N.V. Gogol
Name: Sorochinskaya fair
Genre: Tale
Duration:
Part 1: 8min 48sec
Part 2: 8min 37sec
Annotation:
The main characters of the story, Solopy Cherevik, his wife Khavronya Nikiforovna and his daughter Paraska, arrive at the fair with the goal of selling several bags of wheat and an old mare. The young man, whom the author initially calls “the young man in a white caftan,” whose name we later learn is Gritsko, finds Paraska very beautiful and begins to flirt with her. When Gritsko notices that the girl’s father has begun to get nervous about this, he declares that he is the son of one of Osopy’s friends and wants to marry his daughter. At first, Solopiy agrees, but then rejects the young man’s proposal due to the objections of his eternally dissatisfied wife. The young man decides to find a way out of this situation at all costs and sells all his cattle to one gypsy for next to nothing, on the condition that he will help him. While Khavronya is receiving Afanasy Ivanovich, the son of a priest, in her house, a group of people approaches the house, whom she heard and then quickly hides the young man. People settle down in the house and Tsybulya, Cherevik’s friend, tells the story of the red caftan worn by the Devil himself, who was expelled from hell. He pawned this jacket to the Jew in order to buy it back later, but when the Devil comes back, it turns out that the Jew has already sold it. The devil got angry and cursed him to make pigs' heads loom in front of his windows. At this time, Khavronya’s hidden young lover grunts and people are scared, but the narrator continues his story. Meanwhile, the caftan was found and passed from one person to another, bringing a curse to its owners. Whoever owned it could not give anything, so it was passed from one peasant to another. One person realized the reason why his goods were not being bought. And he chopped up the caftan with an ax and scattered it around the Sorochinsky fair. Therefore, the Devil has to look for and put together his caftan. And at the time of telling this story, he only had to find the last piece, so he’s wandering around here somewhere now. After Tsybulya finished the story, a pig’s head appears in the window and a group of people get very scared, and Cherevik, out of fear, puts a pot on his head instead of a hat and runs out of the house, while someone behind him shouts “Damn!” The next morning, having overcome his embarrassment, Cherevik is forced to go to the fair to sell the mare. On the way, he meets a man who is interested in what he is selling. Pulling the reins, Cherevik hits himself in the face, and then realizes that the horse has disappeared and in its place a piece of red caftan has appeared. He is accused of stealing his own horse and his friend Tsybulya ties him up and leaves him in the barn. Where Cherevik is found by a young man in a white caftan and promises to rescue him if he gives his daughter Paraska to him. To which Cherevik agrees. They get married and the whole picture emerges from which we learn that the Devil was none other than a gypsy.
N.V. Gogol - Sorochinskaya Fair part 1. Listen to the summary online.
As part of the project "Gogol. 200 years"RIA Newspresents a brief summary of the work “Sorochinskaya Fair” by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol - the first story in the series “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”.
This story begins with a description of the intoxicating luxuries of a summer day in Little Russia. Among the beauty of the August afternoon, carts filled with goods and people on foot move to the fair in the town of Sorochinets. Behind one of the carts, loaded not only with hemp and sacks of wheat (for in addition, a black-browed maiden and her evil stepmother are sitting here), the owner, Solopy Cherevik, wanders exhausted by the heat. Having barely entered the bridge spanning Psel, the cart attracts the attention of the local boys, and one of them, “dressed more dapper than the others,” admiring the beauty of Paraskaya, starts a squabble with his evil-tongued stepmother. However, having arrived at the godfather, the Cossack Tsybula, the travelers forget this adventure for a while, and Cherevik and his daughter soon go to the fair. Here, jostling between the carts, he learns that the fair has been assigned a “cursed place”, they are afraid of the appearance of a red scroll, and there were sure signs of this. But no matter how concerned Cherevik is with the fate of his wheat, the sight of Paraska hugging his old boy returns him to his “former carelessness.” However, a resourceful young man, calling himself Golopupenkov’s son and taking advantage of his long-standing friendship, leads Cherevik into the tent, and after several drinks the wedding is already agreed upon. However, upon Cherevik’s return home, his formidable wife does not approve of this turn of events, and Cherevik backs down. A certain gypsy, trading oxen with the saddened Gritsko, not entirely disinterestedly undertakes to help him.
Soon, “a strange incident happened at the fair”: a red scroll appeared, and many saw it. That is why Cherevik with his godfather and daughter, who had previously planned to spend the night under the carts, hastily return home in the company of frightened guests, and Khavronya Nikiforovna, his formidable partner, who until now delighted the priest Afanasy Ivanovich with her hospitality, is forced to hide him on boards right under the ceiling among all the household utensils and sit at the common table on tenterhooks.
