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The Roaring Twenties (1939)
"The Fate of a Soldier in America"
Unlike most other American movies, this film was able to get on the screens of Soviet cinemas in 1952. Moreover, as a "trophy". Apparently, before the United States entered World War II, this film first came to Germany. Well, from there, as part of other trophies, it got into the Soviet Union.
True, this film was shown to the Soviet cinema audience under the changed name: "The Fate of a Soldier in America". If Soviet distributors could only know that after about 40 years, the fate similar to the fate of the heroes of "The Roaring Twenties" would be experienced by the soldiers of the Soviet army, who, by the will of the communist leaders, were involved into the war in Afghanistan! Absolutely having no idea why.
The phrase of one of the characters in the film, said about soldiers of the American army who returned from the fronts of the First World War, that they supposedly had a picnic in Europe, literally coincided in meaning with the phrase thrown already in real life by a Soviet doctor to crippled warrior: "I did not send you to Afghanistan."
The plight of many Afghan war veteran soldiers who were sent to war by one state and returned to a completely different country was often mentioned and written in the media at the turn of the 80s - 90s, in the so-called "era of glasnost and perestroika". Then the topic was slowly "damped down." Exactly - the topic, not the problem itself.
Of course, the scale of the problems of the American soldier of the 1920s and the Soviet "Afghan" warrior is incommensurable. The Americans returned from the war to a country in which only the Prohibition was just introduced. Our soldiers had to return to a country where the social system has completely changed. But the consequences of the changes that had to be adapted, and everyone adapted differently - unemployment, crime, inflation, etc. and etc. - both there and here turned out to be common.
Jak rozpetalem druga wojne swiatowa (1970)
Dolas the cannoneer: two different impressions
In Polish the movie was called "Jak rozpetalem druga wojne swiatowa". Translated into Russian, the name of the film looks like - "How I Unleashed World War II". But in our country it was released under the title "The adventures of Dolas the cannoneer".
Judging by the extremely small number of reviews on this film on IMDB and on the complete absence of references to this film on the Rotten Tomatoes website, this picture is practically unknown in the world. Except, perhaps, for Poland and Hungary. There is no data on the demonstration of the film in the USSR, but I definitely remember that I watched it being pupil of of either the 6th or 7th grade, i.e., somewhere in the beginning of 70-s.
And the second time I watched this movie recently. And it was interesting to compare my impressions with me then, half a century younger, and today.
I remember that then I laughed wildly at the session. A lot of funny moments in this movie.
Today, voluntarily or involuntarily, other points attracted attention. Well, firstly, I remember exactly that then, in the beginning of the 70s, the film consisted of two episodes and lasted a total of somewhere from two and a half to three hours. The full version, which I watched recently, lasts almost 4 hours and consists of 3 episodes. This is how much was cut out of the film by Soviet censorship! Weigh roughly - a whole third of the film. However, neither then nor today would I be able to sit in the movie theater for 4 hours on this film. It's good that now there is a lot of opportunities to watch movies at home on the couch.
Secondly, during a recent viewing, I drew attention to a phrase uttered by one of the female characters when the action took place in Yugoslavia: "The Germans will be here soon. They have already occupied Hungary." Then, in childhood, my friends and I did not pay much attention to this phrase. Of course, bad fascists occupied good Hungary. This is today, when we know that Hungary was the original and most faithful satellite of Nazi Germany and fought against the Red Army until the very end, when even the Germans themselves began to give up, this phrase cuts the ear. Since the Nazis had no need to "occupy" Hungary. At least, in 1939-1940.
Thirdly, I do not remember whether the episode with the Polish officers in the POW camp was present in the version that was shown in Soviet times, or not. Most likely not. Now compare with numerous photo documents about the camp conditions for Soviet officers in German camps for POWs. And as they say, feel the difference.
Such a comparison is especially relevant today, when some Polish, and not only Polish, politicians decided to attribute the beginning of the World War II exclusively to Germany and the Soviet Union.
However, I think that everyone who watched this film in the 70s and watched it today will be able to find other changes in their impressions.
Svadba (1944)
A real constellation
In the West, sometimes the number of stars employed in a picture is used as a measure of the merits of a film. If this criterion could be applied to the "Marriage", it would probably be recognized as one of the most worthy films of the century. In fact, the film features: 11 people's artists of the USSR, 2 people's artists of the RSFSR, 4 honored artists of the RSFSR. Moreover, not all were indicated in the credits.
