New Movie of Alexandra's bedroom

[BobAtchison]

The film October was commissioned to commemerate the 10th anniversary of the Bolshevik coup.  Sergei Eisenstein, the famed filmmaker, was commissioned to direct and produce it.  I have always been very interested in this film because he has a scene called "The Tsaritsa's Bedroom" which is supposed to be Alexandra's private bedroom in the Winter Palace.  I have never seen any images of this room anywhere but in this movie.  I have seen pictures of other rooms called Alexandra's beroom in the Winter Palace and they look nothing like this.  Those rooms are much more formal and the beds are completely different.

This room does look very like the Empress's bedroom in the Alexander Palace.  There are big differences.  The pattern in the curtains isn't right and the furniture is very similar - but not the same.  However I can't believe this is a set, it has too many personal things and it is so overdecorated that could only be a real room.  There are also shown a marble statue of that was in the Maple Room and a painting that was in the AP.  Later a man is shown with an Faberge item from the Mauve Room in his hand (not shown in my clip).  Also, it looks like the beds are the real beds from the AP bedroom.

It seems to me this is either the Empress's bedroom with fabrics and furniture brought in temporarily for the movie or else it's a virtual duplicate in the Winter Palace.  Now that explanation  \is entirely possible because this clip shows lots of eggs in it and the Empress sent her eggs like this to the Winter Palace.  We also know the rooms of the Empress were destroyed at the Winter Palace around this time.  But the fact that this room has the Empress's oratory on the right of the bed and the toilet on the right is exactly what we know was true at the AP.  If this is the AP it's the only film or image of both the oratory and the toilet I have ever seen.

But this is still a mystery - please go look at the clip at http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/movie2.html and post here what you think.  Perhaps somewhere there's an account of the filming of October that could clear this up...

This clip comes from Evergreen Video.

Bob

[LisaDavidson]

I can only give you an opinion. In my opinion, it's the Alexander Palace with fabrics added for technical effect perhaps?

[BobAtchison]

Thanks Lisa...

I noticed the light shown through thr drapery between the columns - which means it must be thin and unlined - that would not have been true of real Imperial drapes.  The chaise is brown not white as well - but it looks very similar.

[Mazukov]

From all the pictures I’ve seen it looks like the AP.even how they entered the bed-champer

[Mazukov]

I keep looking at this clip. I’ve even slowed it down and did a frame by frame play out. I’m going to stick with my assumption it's bed chamber in the AP. everything appears to be in the right places. Also the clutter of family items. I don’t think this room is a prop I think it’s the actual room.

[Arleen_Ristau]

Thank you for posting this Bob.  This is a wonder to see!  

I wish I could visit the AP, even with everything gone...but I am unable.  So I have to rely on the experts for opinions.  But I have a question. The wall hangings, they arn't the AP pattern, nor do they seem to be like the drapes....
When the Winter Palace was sacked there are pictures of Alexandra's wardrobe broken and ruined, most likely the bedroom was in the same condition.  Could it be that for the movie, they filmed in there with a lot of items from the AP and with new draperies (that I agree are NOT imperial) But then there is the fabric from the chairs, etc....what do they match?  Alexandra's rooms had everything matching.

Since so many eggs are there in the room I'm thinking Winter Palace.  But then the beds seem like the AP beds.    True mystery isn't it?   Maybe after Alexandra had her rooms decorated in the AP she loved them so much she recreated her bedroom in the same way, at the Winter Palace.  After all Elizabeth had done the decorating there and it wasn't to her own taste.

Someone ought to contact Edvard Radzinsky and ask him what he knows about it.  His father was a close friend of Sergei Eisenstein and he also worked with him making his movies, he was a writer.  Eisenstein saved his friend Radzinsky's life during the Jewish purges with his employment. Surely a lot of Eisenstein stories have survived in his family.....

I love the mystery of it....and can't wait to find out more.  It wrung my heart to look at the movie and see so many of Alexcandra's things.....

