Bed and Sofa

FISCHER

Petit chef- d'oeuvre soviétique du cinéma muet, étonnant, féministe et d'une évidente acuité humaine, commis par un cinéaste haut de gamme... www.cinefiches.com

mabsut

A gem.- a very unusual film by auteur Abram Broom, depicts the relationships, developments, and consequences of a love triangle which originated as a result of a housing shortage in Moscow in Soviet Russia in the 1920's. The depiction of sexually explicit relationships & a woman's right to choose her parner(s)is an aspect of early socialist philosophy.

dAlton Anthony

Quite honestly, I've never seen anything like this. I simply had no idea that such radical statements were being made about sexual politics and female liberation in 1927. I can't imagine anything remotely like it coming out of the United States. The film is a masterpiece on so many levels: lighting, montage, mise en scene, acting, plot development. For Eisenstein history is an epic. For Room it is a private affair.

pdxlibrarian

This 1927 Soviet film seems very modern - it deals with frank sexual situations and has a strong feminist flavor. I loved the cinematography, particularly the use of shadows and light.

Jason

Don't take her for granted, fellas. Can't be said w/ sufficient frequency or insistence. But often you will. And hopefully y'all get what you got comin'. What really distinguishes Bed and Sofa is its extremely odd (and not common!) combination of deadpan and burlesque. All three of these characters are kind of amusing monsters. It is actually the sociopolitical situation that is the real villain. Ah, the early days.

EdieEmm

Extraordinary silent Russian cinema with all the best of the art. Yet what's most fascinating is the way it demonstrates the timeless/subversive potential of moral ambiguity. Plenty of people were outraged by this, though few for the same reasons. Similarly, it's as easy, in 2017, to find its empowering feminist message as it might've been then to see a woman enslaved by her petit-bourgeouis indulgence. (Etc.) Wild.

Stigma

I have never been so happy to see a woman leave her man (or men, in this case) as I did tonight, at the end of Bed and Sofa. Found myself cheering and stomping mutely with a diabolic, almost-feminist glee in my eye. One of the loudest, most natural films I've seen in a very, very long time. It had more sound and dialogue to it than any talkie ever made. Brilliant experience of which I could talk for days. GREAT.

Funda Can Çuvalcı

I loved the ending, the woman's choosing her own fate... The theme of liberated woman could be part of the socialist philosophy; yet the film still surprised me as a Soviet period film focusing on private life and sexual politics. Other than this, the cinematography was nice.