At Cherevik’s request, the godfather tells the story of the red scroll - how the devil was expelled from hell for some offense, how he drank out of grief, nestled in a barn under the mountain, drank everything he had in a tavern, and pawned his red scroll, threatening to come for her in a year. The greedy shaver forgot about the deadline and sold a prominent scroll to some passing gentleman, and when the devil appeared, he pretended that he had never seen him before. The devil left, but the tavern's evening prayer was interrupted by pigs' snouts suddenly appearing in all the windows. Terrible pigs, “on legs as long as stilts,” treated him with whips until he admitted to deception. However, the scrolls could not be returned: the gentleman robbed the gypsies on the way, sold the scroll to a reseller, and she again brought it to the Sorochinsky fair, but the trade did not work out for her. Realizing that it was the scroll, she threw it into the fire, but the scroll did not burn, and the outbid slipped the “damn gift” onto someone else’s cart. The new owner got rid of the scroll only when, having crossed himself, he cut it into pieces, scattered it around and left. But from then on, every year during the fair, the devil “with the face of a pig” looks for pieces of his scroll, and now only his left sleeve is missing. At this point in the story, which was repeatedly interrupted by strange sounds, a window broke, “and a terrible pig’s face stuck out.”
Everything in the hut was confused: Popovich fell “with thunder and a crash,” the godfather crawled under his wife’s hem, and Cherevik, grabbing a pot instead of a hat, rushed out and soon fell exhausted in the middle of the road. In the morning, the fair, although full of terrible rumors about the red scroll, is still noisy, and Cherevik, who has already come across the red cuff of the scroll in the morning, grumblingly leads the mare to be sold. But, noticing that a piece of red sleeve was tied to the bridle and rushing to run in horror, Cherevik, suddenly captured by the lads, is accused of stealing his own mare and, together with the godfather who turned up, who fled from the devilry he had imagined, is tied up and thrown onto the straw in the barn. Here both godfathers, mourning their share, are found by Golopupenkov’s son. Having reprimanded Paraska to himself, he frees the slaves and sends Solopius home, where not only the miraculously found mare, but also the buyers of her and the wheat await him. And although the frantic stepmother tries to interfere with the cheerful wedding, soon everyone is dancing, and even the decrepit old women, who, however, are carried away not by the general joy, but only by the intoxication.
Here Gogol describes the nature of Ukraine and how traders go to the Sorochinsky fair. Our hero Solopiy Cherevik is heading there with his beautiful daughter named Paraska. That is why the hat is removed in front of their cart. But their whole appearance is spoiled by their wife Solopia Khavronya. She's such a grumpy woman, she keeps him under her thumb. They are going to the fair to sell wheat and an old mare. When they pass the river, they hear the shout of one of the boys, he really admires the beauty of his daughter. But he called his stepmother “a hundred-year-old witch.” She scolds him, and in response he throws a lump of dirt at her.
Chapter 2
They stopped to visit their godfather. Solopy and his daughter went to the fair to find where they could sell their goods. But suddenly Paraska is pulled back by the same handsome man they saw on the bridge and begins to talk to her about love.
Chapter 3
Then Solopiy heard a conversation between two men about wheat. They said that you shouldn’t expect good trade, since there is an evil spirit in the barn on the edge of the fair, and when people pass by it, they are even afraid to look, God forbid they ever see the red scroll. But he didn’t have time to listen to the end, as he was distracted by his daughter, who was already hugging the boy. Of course, at first he was eager to interrupt this, but when he recognized him as a friend’s son, he did not do this. Meanwhile, the boy invited him to the tavern. There Solopy saw him drain a mug of vodka, and he immediately developed respect for him. And when he drank himself, he proposed to the boy to marry Paraska.
Chapter 4
When the father and daughter return home, Solopiy tells his wife that he has found a nice groom for Paraske. But when Khavronya finds out that this is the same impudent person who threw dirt at her, she almost tore out all of Solopia’s hair. Then he simply says that he will have to look for another groom.
Chapter 5
The wife still forces Solopy to refuse the guy. And he sits sadly at the fair. But then he meets a gypsy who promises to help him, but he must sell all the oxen cheaper. At first Gritsko doubts, looking at him and seeing his cunning and sarcastic face, he agrees.
Chapter 6
While her husband and godfather are guarding the carts with goods, Khavronya receives the popovich. She treats him to dumplings and donuts. She pretends to be embarrassed by his advances. But then there is a knock on the door and she says that a lot of people have come, so he needs to hide. He hides it on boards that were made as shelves.