Of course, at the time of the film's creation, many of its actors did not yet have all the regalia that they had been awarded for their entire creative lives. But we are not talking about official ranks and awards, but about the highest level of talent of the star collective assembled by Isidor Annensky. This team, combined by a talented director with the genius of Chekhov, ensured the creation of a film masterpiece for centuries. A masterpiece in which each frame, each episode, each replica is a separate work of art.
Due to the historical features of the moment the picture was released, it did not participate in film festivals. What festivals in 1944?! Judging by the lack of reviews of professional Western film critics, the picture is poorly known in the West. Perhaps only in 1945, in the wave of the allied mood, it was shown in the United States and some European countries. And that's it. So, once again, you can sympathize with the audience of Western countries, which, due to the most severe censorship, are deprived of the opportunity to see some Soviet film masterpieces.
Neotpravlennoye pismo (1960)
Film of a difficult fate
The fate of the film otherwise, as difficult, can not be called. The film was nominated for the Palm d'Or of the Cannes Film Festival in 1960 and was scheduled to be shown on May 17th. However, literally on the eve of presentation the application for the film in the competition program of the film festival was withdrawn. Although, as we all know, all countries, all film companies and all directors, not to mention actors, are passionately interested in participating in international film festivals. Moreover, such prestigious as Cannes.
There are two versions of the explanation of the reasons for such an emergency withdrawal of the application. According to the official, the director of the film, Mikhail Kalatozov, suddenly wanted to fix something in the film, so that by the premiere in the USSR, scheduled for June 27, the film would not have a single flaw. According to the second, unofficial version, the application was withdrawn by the leaders of the USSR State Committee for Cinematography, who suddenly realized that the film shows how the means for socialist industrialization (in the film - diamonds) are sought at the cost of human lives (in the film - of geologists).
For me personally, the second version seems to be more plausible. And that's why. The film is brilliant! Filmed by director Kalatozov and cameraman Sergei Urusevsky, both are triumphants of the Cannes Film Festival in 1958 for the film "The Cranes Are Flying." Top actors of the then Soviet cinema play in the film: Innokenty Smoktunovsky, Yevgeny Urbansky and incomparable Tatyana Samoilova. The high class of the picture also underlines the fact that literally the next year the film was released on European screens, and a year later - on the screens of US cinemas. But I don't remember whether this film was shown in the USSR in the 1960s - 1970s.
However, human memory is an unreliable tool. Therefore, I turned to Kinopoisk for information on the number of viewers who watched this film in its first year. No such information! About the films that were released on the screens in the same years, for example, "The Ballad of a Soldier," there is such data. About earlier films, for example, "The Cranes Are Flying" or "True Friends", etc., there is such information. And about the "Letter Never Sent" - no! What can it say? Either the film was taken off the screen immediately after the premiere, or released in such a limited number of copies that it cites data on the viewing of a Soviet film in the Soviet Union by the number of viewers smaller than, say, in France, to put it mildly, uncomfortable. This is why data is absent.
And no more any nomination for any film festival. Although it would seem that the premiere took place, it means that the director eliminated all the flaws. Why not to nominate? Especially since Tatyana Samoilova, after "The Cranes Are Flying," was in world cinema a star of the first brightness.
After the premiere of this film in New York, The New York Times responded - a rare case! - quite a benevolent review, however, without attribution. So, we can assume that this review reflects the opinion of the entire editorial board of the newspaper. Of course, a significant part of the review was dedicated to our great Actress Tatyana Samoilova. But the film itself was addressed very flattering epithets: "FOR sheer photographic pull and intensity, "The Letter That Was Never Sent" is unlike any other Russian film drama in many years, ...a truly rare movie, stark in content and setting, pretentious and obscure at times, but of a marvelous pictorial texture. See this unorthodox Russian movie, hold on (like the determined cast) and we guarantee it will get you."
And therefore it is not at all surprising that Francis Ford Coppola in 1995 funded the restoration and re-rental of this painting in the United States. Perhaps this is due to the fact that of all countries, this film has the highest rating in the United States. Overall, 64% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users around the world gave this film a rating of 8 to 10.
Based on the foregoing, the rating of the film according to the FilmGourmand's version is 7.826. And this low rating is due primarily to the fact that the Soviet leadership at one time prevented the participation of the film in any film festivals and narrowed the scope of the film to the maximum extent possible in cinemas. But, nevertheless, the film is included in the FilmGourmand's Golden Thousand with Rank 947.