Spring

This little known Soviet comedy from 1947, directed by Grigori Alexandrov, has a very interesting idea. Lyubov Orlova (one of the great Soviet female stars in the 1930s and 1940s) plays two roles here: she is a nationally celebrated but humorless scientist studying the use of solar power, and she is also a perky upcoming actress. A director (played by Nikolai Cherkassov, who played Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible in Sergei Eisenstein's films) wants to make a movie about the scientist's life. She initially refuses all help to the filmmakers so the director puts an ad in a newspaper to find a look alike actress to play the scientist. Eventually, the actress and the scientist get to meet (obviously their scenes together were made with split screens and other tricks). As they will get to know each other, and even switch roles, the actress will gain self confidence in herself, and the scientist will get to embrace her femininity and even find a place for love in her life.

The movie loses some momentum towards the end, but is a very fresh film, and it looks very modern considering is nearly 70 years old. Some aspects of the movie seem questionable, though. For example, was Moscow, just two years after the end of World War II, as prosperous a city as this film shows? Probably not. And from this movie, one could be forgiven to think that Stalinist Russia was a very fun place and era to live.

Romantic comedy. Having stumbled upon this picture by chance, staged by the outstanding Soviet director Grigory Alexandrov with Lyubov Orlova and Nikolai Cherkasov in the main roles, I did not think that I would find another lost diamond of Soviet cinema. Although, maybe I doubted in vain, because all of the above comrades have never let me down, especially Nikolai Konstantinovich. Now I could (for the first time since "Alexander Nevsky", "Ivan the Terrible" and "Deputy of the Baltic") enjoy his acting for almost two hours - and it was worth it. After all, in the company of such wonderful artists, time flies imperceptibly, and the picture itself looks easy and at ease. Moreover, I got a restored version, where the picture was tightened and (as far as possible) the sound was cleared. I, after viewing, was extremely pleased with the picture. And here's my brief opinion for you - Another lost diamond of Soviet cinema. I want to note right away that there are no shortcomings in the picture (because technical aspects, combined filming, noticeable and crooked editing at the beginning of the picture, some naivety of the script are not considered), so you should focus your attention on the expressive advantages of this masterpiece.

So, here they are: 1. Scenario - a well-known film director comes to the Institute of the Sun with the idea of making a film about a Soviet scientist, comrade Irina Petrovna Nikitin, who is not enthusiastic about this, but reluctantly agrees to it. And the role of Nikitina will be played by a young operetta artist Vera Georgievna Shatrova - for whom this is the first role in a movie. But the director of the Shatrova theater does not want to lose such a valuable frame, and gives her the first role in the upcoming operetta, and in order not to upset him, Shatrova comes up with a plan to replace herself with Nikitina. It would seem that everything is fine - the girls only need to replace each other in different places for one day, but this is what becomes the catalyst for many curious situations in which each of the girls will be able to sort themselves out, find their love and reject their complexes. Yes, the script seems a little naive, although besides the main one there are other scenario lines that are no less good than the main one (I'm talking about the heroine of Faina Georgievna Ranevskaya). Dialogues make you watch and listen without stopping, because they also have a certain philosophy. And the finale will only grandly complete this well-told and shown story.

2. The atmosphere is a light romantic comedy with some elements of fiction, bright and prescribed characters, we can even see a behind-the-scenes movie here. And all this is in the scenery of post-war Stalinist Moscow with its two-story trolleybuses, monumental knowledge, numerous front-line soldiers with an entire iconostasis on their tunic. And the picture is full of hopes for a better future and charges the viewer with this very well. Because after watching it, I wanted to sing along with the heroes and build communism (although there is not much ideology in the picture, which is somewhat surprising).

3. Aesthetics - the picture looks just wonderful, there are no unnecessary details, suits and dresses sit as they should, cars and streets literally sparkle with cleanliness, as well as rooms inside and outside. The painting is full of bright colors, despite the fact that it is black and white. Not every old painting manages to achieve such an effect, and it should be appreciated.

4. Faina Georgievna Ranevskaya - she has a supporting role here, but she even played it with a twist. What an irony! What sarcasm! What a subtle mockery of some dubious personalities, and ridiculing some of the vices of society! Her phrases from this picture have long been disassembled into quotes (and about beauty, that this is a terrible force, too). The main thing here is not to burst with laughter.

5. Romance - and, although the heroines replaced each other for only one day, but it was enough for them both to fall in love, and during that day they understood and changed themselves for the better, and the men understood and accepted their incorrect prejudices and themselves also changed for the better. You believe in these feelings!

6. Acting - I will not list all the famous artists that played here, otherwise the review may take too long. Therefore, you can not even worry about acting. It is there (unlike modern Russian (and not only) cinema), and it is simply magnificent, because it is the Soviet old school, such artists are no longer made!

7. Humor - yes, you should not expect enchanting laughter here, but the local humor will definitely lift your mood, because there are enough funny moments here, and just funny improvisations too. There is also an intellectual humor that requires a certain erudition.

A little about the main characters: 1. Irina Nikitina\Vera Shatrova performed by Lyubov Orlova - Lyubov Petrovna plays two roles here at once - a scientist and an artist, who are neither similar in character nor manners, but that's why everything succeeded. Now I understand why Lyubov Petrovna was loved by almost all residents of the vast Soviet Union. She is a real talent, and she is able to transform into a completely different character that she played a minute earlier. Bravo!