Chapter 7
Solopy and Kum returned because a rumor about a red scroll spread throughout the fair. Several acquaintances asked to spend the night with Tsybula. They drink. And Cherevik asks his godfather to tell him about this very scroll. Well, one day the devil sat in the tavern and drank it all away, he left his scroll to the owner, but said that the year would come back. And the owner sold it to the master, and the gypsy stole it from the master, who also sold it. The devil has returned, but the scrolls are gone. The reseller who bought it stopped trading, then she slipped the scroll to the man. So his trade stopped. So he took and cut the scroll and scattered it around. Now the devil appears at the fair every year and looks for his scroll.
But then his story is interrupted, because a pig appeared at the window.
Chapter 8
Panic and screams began. Popovich fell off the shelves. His appearance further intensifies the panic. Cherevik put on a pot instead of a hat and began shouting: “Damn, damn!” and jumped out of the hut. He rushed to run wherever his eyes were looking, only to feel that something heavy was pressing on him...
Chapter 9
With their screams they woke up all the gypsies who were sleeping on the carts. They went to see who was screaming like that and remembering the devil. Solopius was lying on the Earth, with a broken pot on his head, and his wife lying on top of him. The gypsies laughed at them for a very long time, and when they came to their senses, they began to stare at those around them.
Chapter 10
The next morning, Khavronya sends her husband to sell the mare. She hands him a towel so he can have his face alone and notices that she has a red pig in her hands. She throws it away. And Cherevik, who was simply trembling with fear, took the mare to the fair. A gypsy approaches him and asks what he is selling. Solopiy seemed to pull the horse's bridle, but discovered that it was missing, and a red piece of cloth was tied in its place. He dropped everything and started running away.
Chapter 11
Solopy was caught in an alley by some guys who began accusing him of stealing a horse. But he tries to prove the opposite, but no one believes him, and his story about the red scroll only makes his situation even more difficult. Here the guys lead a tied up godfather towards him. He wanted to take the cross out of his pocket, but he didn’t find it there, but found only a red scroll there, and he started to run. Kum was also accused of spreading panic.
Chapter 12
Solopy and his godfather are connected. They talk to each other about injustice. But Gritsko approaches them and says that he can master them on one condition, if they get married to Paraska today. Cherevik, of course, agrees. He ties them up and sends them home. Buyers are already waiting there. A gypsy approaches Gritsko and asks if everything was done correctly. He says that everything went well and he hands the water to Vlas.
Chapter 13
Paraska is alone at home, admiring herself in front of the mirror and remembering Gritsko. She puts on outfits one after another, dances and sings about love. Her answer comes into the hut and also starts dancing. And the godfather says that the groom has arrived and the wedding is beginning. Here Khavronya takes it, waves his arms, but is no longer able to interfere. A magnificent celebration begins. But the author notes that any feast and fun ends someday.
No matter how Khivrya resisted, truth and justice still prevailed. With the appearance of the devil, the author indicates the strength of society and throughout the entire work he ridicules them and their vices.
Picture or drawing Sorochinskaya Fair
Other retellings and reviews for the reader's diary
- Summary of The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo
This is a novel about how the heir of a lord, Gwynplan, was kidnapped by people who mutilated children and sold them as jesters. Despite his terrible appearance, the young man managed to find his love
- Summary Anna Gavalda 35 kilos of hope
According to his mother’s stories, the boy Gregoire lived happily until he was three years old. He played for a long time with a stuffed puppy, watched cartoons, drew, and came up with interesting stories.
- Summary of Sasha Nekrasov
In the center of the plot we see a family of elderly wealthy gentlemen who are raising a daughter named Sasha. Her parents were open and good-natured people who despised servility and arrogance.
- Summary of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The main character, Huckleberry Finn, is raised by the Widow Douglas. The boy does not behave like a gentleman, so the woman makes a lot of efforts to re-educate him.
- Summary of Kuprin's Blue Star
In the story “Blue Star” Kuprin asks readers a real riddle. The king of a country hidden in the mountains leaves a message on the wall before his death, but no one can decipher it.
From his youth he was interested in Ukrainian folklore and kept notes on this topic in a special notebook. In 1829, the writer came up with the idea of a work in which the action takes place in his homeland in Sorochintsy. Two years later story "Sorochinskaya Fair" appeared on the pages of Nikolai Vasilyevich’s first collection “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”.
It is known that Gogol learned a lot from his father’s comedy “The Simpleton,” which was created for the home theater. Some images and scenes are quite similar. The writer also chose lines from his parent’s plays as epigraphs to individual chapters of the story. At the same time, “Sorochinskaya Fair” is such a bright, talented and original work that even the most severe critic cannot call it a retelling of the mentioned play.
