“Pique-Dame is the second film made by Rasumny in Germany, but the print which has survived is largely incomplete. This is not the first adaptation of Puškin’s text. The first version dates back to 1910. Afterwards Ozep, in his first encounter with cinema, would write the script for a film directed by Jakob Protazanov and played by Ivan Mosjoukine and Vera Orlova, Pikovaja Dama (1917). The film is considered one of the most significative results of Tzarist Russian cinema; Jean Mitry wrote about it: “Balliouzek’s and Lilienberg’s sets, Slavinsky’s photography, the careful lighting, capable of stressing the dramatic traits of light and spatial depthness, the already perfected science of editing made of this film one of the early and most effective adaptations, and in particular the first stylistic feature of Tzarist Russia.” Rasumny’s version is therefore the third adaptation and precedes Ozep’s film, who in France would go back to his cinematic origins (La Dame de Pique, 1937), and another adaptation of Léonard Keigel’s work, made in 1966 with Dita Parlo”.

Francesco Pitassio