4.0 out of 5 stars
Two interesting early Russian films, Oct 18 2011
This review is from: Outskirts/the Girl With the Ha (DVD)
The Girl With the Hatbox" is the real prize in these two films. A cute, charming
silent comedy of Russian girl who travels between her home in the country and
an apartment owned by a greedy, rich couple in Moscow.
She meets a poor student with nowhere to go, and ends up marrying him to give
him the right to stay in the apartment although the marriage starts as just a platonic
arrangement. Lots of hi-jinx ensue, almost all well acted, and I found myself enjoying
it way more than I expected to. Yes, there are some over the top performances, and
a couple of unneeded sub-plots, including our heroines cruel ignoring of the post man
who is in love with her, but overall this is a breezy, sweet comedy, well worth watching.
"Outskirts" is an interesting, if not totally successful and sometimes awkward mix of
comedy and drama, expressionism and realism in a study of small town life and the
horrors of WW I. Some wonderful photography, but distractingly bad post-dubbed sound.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Eye-opening comedies from the USSR, Jun 13 2004
This review is from: Outskirts/the Girl With the Ha (DVD)
As I write this the DVD is not out yet, but I have seen both films theatrically and am confident that preservationist David Shepard will bring them to DVD in fine form. Shepard has brought out several releases which would change anyone's preconception of heavyhanded, doctrinaire Soviet cinema, and this pair ranks with the remarkable comedy Bed and Sofa (also highly recommended) and establishes the little-known-outside-Russia Barnet as sort of the Billy Wilder of Soviet cinema, a cynical yet warm and funny observer of society and character with a great eye for the telling comic detail. Outskirts is an early talkie comedy, and the rougher but also the more adventurous of the two, a series of quick sketches of life in some nowhere burg as World War I breaks out a long ways away. Officially, it's set before the Revolution, and thus the cynical attitudes on display are directed at the old regime, but it's hard not to see it as a plea from the Russian peasantry for the outside world (ie Moscow and the Party) to stop messing with their lives and just let them live and let live.
The Girl With a Hatbox is a late silent and a much more fluid, absolutely delightful romantic comedy starring the much-maligned Anna Sten (victim of an unfortunate attempt by Sam Goldwyn to turn her into the next Garbo; he turned her into a Pia Zadora-like punchline instead, but as this film proves, in her native language she's quite charming and lovely).
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