The funny story of how Gritsko and Paraska got married is based on folk legends, fairy tales and songs. The work contains popular folklore motifs: a fair, devils, a cursed place, pairs of lovers who are prevented from uniting their destinies, an unfaithful wife hiding her lover. Gogol uses traditional images of an evil stepmother, a cunning gypsy, a stupid man, a young beauty, and a daring young man. The wedding as the final act is also quite traditional. Even the red color of the scroll - a symbol of fire, blood and other misfortunes - is taken from popular beliefs.
When creating the Sorochinskaya Fair, Gogol used childhood memories and notes from his treasured notebook, but melted this material, mixed it, and soldered it into something new and original. Traditionally, the work is classified as a comedy-romantic genre, but this is not entirely true. A funny plot with a pronounced love line is supplemented here with quite realistic everyday sketches. The mystical component of the story, in which mysticism itself is a deception, deserves special attention. After all, all its manifestations, except for the story of godfather Tsybuli, turn out to be the work of the cunning gypsy and Gritsko.
Funny adventures of the heroes in the spirit of folk jokes make up most of the plot. The more contrasting is the ending of the story, in which unexpectedly negative philosophical notes sound: “And the heart becomes heavy and sad, and there is nothing to help it”.
Folklore tradition helped Gogol create colorful images of heroes. The grumpy stepmother Khivrya is endowed with panache and confidence in her own irresistibility. She reveals an unexpected side in the scene of an unsuccessful date, where she acts as a caring and hospitable hostess. Her husband, the close-minded henpecked Solopiy Cherevik, loves to look into a glass and hang out with friends. The beautiful Paraska has a decisive and proud character, her beloved Gritsko is a daring, sharp-tongued, but at the same time affectionate guy.
Particularly admirable is the language of the story, which combines song style and colloquial speech. He is truly poetic and amazingly beautiful. Belinsky called this poetics: “Young, fresh, fragrant, luxurious, intoxicating”. His delight was shared by Alexander Pushkin.
Gogol skillfully combines high syllables, metaphors and epithets with elements of language characteristic of everyday communication. The story opens with a magnificent description of nature, full of picturesque images and colors: “emeralds, topazes, yahonts of ethereal insects”, “a clear mirror - a river in green, proudly raised frames”, “cloud oak trees walking aimlessly”.
The diversity and noise of the fair are depicted not so sublimely, but much more emotionally: "chaos of wonderful obscure sounds" And "falling distant waterfall". Moreover, the entire text, and not just the direct speech of the characters, is interspersed with colloquial constructions using exclamations, repetitions, inversions, pronouns, introductory words, particles: “yes, it will be thirty years ago”, “It probably happened to you”, "is not it".
Gogol managed to successfully insert numerous Ukrainian words into the Russian language of the narrative, without complicating the perception of the text: "lady", "boy", "cradle", "scroll", "zhinka", "Kaganets", "rushnik", "kuhol". Colorful everyday details, rich and vivid descriptions of nature, amazingly picturesque characters made “Sorochinskaya Fair” one of the favorite works of illustrators.
Nikolai Vasilyevich glorified the fair itself in Sorochintsy. It has become a popular annual event that attracts many tourists. It’s so interesting to take a walk in a noisy crowd, taste dumplings and meet one of Gogol’s characters.
- “Sorochinskaya Fair”, a summary of the chapters of Gogol’s story
- “Portrait”, analysis of Gogol’s story, essay
- “Dead Souls”, analysis of Gogol’s work
I am the most objective viewer in the world. I’m not a film critic, I don’t feel emotions from a movie, I watch it purely mathematically, analyzing every scene. This time I decided to write an analysis of a fresh Russian film. The one that's showing in the cinema right now. Before us “Gogol. Beginning" (Russia, 2017).
Attention! The review is divided into 2 parts due to restrictions on the maximum size of a LiveJournal post. This Chapter 2, "The Red Scroll". The parts are posted simultaneously and should be read sequentially.
Let me emphasize: I went to the cinema to see the film, but the screenshots will have a lopsided screen, since there is no other version online at the moment. To avoid damaging your eyes, I made the illustrations small.
CHAPTER 2. RED SCROLL
Since the film is the first two episodes of the series with some re-editing (I believe), it is split in half, and the second episode has both its own arc and a continuation of the arc established in the first part. In other words, the series is vertical-horizontal.
