Padeniye Berlina (1-r seria) (1949)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Mikheil Chiaureli

Writers:

Mikheil Chiaureli (writer)
Pyotr Pavlenko (writer)

Release Date:

15 September 1950 (Finland)

Genre:

War | Drama

Plot Keywords:

Factory | Molotov | General | Revisionist | Germany

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Mikheil Gelovani	...	Marshal Iosef Stalin
Boris Andreyev	...	Alexei Ivanov
Marina Kovalyova	...	Natasha Vasilnyeva (as M. Kovalyova)
V. Savelyev	...	Adolf Hitler
G. Timoshenko	...	Kostya Zavchenko
A. Urasalyev	...	Yusupov
Nikolai Bogolyubov	...	Factory Superintendent Kumchinsky
Jan Werich	...	Hermann Goering (as Y. Verikh)
Sofiya Giatsintova	...	Mother Ivanov (as S. Giatsyntova)
K. Roden	...	Charles Bedston
Viktor Stanitsyn	...	Prime Minister Winston Churchill
Oleg Frelikh	...	President Franklin D. Roosevelt
M. Novakova	...	Eva Braun
Vladimir Lyubimov	...	Gen. Vasilyevsky
M. Petrunkin	...	Josef Goebbels

Also Known As:

The Fall of Berlin (USA) (theatrical title)
The Fall of Berlin, Part One (literal English title)

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian

Color:

Color (Magicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Company:

Gosudarstvenii Komitet po Kinematografii (Goskino

Trivia:

The film was shot on Agfacolor stock that was taken from Germany after the fall of Berlin.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Padeniye Berlina (2-r seria) (1949)

A Birthday Present that Answers the Age Old Question....

A Birthday Present that finally answers the age old question of what to get the man who has everything. This film was presented to Stalin on his 70th birthday and is the archtypical Stalin Film. It is intriguing insight into the mindset of the man who ruled and terrorized 1/5 of all humanity and 1//2 of Europe by the film's 1949 release date. The acting, especially the Aliosha and Natasha love plot tied in with Stalin is poorly acted but makes all sense when you look at how Aliosha looks to Stalin for advice, because truth be told this film is a romance for Stalin. The special effects and lighting are excellent for a 1940s film and it is shot in a grand scale that matched the efforts of Kolberg, Gone with the Wind, and the 1926 Ben Hur.

The best parts of this film are the impressions of Churchill and Hitler. Minus Churchill speaking Russian, they have his lisp and mannerisms done exceedingly well. Hitler and Goering provide great charictatures and are humorously well done. At best its an intriguing insight into the delusions of madness that Stalin subjected his people to and at worst its a 2 hour festival of unintentional humor. I'd recommend it for any historian.