- Actors: Vera Alentova, Irina Muravyova, Aleksey Batalov, Raisa Ryazanova, Aleksandr Fatyushin
- Directors: Vladimir Menshov
- Writers: Vladimir Menshov, Valentin Chernykh
- Format: Colour, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
- Language Russian
- Subtitles: English
- Region: Region 1 (US and Canada DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3 - 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: Unrated (US MPAA rating. See details.)
- Studio: Kino Video
- DVD Release Date: 24 Feb 2004
- Run Time: 142 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00019G4TQ
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 71,020 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This is one of the most captivating love stories I've ever seen on film. It starts with a young woman (Katya, played by Vera Alentova) reporting to her Worker's Dormitory friends that she has flunked by two points the exam to get into university. It ends with the most incredible sweetness of life.
It is like a French film done by a Russian company (which is what it is). The Moscow we see that does not believe in tears does believe in love, and it is not a Moscow of politics, although some people do call one another "comrade." This is a woman's point of view film (a "chick flick") that transcends any genre cage. It begins slowly, almost painfully dull in a way that will remind the viewer of all the cliches about Russia, the unstylish dress, the worker's paradise that isn't, the sharp contrast between Moscow and the peasants who live outside the city. Katya works in a factory. She works at a drill press. She is obviously underemployed. Lyudmila (Irina Muravyova) works in a bakery. She is probably gainfully employed for the time and place. They are friends, twentysomethings who are on the make for a man, but not a man from the sticks. They pretend to be university post docs or something close to that and they impress some people as they house-sit a beautiful Moscow apartment.
This is how their adult life begins in a sense. Lyudmila falls in love with an athlete; Katya becomes infatuated with a television cameraman. One thing leads to another and before we know it they are forty. Neither relationship worked out. The athlete becomes an alcoholic, the cameraman, in the sway of his mother, believes that Katya is beneath him (once he finds out that she works in a factory). How wrong he is, of course.
But no more of the plot. I won't spoil it. The plot is important. The characterizations are important. The story is like a Russian novel in that it spans lots of time, but once you are engaged you will find that the two and a half hours fly by and you will, perhaps like me, say at the end "What a great movie!"
My hat is off to director Vladimir Menshov and to Valentin Chernykh who wrote the script and to the cast. I've mentioned Vera Alentova and Irina Muravyova, but Aleksey Batlov who played Gosha was also excellent. I don't want to say anymore. Just watch the film. It is one of the best I've ever seen.
It is like a French film done by a Russian company (which is what it is). The Moscow we see that does not believe in tears does believe in love, and it is not a Moscow of politics, although some people do call one another "comrade." This is a woman's point of view film (a "chick flick") that transcends any genre cage. It begins slowly, almost painfully dull in a way that will remind the viewer of all the cliches about Russia, the unstylish dress, the worker's paradise that isn't, the sharp contrast between Moscow and the peasants who live outside the city. Katya works in a factory. She works at a drill press. She is obviously underemployed. Lyudmila (Irina Muravyova) works in a bakery. She is probably gainfully employed for the time and place. They are friends, twentysomethings who are on the make for a man, but not a man from the sticks. They pretend to be university post docs or something close to that and they impress some people as they house-sit a beautiful Moscow apartment.
This is how their adult life begins in a sense. Lyudmila falls in love with an athlete; Katya becomes infatuated with a television cameraman. One thing leads to another and before we know it they are forty. Neither relationship worked out. The athlete becomes an alcoholic, the cameraman, in the sway of his mother, believes that Katya is beneath him (once he finds out that she works in a factory). How wrong he is, of course.
But no more of the plot. I won't spoil it. The plot is important. The characterizations are important. The story is like a Russian novel in that it spans lots of time, but once you are engaged you will find that the two and a half hours fly by and you will, perhaps like me, say at the end "What a great movie!"
My hat is off to director Vladimir Menshov and to Valentin Chernykh who wrote the script and to the cast. I've mentioned Vera Alentova and Irina Muravyova, but Aleksey Batlov who played Gosha was also excellent. I don't want to say anymore. Just watch the film. It is one of the best I've ever seen.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
There is a reason why this movie won the Oscar for the best foreign language film in 1981. The reason is pretty simple: it is one of less than a handful of Soviet movies that represented life as it was. The story is about three girlfriends and their lives. I will not explain the story here for one has to see it to understand it and I am not a fan of spoilers.
This is not a history masterpiece or a family-friendly comedy that the 70's and 80's were famous for in USSR, but rather a life story that touched many hearts and in fact is still easily understood by most Russians.
If you ever wanted to understand modern Russian culture and where it comes from, this movie will provide you with enough examples and explanations.
Enjoy it...
This is not a history masterpiece or a family-friendly comedy that the 70's and 80's were famous for in USSR, but rather a life story that touched many hearts and in fact is still easily understood by most Russians.
If you ever wanted to understand modern Russian culture and where it comes from, this movie will provide you with enough examples and explanations.
Enjoy it...
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This film does all that can be expected of the greatest movies in that It operates on several levels at once. The tableau might have been Soviet life as the Soviets would have wanted us to see it but the film maker in this case all too clearly had his own ideas. First we see a working girl (Katya) returning to her hostel after having minimally failed her exams. Katya is honest but naive. Her two room mates Ludmilla, and Antonina are equidistantly spaced from Katya on the three points of the circle; Antonina a sensible girl, settled and betrothed to a boring but stable man, (Kolya), and Ludmilla, a snobbish, man chasing social climber. When Ludmilla discovers that Katya is to mind an apartment for her aunt on posh (yes, this is the Soviet Union) Revolution Square, she muscles in and organises a party there for Moscow's elite - all men, what else - claiming that she and Katya are from high society themselves. Katya meets a TV cameraman at the party who she thinks she loves. She is desperate to maintain the line that she is a professor's daughter and not a factory worker, lest he throws her over. He eventually discovers the truth and does just that, he being too good for her. The greatness of this film is that as Katya's life progresses, the opposite scenario unfolds, she rises to the position of factory director before a chance meeting on a train of a man (Gosha) that she really does fall for. He is an ordinary toolmaker, proud of his status and unsuspecting that she is anything other than a fellow worker herself and earning less than he does. She is terrified once again that he will discover her real position in life in case, just as before, he throws her over. A nasty complication arises in the form of the original cameraman lover, who having made the discovery of her elevation, is now reinterested. He puts in an unwelcome appearance on the couple and imparts to Gosha the dreaded news. After another crisis the story ends happily. This is a very great film. The fact that you can watch it repeatedly, like the re reading of a good book, says it all.
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