Episode 25
Purpose: the beginning of the second part
Scene description: Night. Khavronya's hut. Her husband, Cherevik, comes out. But lover Popovich comes. Sovronya feeds him. He starts pestering her. In the midst of the kiss, there is a knock on the door. Popovich hides, and Khavronya finds a red scroll behind the door, a sign of the devil.
She brings the scroll into the house. The candle lights up green, something red flows from it, a red scroll appears floating in the air, then a pig’s head, and then in the flickering of frames Popovich loses consciousness.
Explanation of the scene: Well, this is quite a classic story, almost according to Gogol. Normal, no complaints.
Episode 26
Purpose: start of investigation
Scene description: Binkh and Gogol discuss the case at the police station. Binh is not particularly friendly, but not hostile either (in general, by the way, I like this attitude - that is, he is dumb, but still a professional). Binkh says that Khavronya was stabbed to death, and on the stove there is the same sign as was at the previous crime scenes. Cleaver, as usual, reports information about what the red scroll (the sign of the devil) is. Popovich talks all sorts of crap, and Gogol doubts that he is a murderer. Binkh is not opposed to Gogol’s investigation, but he doesn’t want to help either: he’s not going to single out an artist who could sketch the criminal and victims based on descriptions.
Explanation of the scene: Again, a normal scene. Well, perhaps Tesak’s next lecture is far-fetched. I would have more elegantly entered information about the scroll somehow.
Episode 27
Purpose: introduce Paraska and her conflict with Khavronya (preliminary for now)
Scene description: Paraska (as it turns out later, Cherevik’s daughter from his first marriage) is washing clothes, and Khavronya’s ghost appears to her.
Explanation of the scene: The scene is correct, because the appearance of the ghost will play out later, that is, it is not a passing scene, but a semantic one. Another thing is that the makeup artist needs to tear off both hands for Khavronya’s posthumous makeup. He's just really bad.
Episode 28
Purpose: enter Vakula
Scene description: Gogol and Tesak come to the blacksmith Vakula to persuade him to draw for them (he used to be fond of drawing and has not lost his skills). Gogol asks hesitantly, Vakula refuses. Vakula’s daughter appears, asks her father for earrings as a gift, and leaves. Gogol finds an argument: if you don’t help, then no time will come for your daughter. This convinces Vakula.
Scene complaints: The scene is disgustingly clumsy. Written by a crooked ignoramus, excuse me, sewn with white thread. Given: Vakula refused. So, we need to somehow convince him. And here suddenly Vakula’s daughter appears, asks a question that has nothing to do with anything (“I want earrings”), and Vakula suddenly agrees. It's called "piano in the bushes." It didn’t take any skills or efforts from Gogol to convince the blacksmith to help, his daughter just appeared, and that’s it, dad was convinced.
This is bad because it goes out of line with the story. We haven't seen either Vakula or his daughter before. The girl appeared for only one purpose: to let the screenwriter get out of an unresolved scene.
How to fix: here the solution may be different. For example: we show Vakula and his drawings earlier. Not now, when he was suddenly needed, but back in the first episode. Like there’s a blacksmith over there, he can still draw, he decorated the hut. Then in this series, when we need an artist, the viewer will remember and say: oh, right, now they’ll go to Vakula! Viewer loves guess, likes to feel like he's smart.
Now we need to correctly enter the daughter. When Gogol and Tesak approach, she already should play at Vakula's feet. She doesn't even need words. Let him just play. And when it comes to argument, Gogol just needs to look at her. And everything is clear, you don’t even need to explain anything. This is again the writer's fear of doing a scene with a minimum of words.
There is a golden rule that our screenwriters don’t understand (marsh for first year!). A piano in the bushes is when an object that allows you to solve a problem appears immediately after voicing the problem. To avoid this, the item must be entered before problems, and use them as needed. Like a gun hanging on the wall, waiting to be fired. This scene is a pure example of the script's misunderstanding of this rule.
Episode 29
Purpose: show how Gogol began to think deductively
Scene description: Sovereign's funeral service is held in the hut. The entire police horde appears: Binkh, Gogol, Tesak, Yakim. Cherevik says that he was drinking in a tavern with his daughter Paraska’s fiancé. Upon his return, Cherevik found a corpse in the hut.
It turns out that the priest covered up the sign on the stove like the devil. Vakula appears and smears the putty with vinegar. The sign appears. Gogol has a vision and faints. Fainting, he sketches a leaf of a tree. This is a linden tree. "Linden!" - Gogol understands (an extremely clumsy decision).
