Andrei Petrov Movies

Compared to the somberly serious Russian films being released in the U.S. after WW II, the lighthearted The Train Goes East must have seemed like a breath of fresh air. The story begins on VJ day in August of 1945. Celebrating the victory, navy captain Lavrentyev (Leonid Gallis) sets his sights on romance, with pretty agricultural expert Sokolova (Lydia Dranovskaya) his willing target. Missing their train home, the captain and Sokolova are forced to find any available means of transportation, leading to a series of gently amusing situations. Along the way, the budding romance is threatened by the sort of mutual misunderstandings one usually finds in Hollywood screwball comedies. Train Goes East was the latest in a series of frothy concoctions by popular Russian filmmaker Yuri Raizman, who ironically had begun his career turning out such grimly realistic efforts as Forced Labor (1928) and The Earth Thirsts (1930). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Filmed in color on a grand scale, Fall of Berlin re-creates the final days of war in Europe from the Soviet point of view. As Allied soldiers lay siege to a ruined Berlin, Adolf Hitler (V. Savelyev) hides in his bunker, surrounded by sycophants. Meanwhile, Soviet premier Stalin (M. Gelovani), herein depicted as the soul of compassion and humanity, methodically maps out the future. Given the state of US-Russian relations in 1952, it is surprising that President Roosevelt is portrayed in a sympathetic light in The Fall of Berlin. Smoothing over the film's rough spots (at 124 minutes, its unevenness is all the more pronounced) is the vibrant musical score by Dmitri Shostakovich. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Originally titled Vozvrachenia Vassilya Bortnikov, Vassili's Return was the last directorial effort by the great V.I. Pudovkin, who died in June of 1953. Like many of Pudovkin's later works, the film was diluted by interference from communist party officials; what remains, however, is well worth having, if miles removed from the brilliance of his earlier Mother, End of St. Petersburg and Storm over Asia. Based on a novel by G. Nikolayeva, the story centers upon a Russian named Vassili (Serge Lukynaov), who leaves his wife to do battle against the Germans in WW II. When Vassili is reported to have been killed in battle, his wife Avodtya (Natalya Medvedeva) marries another man. Per the film's title, Vassili returns, only to find his wife ostensibly out of his reach. Vassili and his former spouse eventually reunite as friends if not lovers, working side by side on a state-approved collective farm. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi