E.L. Voynich Goes to the Cinema. A Comparative Study of the Soviet Film Versions of The Gad y (1928, 1955, 1980)

The great popularity of E.L. Voynich’s The Gad y (1897) in USSR is attested by the cine- ma: three lm adaptations were released in the relatively short space of 50 years. Many cultural changes occurred within this time, but the book (compulsory reading at school) continued to be considered relevant by Soviet artists, including lm directors and screen- writers. However, these adaptations proved to be very different from one another not only owing to developments in lm technique, but, above all, regarding the elements from the original plot that had been depicted. My research aims to highlight these latter discrepancies through a mainly linguistic and visual comparison both between the novel and each lm and between the three lms. As one could notice, each adaptation emphasizes a particular aspect of the novel, thus diminishing and omitting others, sometimes even adding elements that are completely alien to the plot written by Voynich. In brief, three Soviet lms based on the same novel convey rather different messages: the rst lm (1928) make Voynich’s work a tool of athe- istic propaganda, the second one (1955) exaggerates the patriotic theme, and the last one (1980) is focused on the psychology of the hero. I have also tried to understand to what extent these distortions of meaning may have been in uenced by the events and the ideological context of the time.