The house is being searched. Gogol explains to Binkh that the sign was drawn with an error (we are shown the “correct” sign, which we saw in the inn owner’s house), plus they killed an elderly woman, plus indoors, and not in the forest. That is, it is clearly a fake, a fake. Cleaver finds a knife (the crime weapon) and a candle that was burning in the string. Cherevik is guilty.
Explanation of the scene: Here Gogol finally looks good and confident when he explains to Binkhu that it was Cherevik who killed his unfaithful wife. And everything would be fine if not for two comments.
Complaints/recommendations: Firstly, the appearance of Vakula, who - oops! – knows that you can smear the putty with vinegar, but everything else is okay. If we had introduced Vakula earlier and resolved the previous scene normally, there would have been no need to turn the blacksmith into a piano in the bushes in this one. That is, he should not appear exactly at the moment when his knowledge about vinegar was needed. He should come with Gogol and Binkh from the very beginning. The screenwriter makes “grand pianos” for two scenes in a row, ah-ah-ah.
Secondly, the play on words with linden is extremely forced. Gogol must have drawn or written something else that would have pushed him towards deduction (as in the case of the volcano, the cross and the lamb).
Episode 30
Purpose: show Cherevik’s confession and hint that with a candle everything is not so simple
Scene description: Plot. Binkh interrogates and surprisingly beautifully splits Cherevik. He confesses, but asks him to attend Paraska’s wedding before the trial.
Gogol has a new vision when he picks up a candle. Cherevik says that Paraska bought the candle from the gypsies in Poltava.
Gogol privately tells Binkhu that this is not Cherevik, but he brushes it off. Gogol wants to perform an autopsy on Khavronya.
Explanation of the scene/: A normal police interrogation scene, I have no complaints.
31 episodes
Purpose: bring in the doctor
Scene description: Khavronya's body is brought to the barn. They bring drunk Dr. Bomgart up the ass (great scene, I really laughed).
The doctor is a drunk, but a professional. Staggering and drinking vodka, he performs an autopsy. Gogol drinks with him so as not to vomit. Bomgart says that the wound is not serious, and the cause of death is heart failure from fear.
Drunken Gogol and Bomgart leave the barn and part ways.
Explanation of the scene: The doctor's character is the second best after Gouraud. Really good. The scene is funny and enjoyable to watch.
Episode 32
Purpose: God knows, it's a useless scene; Apparently, the screenwriter believed that with her help he would introduce a story with Pushkin
Scene description: Drunk Gogol remembers Lisa and goes to her. Lisa is reading a book by Gogol/Alov on the veranda.
They talk about nothing (and for some reason Gogol is almost sober). Gogol asks if she came to him at night. She says no. Gogol talks about how he took his poem to Pushkin, but he played cards and did not accept Gogol.
Complete crap: The scene is absolutely useless. Empty, boring conversation and a meaningless question about who was in his room at night. Why pointless? The fact is that then, later, he will ask Oksana the same question, and she will answer unequivocally (more precisely, she will transparently hint). There is no further additional information in the same scene. Only the story about Pushkin will play later, but, to be honest, a preliminary story about it is simply not needed - it will work without it.
How to fix: This scene can be removed from the script, and it will not lose anything at all. Actually, all scenes need to be analyzed in this way. If a scene can be thrown out and everything will remain clear, it SHOULD be thrown out. A script is not prose, there are different laws. No information in the scene? Kill the scene.
Episode 33
Purpose: bring Gogol and Paraska together
Scene description: At night, Paraska imagines Khavronya (oh my bastard, that makeup again). Paraska runs out of the hut and runs into the forest. There she is haunted by the ghost of Khavronya and the Demon.
A drunken Gogol walks through the same forest. He sees the ghost of Guro, he bumps into Paraska and falls. Together they hide from the Demon behind a tree. Coming out of the forest, they stumble upon Gritsko, and out of jealousy he hits Gogol in the jaw. He loses consciousness.
Scene explanation/complaint: The meaning is correct, but everything is strained in an extremely primitive way; the screenwriter clearly did not know how to resolve the scene and sewed everything together with white thread.
1) Why does Paraska run from the ghost into the dark forest, and not into the illuminated village?
2) Is it true that you can hide behind a tree from the Demon?
3) How does Gritsko suddenly find them in the dark forest?
How to fix:
1) If the hut is on the edge, then the ghost could get in Paraska’s way and drive her into the forest - but this was not shown.
2) Very weak tension. The demon must go away on its own. A good option is that he stumbles upon Paraska and Gogol, looks and recoils from Gogol! This would be really cool and would further emphasize Gogol’s “dark power”
3) Paraska could scream at the top of her lungs, and Gritsko could come to the screams.
