM FACTORY

Figure 19 The Old Jockey, made in 1940, was not released until 1959.

recording of Marusya’s grandfather speaking to her. At the station, she says
goodbye to her timid suitor and to the local hairdresser. All we see of the city is the
railway station steps, where the girl asks a youngster for directions. Soon she
reaches the café where she is to meet her grandfather, and where the two punters
make her acquaintance. She consoles the grandfather and they return home
together, to a village welcome. Trofimov holds forth in a monologue; he rests.
Without telling anyone, he sets off for the race-course. She brings him back.
Together they train a horse, which disrupts the daily life of the village. A year later,
at the race-course, Trofimov wins, and vanishes. ‘We will race again and win
again,’ he says to his rival, who accepts the challenge, and they shake hands.
No lesson taught, no exemplary characters: a loose sequence of events within a
tight structure. From Miss Mend onwards, Barnet made his films by setting in
motion a variety of characters and events, quite independent of each other, then
organising their intersection. The structure is as rigorously planned as in By the
Bluest of Seas, which ends as it began, with all the narrative relationships, the