d. Aleksandr Dovzhenko
c. USSR
y. 1949
description:
"Farewell, America is the last film Alexander Dovzhenko worked on as director. Production was stopped by the government half-way through (like many films under Stalin's regime) and the footage that had been shot was stored away somewhere in Moscow. Only recently (in the 1990s?) was it rediscovered. The version I saw (and probably the only version 'available' to the public) is a reconstruction in which the scenes that were shot have been interspersed with some Russian man, with the help of Dovzhenko's original script (including some sketches he'd drawn), describing the scenes that are missing. The basic plot concerns an American woman, Anna, who goes to work at the American embassy in Moscow just as World War Two is ending. There she finds that everyone has an extreme irrational hatred of the Russians, bordering on fascism, and they all want to start a new war against Russia. She and one man are more sympathetic towards the Russians, and even are friends with a Russian family, much to the disapproval of the embassy. She goes on an assignment to Ukraine to investigate collective farming and show how unhappy the masses are with it, but finds only kind and happy farmers. Not satisfied with this report, the embassy orders her to change it, before she is sent back to America. Here she finds the same bias and hatred, and when she returns to Russia she does not return to the embassy, but becomes a citizen of the Soviet nation. It must be noted that this for the large part, is a comedy, poking fun at Americans." (IMDB Comment)
IMDB... 6.8 (16)
_AMG... 2.5 / 5.0
size: 670MB
qlty: TV
subs: no
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Farewell, America
Michurin
d. Aleksandr Dovzhenko
c. USSR
y. 1948
description:
"The Russian Life in Bloom is the biography of famed horticultural expert Ivan Michurin. The story traces Michurin's life from its humble beginnings to his eventual development of over 300 new plant varieties. The film manages to rabbet in a little propaganda, suggesting that Michurin could never have achieved his cross-breeding miracles without the support and encouragement of the Bolshevik revolutionaries. Grigori Belov stars as Michurin, while Feodor Grigoriev portrays the hero's chief rival, Professor Kartashov. Life in Bloom is sumptuously produced in color, with a heroic musical score by no less than Dmitri Shostakovich. The film was co-directed by Alexander Dovshenko and his actress-wife Yula Solntseva, though Solnsteva receives sole directorial credit." (AMG)
IMDB... 6.8 (16)
_AMG... 1.5 / 5.0
size: 1020MB
qlty: ?
subs: ?
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Aerograd
d. Aleksandr Dovzhenko
c. USSR
y. 1935
description:
"A Russian outpost in Eastern Siberia comes under threat of attack by the Japanese in this patriotic film from 1935. Aerograd is a new town with a strategically located airfield of vital interest to the government. Work on the new outpost is complicated when tensions develop between workers and a religious sect. The sect threatens to give their support to a band of marauding samurai warriors who battle for control of the region. Relations between the two countries are further strained in the days before World War II, dating back to the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. In this feature, the Russians are victorious as airplanes throughout the country come to the aid of the beleaguered new town. Director Alexander Dovzhenko, long considered a giant in Russian classic cinema, also wrote the screenplay for this feature." (AMG)
IMDB... 7.1 (81)
_AMG... 3.0 / 5.0
size: 700MB
qlty: TV
subs: yes
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Zvenigora
d. Aleksandr Dovzhenko
c. USSR
y. 1928
description:
"Zvenigora is less a film than a tone poem, set forth by master Russian cinematic poet Alexander Dovzhenko. Moving outside the studio system for the first time (it was his fourth film), Dovzhenko uses lyrical location shots of rural Ukraine and its farmers to excellent advantage. The very complex storyline (too much so to dwell on at great length here) combines elements of fact and folklore in relating the "history"of the Ukraine, using the search for a fabled treasure as the glue that holds the tale together. This is not an accessible "classroom classic" like Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin. Be prepared to think and be challenged, and not to sit back comfortably, while experiencing Zvenigora." (AMG)
IMDB... 7.9 (90)
_AMG... 4.5 / 5.0
size: 670MB
qlty: VHS
subs: ?
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