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iouri-belov
LinkedIn profile: www.linkedin.com/in/belov/
My old IMDB profile (ybelov): www.imdb.com/user/ur0811570/
Contact: iouri.belov (at) gmail.com
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An error has ocurred. Please try againI also recommend: "Фильм, фильм, фильм" (Film, Film, Film) https://youtu.be/EdwSmmXU6JM (no subtitles, better video quality) https://youtu.be/Lyibpa6L59E (English subtitles)
All my lists: https://www.imdb.com/user/ur31165138/lists
Reviews
31 iyunya (1978)
History behind the film
J. B. Priestley was considered a safe writer in the USSR, so the scriptwriter changed the story knowing the censors wouldn't read the original.
The film director managed to give main parts to ballet dancers, despite resistance of the Mosfilm management. Dancers were considered unreliable: quite a few of them didn't return from foreign tours.
The shooting took place in the pavilions of Mosfilm in the summer of 1978, with the exception of Melicent and Sam's trip to nature. The musical "An Ordinary Miracle" was shot nearby at the time, and one can see that the kings in both films wear the same crown.
All music was arranged and recorded at Alexandr Zatsepin's home studio, technically superior to that at Mosfilm. Due to censorship, he had to make over 30 amendments: "I was told that my music is old stuff of capitalism, all performers should be replaced, and the film itself should be banned." The dancers' too revealing outfits dissatisfied the censors as well.
Next year, the management's fears about dancers materialised: during a Bolshoi Theater tour to the USA, Alexander Godunov (Lemisson) asked for political asylum. His wife Lyudmila Vlasova (Ninette / Ann) returned to Moscow after three days of detention of the Soviet plane by American authorities, who investigated whether her return was voluntary. Godunov and Vlasova's relation during this crisis and afterwards strangely resembled those of their characters in the film! As a result, the film was shelved for 7 years.
In the early 1980s, when Zatsepin left for France, also the songs were banned. The most absurd was the ban on the song "The World without My Beloved": this phrase seemed an allusion to the emigrated Taganka Theatre director, Yuri Lyubimov. And in the song "Star Bridge" officials saw propaganda of the American "Star Wars" programme.
Uchitel peniya (1973)
Good, a bit naive Soviet film
The plot is simple and even somewhat naive, as in many Soviet films, especially for children. I saw it in my early childhood, when it came out.
A teacher conducts a boys' choir in a secondary school. The boys love the teacher's dog, which always attends their rehearsals. One day the dog gets lost. Meanwhile the teacher's family moves to a new apartment, so the teacher comes to spend nights in the old apartment, where there is already a new family, and during day-time someone of the boys is on duty there to wait for the dog. Eventually, the dog returns.
The film stars several famous Soviet actors: Aleksandr Demyanenko (everybody in Russia knows him as Shurik in such hits as "Kidnapping Caucassian Style" and "Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future"), Yevgeni Yevstigneyev (famous for "The Dog's Heart", "Beware of the Car" and many other films) and Irina Alfyorova (her first role). The main part is played by Andrei Popov, who is better known for his part of Zakhar in "Oblomov".
Prikhodite zavtra... (1962)
A touching and realistic film
This is a story of a young girl, a talented singer, who comes to Moscow from the Siberian taiga to become a professional singer. She tries to enter the Music Institute and, finding out that the exams are already over, she nevertheless does everything possible to become a student.
Notable facts:
- The film script was written by the director Evgeny Tashkov with his wife Ekaterina Savinova, who played the main part (Frosya Burlakova). It reflected real events in Savinovas's life.
- Ekaterina Savinova not only played her part and sang all the songs, but also recorded the sound for Nadezhda Zhivotova (the housewife at the sculptor's home).
- Evgeny Tashkov lent his voice to Anatoly Papanov (the sculptor Nikolai) and also appeared briefly as the man in sunglasses.
- Boris Bibikov (Professor Sokolov) was Savinova's teacher at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography.
- Savinova could not get work in the Mosfilm Studio, because she had rejected courtship of Ivan Pyryev, who was the director of the film "Cossacks of the Kuban" (1950), in which Savinova played, and then Mosfilm's director. Therefore, the film "Come Tomorrow..." was shot at the Odessa Film Studio.
- When a third of the film was ready, a commission from Moscow saw it and tried to stop it. With the help of the film director Mikhail Romm, Tashkov managed to complete the film. However, even after the release, bureaucrats tried to stop the film accusing the authors of opposing socialist realism (especially in the scene, where the sculptor breaks his works).
- Savinova got ill with brucellosis after drinking infected milk on a market. The intensive work on this film aggravated her condition. She was hospitalised and therefore the shooting of the film took two years instead of one. Later the illness developed into schizophrenia. In 1964, Savinova played brilliantly the part of Matryona in "Balzaminov's Marriage". In 1970, Ekaterina Savinova committed a suicide by throwing herself under a train.
- In 2011, the film was restored and colourized.
- In 2020, I translated the film into English, French, Swedish, Finnish, and also added Russian subtitles.