The Circus

1927
Directed and written by Charlie Chaplin
Duration: 1 hour 12 minutes

March 25
19:00

A tramp unexpectedly finds himself holding a wallet stuffed with large banknotes. However, this windfall did not come by chance — it was planted on him by a thief hoping to divert suspicion. But now the thief demands the money back and sets off in pursuit of the hero. In the ensuing chaos, the tramp ends up in a circus arena, where, in the middle of someone else’s act, he brings down the house and wins a storm of applause. He is immediately noticed by the performers, who try to recruit him into their troupe.

Yet life in the traveling circus is lively but not always happy: audiences are no longer entertained by outdated acts, and the performers suffer under a cruel director, merciless even toward his own daughter — a talented acrobat.

Originally, the film was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Direction of a Comedy Picture, Best Actor, Best Writing (Original Story), and Best Picture. However, the Academy removed the film from all nominations and instead awarded Charlie Chaplin a special honorary award “for versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing and producing, as displayed in The Circus.”

Prior to the screening, a lecture will be held exploring the theme of the circus in cinema and the figure of Charlie Chaplin; 40 min. 

The talk will be given by Dmitry Bakirov, film scholar and Associate Professor in the Department of Dramaturgy and Film Studies at the Saint Petersburg State Institute of Film and Television.




La Strada

1954
Directed by Federico Fellini
Duration: 1 hour 48 minutes

April 15
19:00

This is a neorealist story about a traveling troupe consisting of two people: the strongman Zampanò (Anthony Quinn) and the naïve Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina). Zampanò bought Gelsomina from her mother after Rosa, Gelsomina’s older sister, had died. Using a switch, he quickly taught her to play the drum and perform clown acts.

The film is about inhuman cruelty and human suffering, about the complex relationship between the slightly mad, somewhat saintly, disheveled, funny, clumsy, and tender Gelsomina and the dark, massive,  tough and brutish Zampanò—a woman and a man completely alien to one another, yet brought together by fate for reasons unknown.

The screening will be introduced by Natalia Kazurova, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Senior Researcher and Head of the Graduate School at the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, curator of the film program of the Festival of Eastern Arts in Saint Petersburg, program director of the “Days of Ethnographic Cinema” festival (Moscow), and author of the Telegram channel Cinephile Chronicles.



Trapeze

1956
Directed by Carol Reed
Duration: 1 hour 45 minutes

April 22
19:00

The story follows a young man who arrives in Paris to study under one of the few acrobats capable of performing the triple somersault on the trapeze. Under his mentorship, he begins preparing a unique act. Unexpectedly, a young beauty appears on the scene, willing to do anything to secure an engagement and avoid being left without work. By manipulating the young man, who instantly falls in love with her, she manages to join their act, much to the displeasure of the more mature and experienced partner. The personal feelings of all three put the performance at risk of collapse.

The screenplay, adapted by Liam O’Brien, is based on Max Catto’s novel The Killing Frost (1950). The film was shot entirely in Paris, at the Cirque d’Hiver and at the Billancourt Studios. Lancaster, a former circus acrobat, performed some of the stunts himself—though in the most difficult sequences he was doubled by Eddie Ward, a technical consultant from the Ringling Brothers Circus.

The film will be introduced by Vasily Gusak, film scholar, historian of photography, and curator of the ROSPHOTO museum collection.