Episode 34
Purpose: theoretically - to explain what was happening to Gogol (but it didn’t work out)
Scene description: Vision of Gogol in an unconscious state. He is in St. Petersburg, goes with his poems to Pushkin, but he plays cards and does not notice him. Gogol leaves the building and sees... Oksana. She is in the middle of the street, all the other passersby line the sidewalks like spectators. She directly says that there is a “dark, hidden world” (THANK YOU, KEP!), and Gogol has a connection with it and can cross the threshold between worlds. Gogol's face temporarily becomes demonic. Apparently, this is Oksana’s promised help: she explains all sorts of things to Gogol. And in particular - that Lisa is bothering him, occupying his heart. Oksana hints that it was she, Oksana, who was with him that day. Gogol demands Oksana to leave Lisa behind, Oksana gets angry, and he wakes up.
Scene complaints: To be honest, this is a very weak scene. It seems to start normally: Oksana in a surreal scene in the middle of St. Petersburg. But what Oksana says to Gogol is some kind of idle talk designed to stretch out the timing. Well, yes, we understand that there is a dark other world. Well, yes, Gogol has abilities that allow you to contact him. Well, yes, he is in love with Lisa. Well, yes, that night the succubus Oksana was with him (although this can, in principle, be said; there is a good phrase in the film about the fact that it doesn’t matter who was with him as long as he felt good). In general, all this was understandable and so. Why this dialogue? So that he pathetically threatens Oksana (the voice acting is blamed, by the way, the intonation is like that of a half-dead mouse)?
What is needed here: The scene itself is needed here, and the surroundings are correct. You just need to write normal dialogue, and not this pathetic semblance. Oksana must tell Gogol something really important. Some piece of information about the Demon. Something so interesting. And not finishing for some reason (whether Gogol interrupts or he wakes up doesn’t matter). So that there is a mystery and so that Gogol has something to think about. Because after the existing scene, he has nothing to think about.
Episode 35
Purpose: wedding transition scene
Scene description: Gogol wakes up in his hotel room with a bruise under his eye (by the way, it’s too small, I could have hammered it home better). Yakim gives him vodka and brine to drink. The blacksmith came and left sketches of the murdered girls. In addition, Guro left behind a chest that had to be given to Gogol, and this chest, but there is no key.
Explanation of the scene/questions: A breakdown of the scene with a neat resolution of a number of technical details (the blacksmith brought portraits, for example).
An absolutely unnecessary detail: Gogol chokes on vodka and spits out the drawings, Yakim dries them out. This doesn’t play anywhere else, just for the sake of two phrases, to stall for time. I would cut it out.
Episode 36
Purpose: explain what's wrong with the candle
Scene description: Wedding of Paraska and Gritsko. Binkh, Gogol, Tesak are also present. Cherevik is sad. The ghost of Khavronya appears (my eyes bleed every time I see this makeup).
Gogol wakes up Doctor Baumgart, who is sleeping at the table. He asks him about the candle, since he is good at chemistry. Bomgart examines the candle and says that it is a gypsy candle: at first it burns normally, and then it burns down to a hallucinogenic composition of belladonna, wormwood and others like them, and then mother, don’t worry. Well, that is, he doesn’t say it so directly, it’s just revealed in the dialogue.
Out of technical interest, Bomgart puts a burning candle under Gogol's nose, and he falls into a trance. In the vision, Gogol is lying on the ground, and suddenly Pushkin is bending over him with two heifers. An absurd dialogue takes place in which Pushkin knows Gogol and even asks what he is working on now. Pushkin is frankly comic. Everyone laughs and turns into pigs (more precisely, people in pig masks).
Bomgart wakes up Gogol. Gogol understands what happened: they slipped a gypsy candle to Khavronya, and after both went crazy, the killer came to them in a pig mask. He understands that this is Paraska - she was the one who knew what the candle was.
Explanation of the scene/claim: If we talk about reality, then it’s a normal scene. Even the fact that he asks Bomgart about the candle right here, at the wedding, is logical: he hasn’t seen him again since he broke up with him drunk.
But trance is really not needed here. At all. Honestly, too much a lot of trannies. Well, it's true. I would like the hero to reach more information with his own mind. He could already have guessed about the pig mask, found it, for example, somewhere (and this is the only meaning of trance). I feel like at this rate, by episode 8, all the action will be happening in a trance.
Episode 37
Purpose: movement towards the junction
Scene description: wedding again. Gogol approaches Cherevik and tells him that he guessed everything: Cherevik took the blame for his daughter. Paraska and Gritsko also hear. The general point is that Cherevik wanted to catch Khavronya with her lover, but he caught his daughter, who killed Khavronya. And covered it. Cherevik replies that he should have killed Khavronya earlier, that he is to blame for letting this reptile into the house. He grabs Gogol and strangles him, while Paraska and Gritsko run away.
