Three Plus Two (found widescreen version of Soviet comedy film; 1963)
Theatrical poster.
Status: Found
Date found: 08 Jun 2014
Found by: Channel One Russia
Three Plus Two (Russian: Три плюс два) is a 1963 Soviet comedy film directed by Genrikh Oganesyan based on a play by Sergey Mikhalkov "Savages", and starring Natalya Kustinskaya, Natalya Fateeva, Andrey Mironov, Evgeniy Zharikov and Gennadiy Nilov. The film was theatrically released on July 3rd, 1963.
Plot
Three men vacation on a deserted beach near The Black Sea, trying to get away from women and society. However, two women arrive and try to claim the vacation spot as their own. The groups scheme to run each other off the beach.
Main Information
The film was shot in two versions: widescreen and standard. At that time, the technology of most Soviet cinemas did not allow for the display of widescreen anamorphic images, as there were no wide screens, anamorphic attachments, amplifiers, and blocks for reading magnetic stereophonic recordings (3 channels behind the screen and a channel for hall effects). All of this was only available in the largest city cinemas. Converting the widescreen version to a standard one, especially in color, using optical copying methods in film studios was also impossible, the necessary equipment was missing, which only appeared in the mid-1960s. Therefore, each scene was shot twice, primarily for the widescreen version, which was considered the main one. The widescreen version lasts for 99 minutes.
- The opening credits of the film show footage "featuring" the film crew, and the actors' surnames are written in the sand, washed away by a wave.
- Between the credits, there is footage showing a beach filled with vacationers.
For the "fullscreen" version, which lasts 88 minutes, scenes was done after the main filming for widescreen version.
Availability
The widescreen version of the film was stored in the Riga Film Studio until the collapse of the USSR, and after the collapse it was believed to be lost. For almost 50 years, the fullscreen version of the film was broadcast on Soviet, then Russian and post-Soviet television. However, the widescreen version of the film was found in the Gosfilmofond.
Fragments of the widescreen version of the film were shown on January 22nd, 2012 in the program "And Hello Again!"[1]. The television premiere took place on June 8th, 2014 on Channel One Russia[2], but it was shortened by 12 minutes to fit the broadcasting schedule[3]. On March 8th, 2015, the full uncut version of the film was broadcast on Channel One Russia[4].