2. Arkady Gromov, played by Nikolai Cherkasov, is a typical film director who thinks he is smarter than others and that he knows people and real life, until Nikitina (under the guise of Shatrova) explained to him what is how. At the same time, Comrade Gromov is a sensitive and demanding leader who can take any person out of stress, and he will agree with reasonable criticism. Here Nikolai Konstantinovich again pleased, although here he appears in his true form, and his sonorous voice is already easily recognized. Bravo!

3. Margarita Lvovna performed by Faina Ranevskaya is Nikitina's housekeeper, who has her own line and her own problems. Faina Georgievna here again pleases the audience with her acting and her phrases. Bravo!

You can also cancel Rostislav Plyatta in the role of Bubentsov - a summer and a deceiver who became a scientific consultant to Gromov and the entire film crew, and many more. To be honest, you can talk a lot about this picture, about references (a song about the captain, for example), about science and cinema, about feelings between people and so on. But we won't go into it, because I don't want to spoil the viewing for those people who haven't watched this masterpiece of Soviet cinema yet.

My rating is 10 out of 10 and my recommendation for viewing!

The film by Grigori Aleksandrov has its good moments and gags, a beautiful cinematography, and a nice general idea (visually identical actress and scientist swap their roles while a movie about the latter was to be made, and, while they deceive, there is a lot of learning for everybody about life, conventional wisdom, and love). The problem is that the movie is too slow and tepid. Its greatest merit, for sure and by far, is the fantastic performance by Lyubov Orlova. Much more than the director's wife, she was a top actress in Soviet cinema. Orlova was able to perform well two characters with very different personalities and mood, and also both women disguising themselves as if they were the oher one. This Soviet comedy reminded me a lot a genre of cinema which would be very popular in Brazil in the following decade, called Chanchada, which consisted in light-hearted and often chaotic musical comedies. The difference is obvious: in Spring there is no samba, but some patriotic propaganda. Aleksandrov had been a partner of Eisenstein, directing Oktober with him, but eventually directed alone several comedies. This one is better than his The Shining Path, but it is much worse than funny and smart Volga-Volga.

Can you imagine a Stalin-era musical shot in 1947 in which Muscovites own cars and telephones (which *work*!) and single lady scientists live in large apartments with their own housekeeper? Oh well, Hollywood didn't exactly show how real people lived in New York either.

"Vesna" (Spring) is a cross between "Ninotchka" (mannish Soviet career woman discovers silliness and sophistication) and "The Prince and the Pauper" - Shatrova, the singer-actress, exchanges roles with Nikitina, the renowned scientist whom she's supposed to portray in a lightweight movie, and each woman (both played by Lyubov Orlova, a real Soviet film star who's not especially glamorous but plenty talented) finds love in the other's universe.

None of this is very serious, but spotting the differences between this and similar formulaic Hollywood romantic comedies of the same era is half the fun. The make-up scene, in which Nikitina's thick spectacles are discarded, eyebrows plucked, lips made up, etc., by the movie-in-the-movie's makeup department, is the exact parallel, in a slightly provincial way, of a hundred such Hollywood scenes.

The film-making process (shot on location in Moscow's studios) is another world altogether: Mukhin, the saturnine and *very* seductive director, is the Stanislavski-like uncontested master of the set, expected to rule on form and content alike, giving an actor playing Gogol the right scansion for one of the writer's poems, or requesting imperiously the studio's source material on "love." (Huge leather-bound books of poetry and literature - take *that*, Louis B. Mayer!) No producer in sight (the director assumes part of those tasks); but the sound stage is cleared mid-afternoon when another film is scheduled to be shot for a few hours there: there's a charmingly academic style to this State-run view of film production.

The musical numbers are a hodgepodge to anyone used to ruthlessly calibrated Broadway-goes-Hollywood musicals; but the talent is no less than the Bolshoi ballet blending operetta with the real thing. Orlova sings like a dream and tap-dances alone à la Eleanor Parker; the camera tries (and doesn't quite succeed) for a Busby Berkeley effect; but the scene that stays in one's memory is the most Russian one: academics and scientists gathered round the piano during an improbably glamorous evening, singing together.

In the West, a romantic comedy like "Vesna" would belong to an earlier, pre-war era (Nikitina's monumental lab is true Art-Déco): by 1948, when it was released, Gene Kelly was dancing in the streets of New York on Leonard Bernstein's glorious score for "On The Town", changing the face of musicals. Still, it has a lot of charm, not least to show us a glimpse of what was expected to make Soviet viewers dream. See it if you can.

It is always funny to hear from somebody who has no idea what they are talking about :) Actually, high-rank scientists, administrators ( those who are called CEO now), actors/directors lived exactly like the heroine of this movie in 1947 Moscow. Stalin's famous quite - "personnel is the key to everything" was not just worthless slogan - Stalin DID pay his "personnel" enormous salaries that let them buy car, hire personal drivers and live-in maids - and built all those luxury apartment buildings in Moscow - with marble, granite, etc. as a matter of fact, Alekdandrov and Orlova themselves lived a life like those - plus had a right to go abroad almost every time they want!

But what i wanted to say about this movie - besides brilliant music of Dunaevsky, this one also presents wonderful acting by such masters of episode as Ranevskaya, Martinson, Rina Zelenaya ( just her "nobody wear such lips now, here, "sex-appeal #5", they will suit you better" is a masterpiece itself:). So, don't lose a chance to see this one!