Binkh saves Gogol by stunning Cherevik. The chase begins. Paraska and Gritsko are running, but an enchanted tree root is wrapped around Gritsko’s leg, and Paraska runs further with... Gritsko (we understand that with some otherworldly person). Everyone is chasing them - Gogol, Vakula, Binkh, Tesak, Yakim, Bomgart. Later, the squad splits up: the police go in one direction, and Gogol, Yakim, Vakula and Bomgart take the shortest route.
Scene problems: In essence, everything is fine, except, as you might guess, the stupidity in the dialogues. For example, there is this one: “We can catch up with them at the bend,” says Vakula. “Can you guide us?” asks Gogol. “Yes, I know the way,” Vakula answers. People don't talk like that. In a normal performance, this sounds like one phrase from Vakula: “We can catch up with them at the bend, I know a short way, here.” That is, this really should not be a dialogue. The screenwriter’s problem “I can’t do without unnecessary words” again manifests itself in full force.
Episode 38
Purpose: denouement
Scene description: Essentially a continuation of the previous scene. Paraska and the false Gritsko are sailing on a boat. The latter turns into the ghost of Khavronya (gri-i-i-im, s-s-s).
The chase (Binha's group) finds Gritsko entangled in the branches. Havronya brings Paraska to the Demon, who is waiting on the shore.
Gogol, Yakim, Vakula and Bomgart bump into Khavronya. She mocks them, buds into several Khavronias. Bomgart faints. The hawks neigh and lift Yakim, Gogol and Vakula into the air, hit them against the trees, and spin them around. Bomgart wakes up (by the way, here’s a great shot where they seem to be flying over Bomgart’s head, like little devils). He doesn’t understand anything, he lights a candle for light - the same gypsy one. And Khavronya is afraid of her - and immediately retreats.
The candle goes out, she tries to attack again. But Gogol shows his dark self, she gets scared and runs away completely.
Scene explanation/complaint: Again: essentially everything is good, but a number of small details are annoying. For example, when Bomgart faints, for some reason the cameraman shows it from two angles (here he fell, long shot, and here’s a closer shot). For what? What is it about his fall? He just fell and didn't even break his glasses. Well, I fell and that's okay.
In terms of the plot, everything is simple and clear.
Episode 39
Purpose: decoupling resolution
Scene description: Dawn. Everyone has already reached the bend. There is a boat, and Paraska’s corpse is in it. A giant demonic sign is painted on the ground.
Explanation of the scene: Everything is fine, everything is clear, there is nothing to explain here.
Episode 40
Purpose: seed for episode 3, show that Lisa is in danger
Scene description: Gogol's number. In it, besides him, are Yakim, Vakula and Bomgart (sober!). Gogol says that they are the only ones he can trust. They team up to stop the Demon. Oksana watches them from the mirror.
Vakula opens Guro's chest with a master key. Gogol takes hold of the pen and - oh my God, the vision again. He is in the Demon's Cave. The murdered girls were glued to the walls with some kind of resin. And suddenly - a living Lisa, who is hugged by the Demon.
Explanation of the scene/claim: WHY is Oksana in the mirror? What the hell is this pathetic special effect from the time of “Guest from the Future”? She is otherworldly, she knows everything by default, what kind of appearance of Christ is this to the people? The rest of the scene is good, and even the vision is correct and in place.
How to fix: remove Oksana from the scene.
41 episodes
Purpose: and another teaser for the 3rd episode. Very cool!
Scene description: Forest, mountain above Dikanka. Guro approaches the cliff. Just as elegant as ever.
Explanation of the scene: Yeh. For Guro's sake, I'm willing to look further.
All. That's what I think when I watch every movie. Scene by scene. Analyzing all the details. This way you can analyze both good films and bad ones.
What do I think about Gogol? That this is a good attempt that can be “finished.” These are not the infernal incorrigible “Defenders,” nor the illogical, senseless “Duelist.” This is really a test of the pen in the field of quality TV series, spoiled by a number of small factors - the weakness of the writers who wrote individual dialogues, the mistakes of the operator or director, who, I hope, learned from this experience. Therefore, I can give Gogol 6/10. In my opinion, this is a record for a Russian blockbuster film that I have ever directed (arthouse does not count, there are different criteria, and I often rate it highly).
Is it worth watching? Yes, it's worth it, why not. If we’re going to go for something from ours, then it’s for this.