Arleen  

[Ortino]

I've played the clip over several times and it looks like the Alexander Palace. Everything seems to fit, even the clutter. Perhaps since Alexandra and Nicholas' bedroom at the AP was the best model they had they used that and called it their one at the Winter Palace? And is it supposed to be a silent film? I was wondering why there was no sound......

I wish I could visit the AP, even with everything gone...but I am unable.

Wait, what? Everything's gone?  

[BobG]

In the clip, as they rip apart the bedlothes, the fabric behind the bed on which all the icons are hanging moves in the breeze.  I had always assumed the beds backed up to a solid wall covered in the same cloth as the bedhangings.

Bob A., maybe you could tell us if it was feasible that all these precious icons would have been hung on a drapery?  My guess is that this is a set made to look like the Imperial bedroom, using actual items from the AP which at the time was being used as a museum, correct?  Additionally, there are so many views of the room, that I'm not sure they would have had the room to set up the camreas and get these shots, which would also make me think it was a set.

The fabric in the clip doesn't look like the AP or the WP fabric, but resembles in in style.

Just wanted to put in my thoughts.

BobG

[Sarushka]

And is it supposed to be a silent film? I was wondering why there was no sound......

I'm pretty darn sure this is a silent film. I don't remember precisely when the first sound film was made (I think it was Jazz Singer, with Al Jolson in 1927), but the first sound cartoon (Steamboat Willie) premiered in November of 1928. I believe October was made in 1927, which would put it right on the edge of the sound era.

[Tsarfan]

I'm not sure which Palace was used to film this scene, but I think it was filmed in an actual room and not on a movie set.

The camera shots, particularly for shots with so many people and so much action, are very close-in and claustrophobic.  A movie set is always built with an open side so that the camera can encompass such action with long shots.  Even when a director wants to do close-in shots for effect, he almost always mixes them with longer shots.  It's the longer shots that give the viewer an orientation to the space and keep the close shots from becoming visually confusing.  A director as talented as Eisenstein would certainly have understood this.

As one tries to do wider angles at closer quarters, lens curvatures move into the fish-eye range, which begins to distort the relationships of objects to each other and to produce curvature on the edges of the image.  The only way to avoid that effect when filming in a four-sided space is to keep all the shots relatively close-in . . . which is exactly what Eisenstein is doing here.

Also, there are some odd size relationships of the people to the objects.  For example, about 40% into the clip a soldier runs past a porcelain-topped lavatory table that looks bigger than it should be in relationship to the soldier.  On a film set, this problem is dealt with by building the set and its contents to 9/10 scale.

I think Eisenstein was using real objects in a real room to film this scene.

[Mazukov]

Looking at this clip and the items within it. It can’t be anywhere else but the AP. The closeness of everything and the cramped quarters. If this was a set it would have been build to show grandeur only if for the effects it would have on film. If this is the case of it being the bed chambers in the AP then we have  a visual of this room that we haven’t had before.

[Sarushka]

I noticed the light shown through thr drapery between the columns - which means it must be thin and unlined - that would not have been true of real Imperial drapes.  The chaise is brown not white as well - but it looks very similar.

Is it possible that this is the AP, but with substitute objects brought in due to the destructive nature of the scene? The palace was a museum at the time, right?

No matter where it was shot, the person responsible for the set was clearly VERY familliar with the Imperial bedroom -- they even used doubled-stacked lace-edged pillows on the beds, and drapes with tasseled ties, for crying out loud!

[Geniebeanie]

Even if it is a reproduction of her bedroom.     It is a interesting sight.    I personally think someone  who knew what it looked like helped in the film.
Thank you for a interesting film.

[Princess_Olishka]

I agree, it's rather an interesting film - along with all the other media presentations! And welcome to the AP, Geniebeanie!

Ol.

[Geniebeanie]

Thank you for the welcome.    I used to belong as Genevieve, then I had a fire in my old apartment building.   Moved into another apartment, do not have a phone right now.  So I got Comcast.   Could not acess this forum with my old address.
So I resigned up with my new email address.  I am so happy to be back.