Dozhivyom do ponedelnika (1968)

Ilya Semenovich Melnikov is a history teacher in an ordinary Soviet high school. He is a very good teacher and his students and colleagues treat him with a great deal of respect. However, ... See full summary »

Director:

Stanislav Rostotskiy (as S. Rostotskiy)

Writer:

Georgi Polonsky (as G. Polonskiy)

Stars:

Vyacheslav Tikhonov, Irina Pechernikova, Nina Menshikova

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Vyacheslav Tikhonov	...	Ilya Semyonovich Melnikov
Irina Pechernikova	...	Natalya Sergeyevna Gorelova
Nina Menshikova	...	Svetlana Mikhaylovna
Mikhail Zimin	...	Nikolay Borisovich
Nadir Malishevsky	...	Televedushchiy (as N. Malishevskiy)
Dalvin Shcherbakov	...	Borya Rudnitskiy (as D. Shcherbakov)
Olga Zhizneva	...	Polina Andreyevna, maty Melnikova
Lyudmila Arkharova	...	Nadya Ogarysheva
Valeriy Zubarev	...	Genka Shestopal
Olga Ostroumova	...	Rita Cherkasova
Igor Starygin	...	Kostya Batishchev
Roza Grigoryeva	...	Sveta Demidova
Yuriy Chernov	...	Syromyatnikov
Lyubov Sokolova	...	Levikova (as L. Sokolova)
Arkadi Listarov	...	Vova Levikov (as A. Listarov)

Storyline

Ilya Semenovich Melnikov is a history teacher in an ordinary Soviet high school. He is a very good teacher and his students and colleagues treat him with a great deal of respect. However, Melnikov faces a lot of difficulties in his work. In particular, everybody at school is spreading rumors about Natalya Sergeyevna, an Enlish language teacher and a former student of Melnikov, being in love with him. Exhausted by his mental suffering, Melnikov asks the principal to allow him to quit his job. At the end of the week that is to become the last week of Melnikov's teaching career the students of his class write an in-class essay on how they understand happiness. Svetlana Mikhailovna, their Russian teacher, is shocked by what one of the students wrote in her essay, nevertheless, she allows her to read it in front of the class. The other students express support of their classmate. Melnikov gets involved in the conflict, after which he reconsiders his decision to quit...

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Plot Keywords:

russia | history teacher | teacher | school | schoolteacher | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Details

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian English

Release Date:

28 October 1968 (Soviet Union)

Also Known As:

Dozyjemy do poniedzialku

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kinostudiya imeni M. Gorkogo, Pervoe Tvorcheskoe Obedinenie

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

Nikolay Borisovich: You want to rest? To nurse your honesty? Let others build? And after we've finished building, you'll refrain from shaking our hands, saying, "You've gotten your hands dirty."
Ilya Semyonovich Melnikov: Depending on the kind of dirt, I might not want to shake hands.
Nikolay Borisovich: Exactly. That sums you up nicely.

User Reviews

This movie from the Brezhnev era is worth watching

In many films where teachers play an important role (("Dead poets society", 1989, Peter Weir), ("October Sky", 1999, Joe Johnston) they are self assured role models for their pupils. In "We'll live till monday" the teachers have problems and doubts of thier own. In this respect the film is more like "Twenty four eyes" (1954, Keisuke Kinoshita).

The year 1968 was a year of protest. Civil rights protests in the USA, Studentprotests in France and last but not least the Prague Spring protest in Czechoslovakia. The pupils in "We'll live till monday" also show signs of rebellion, but according to Western standards it is a very sheepish form of rebellion. However their indifference about the lessons of their history teacher of the 1917 october revolution may well have been very sensitive in the Brezhnev era.

One of the teachers is living with his mother and still single. The interference of his mother with his private live, and her attempts to raise his interests for women reminded me of many Ozu films (although in these films the single one is mostly a daughter).