The Lady with the Dog movie storyline. In the Nineteenth Century, at the seaside resort of Yalta, the upper class Dimitri Gurov from Moscow meets Anna Sergeyovna walking with her little dog. Both have unhappy marriages: Dimitri has a marriage of convenience arranged by the family when he was a college boy and Anna married a lackey for love that has gone, and they have a love affair.
When Anna returns to Saratov and Dimitri to Moscow, he has a boring life at home, spending his time working and going to the club after hours alone to drink and play cards with his friends. On Christmas, Dimitri misses Anna and lies to his wife, telling that he has a business trip to Saint Petersburg. However, he heads to Saratov and he meets Anna in the Opera House with her husband. Their love kindles and Anna promises to meet him in Moscow. In a period when divorce would be unthinkable, Anna and Dimitri are doomed to meet each other in hotel rooms.
The Lady with the Dog (Russian: Дама с собачкой, translit. Dama s sobachkoy) is a 1960 Soviet drama film directed by Iosif Kheifits. It was entered into the 1960 Cannes Film Festival. The film stars are Iya Savvina, Aleksey Batalov, Nina Alisova, Galina Barysheva, Zinaida Dorogova, Vladimir Erenberg, Yakov Gudkin, Mikhail Ivanov, Panteleymon Krymov and Svetlana Mazovetskaya.
About the Story
The film is set in the 19th Century at Yalta, the popular Russian resort on the Black Sea. Dmitri Gurov, Moscow banker, meets Anna Sergeyevna from Saratov, also vacationing. Beautiful Anna walks her dog daily to the delight of the men who observe her. Both Dmitri and Anna are married and both are unhappy in their situations. Both have come to Yalta without their spouses. A romance soon blooms into an affair. After their summer romance ends, both return to their marriages.
Dmitri returns to his former life, bored with working and going to his club to play cards. He is haunted by Anna’s memory. At Christmas, Dmitri tells his wife he is going to St. Petersburg on business but actually goes to Saratov where he finally locates Anna who is attending an opera with her husband. Seizing an opportunity, he surprises her. She fears detection and promises to meet him in Moscow in a few weeks.
Anna meets Dmitri in Moscow, their love fully rekindles, but they are frustrated with the reality that their marriages cannot be dissolved and they must meet secretly from then on. They make tentative plans to meet in the future. The closing scene has Anna looking from the window of her Moscow room while Dmitri leaves in the cold of the Russian winter.
The Lady with the Dog (1960)
Directed by: Iosif Kheifits
Starring: Iya Savvina, Aleksey Batalov, Nina Alisova, Galina Barysheva, Zinaida Dorogova, Vladimir Erenberg, Yakov Gudkin, Mikhail Ivanov, Panteleymon Krymov, Svetlana Mazovetskaya
Screenplay by: Anton Chekhov, Iosif Kheifits
Production Design by: Isaak Kaplan, Berta Manevich
Cinematography by: Dmitri Meskhiyev, Andrei Moskvin
Film Editing by: Ye. Bazhenova
Makeup Department. V. Ulyanov
Music by: Nadezhda Simonyan
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Lenfilm
Release Date: January 28, 1960
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