The Young Lady and the Hooligan (1918) User Reviews

Let the Classes Unite!

[boblipton · 6/10 · 16 November 2018]

Shy Aleksandra Rebikova comes to a small village and is assigned to teaching adults to read and write. Her rowdy pupils distress her, particularly surly Vladimir Mayakovsky, who hands in a classroom assignment with the words "I love you." Believing herself mocked, she tears it up. He stops coming to class, but when they meet in the street, he tries some rough wooing. Her other students come to appreciate her efforts and respect her, The men gang up and beat Mayakovsky to a pulp.

Mayakovsky not only stars, he co-directed and co-wrote the script; although he died in 1930, only 36, he was a playwright whose works were being turned into movies as late as 1977.

In western movies of this sort, the usual course of events would be that the crude peasant would study hard and prove himself worthy of the young lady's love. Mayakovsky's work urges the intelligentsia to make the effort to understand and succor and yes, love their bottom-class students on their own terms.

Moving without being sentimental

[guy-bellinger · 8/10 · 22 September 2008]

Thank you Bach Film for adding this rarely seen short film as a bonus to the Medvedev "Le Bonheur" DVD. It is wonderful to be able to see, alive on the screen, the great Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, in one of the rare films he wrote (in fact he penned eleven scripts, only few of which became films), interpreted and directed (co-directed, actually, with cinematographer Evgueny Slavinsky). In this loose adaptation of famed Italian novel 'Cuore', he plays the hooligan of the title - a bad boy yes but with a tender heart, who falls in love with the young school teacher teaching him and a bunch of rowdy male students of all ages to read and write. Feeling harassed by the young man, the girl feels more scared than attracted to him. But at the ultimate moment while the young man is on his dying bed, she finally comes to him and give him a consoling kiss.

The direction is rather static but what is wonderful is how modern the acting is : Mayakovsky and Alexandra Rebikova, the young actress, never overplay as was customary (and understandable) in silent movies. Moreover the film being projected in normal speed it looks as if they were being filmed today in period costumes.

Another good point of the film is its lack of sentimentality. The emotion is always underplayed, never thrust at you like in a cheap melodrama. In the end this tragic story of an impossible love lingers on in your mind long after the last fade to black. And the true emotion we feel is reinforced when we think of the tragic destiny of Mayakovsky, who took his life at the age of 37, disappointed by life and by the communist regime he had believed in.

The last point of interest is historical. Indeed 'La Demoiselle et le Voyou' is a good description of the revolutionaries' determination to educate the people. In this film, what is of particular interest is that it shows teaching adults to read and write was no bed of roses, the new students not being necessarily well-bred and willing to learn. The description is realistic and not idealized as would have been the case in a propaganda work.

Don't hesitate to see this film even if in the Bach copy there are only two insert titles, which does not make the understanding of the story too easy, especially at the beginning.

A Love Poem for Lili Brik?

[p_radulescu · 10/10 · 20 February 2012]

Was this movie a love poem for Lili Brik? Majakovsky wrote the screenplay, co-directed the movie and played in it. The plot follows a story written by Edmondo de Amicis in 1895 (La maestrina degli operai - The Workers' Young Schoolmistress), adapting it to the Russian universe of 1918, and to the universe of Russian avant-garde: the story of de Amicis breathes here of Constructivism; poetry, enthusiasm and a very realist depiction of society, far from the triumphalism of later Soviet movies.

A young schoolmistress comes to a remote village to teach pupils who are between 10 and 50. A bum comes to the school having in mind to seduce her, but he is falling in love. The bum is played, you gotcha, by Mayakovsky himself. The schoolmistress feels terrorized by him, while realizing little by little his true love. The guy will die after a fight in the village, the woman will come to give him a kiss: the first and the last.

Chaplin would have made a very special poem from such a story, delicate like a ballet, but don't think at Chaplin: think at Mayakovsky, at all Constructivists, Vertov or Rodchenko, Klutsis or Lissitzky, whoever comes first. It's love here, while this is just an episode in the construction of the new epoch: the schoolmistress will continue to teach her pupils with ages from 10 to 50, as the new world needs qualified workers. Was Lili Brik okay with such a love poem? Well, I think so: after all she remained in history as the Muse of the Russian Avant-Garde!

Mayakovsky Acts!

[richardchatten · 8/10 · 13 April 2017]

Filmed in Petrograd just six months after the Russian Revolution, 'The Young Lady and the Hooligan' is a precious historical document both as a Soviet equivalent of 'Blackboard Jungle' stressing the contemporary importance of adult education, and as the only surviving film written, co-directed by and starring the great Russian poet, Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930), who displays both a vigorous command of the film medium and star quality as a screen actor.

Employing only one subtitle, Mayakovsky and his cameraman and co-director Yevgeni Slavinsky between them employ various silent screen camera tricks like double exposures, as well as combining naturalistic acting with authentic locations, depth of field and diagonal movement across the frame to give a timeless immediacy to a 99 year-old film very much rooted in its era.