Bed and Sofa

Bed and Sofa Russian is the English name of a 1927 Soviet silent film originally released in the Soviet Union as Tretya meshchanskaya, and is sometimes referred to as The Third Meschanskaya. In addition to the title, Bed and Sofa it was also released outside of the Soviet Union under the alternate titles of Three in a Cellar, Old Dovecots, and Cellars of Moscow. The film gets its Russian title from the street on which the main characters live, Third Meshchanskaia Street.

The story centers on the relationship of the three main characters. Liuda and her husband, Kolia, live in a oneroom basement apartment on Third Meschchanskaya Street, a pettybourgeois neighborhood in Moscow. She is bored and resentful with the constant succession of household duties and the cramped living conditions in which she must cook and attempt to organize her clothes, even though there is no place to put them. She spends her days idly, mostly by reading magazines, notably the popular at that time Soviet film fan magazine Soviet Screen Sovetskii ekran. Kolia works as a stonemason and is charming and goodnatured, but also dictatorial and egocentric. When Kolias old friend, Volodia, arrives in Moscow, he cannot find a place to live in the overcrowded city, due to a severe housing shortage which was still a major social problem ten years after the revolution. Kolia invites him to stay at their apartment, to sleep on the sofa.The apartment, which was cramped to begin with, is all of a sudden much smaller, which understandably annoys Liuda, but she puts it off as just another sign of Kolias disregard for her. Yet Volodia quickly wins her over by his helpful behavior, as well as bestowing her with gifts. There is a sexual tension between the two from his arrival, and when Kolia has to leave town for a job, Volodia takes advantage of his friends absence by openly seducing Liuda. A climax of this seduction comes when Volodia takes Liuda on a plane ride over Moscow. It is the first time she has left the apartment since the beginning of the film. ........

Source: Wikipedia