Igor Ilyinsky Movies
- 1962
This musical comedy takes place during the Napoleonic invasion of Russia. Young woman Shura (Larisa Golubkina) decides to teach her boorish, braggadocio suitor Rzhevsky (Yuri Yakovlev) a lesson in humility by dressing herself as a man, joining the army and becoming a hero. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Larisa Golubkina, Yuri Yakovlev, (more)
- 1957
This Russian musical manages to satirize Soviet life without ever offending the Politburo. The story concerns a group of young stage performers who, in true Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland fashion, wanna put on a swell show. Trouble is, the hidebound Ministry of Culture expects the kids to do a propaganda piece. Undaunted, our heroes and heroines stage the show their way, finding fun and romance along the way. One of the best bits involves a jazz band which disguises itself as a long-haired classical orchestra in order to sneak by the cultural watchdogs. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Igor Ilyinsky, Lyudmila Gurchenko, (more)
- 1938
First released in 1938, Volga Volga is typical of the escapist musical comedies churned out by Russian filmmaker Gregori Alexandrov. As usual, the film's star is Alexandrov's talented wife Lubov Orlova, here playing a blonde physical culturalist named Strelka. The hero is Byvalov (Igor Hinsky), an intinerant musical-instrument manufacturer who dreams of forming his own orchestra. The storyline leads hapharzardly to a climactic boat race on the Volga, during which Stelka and Byvalov pledge eternal love to one another. Most critics noted that director Alexandrov's principal inspiration seemed to be Mack Sennett's Keystone comedies. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Igor Ilyinsky, Lyubov Orlova, (more)
- 1927
The title of this Russian comedy may seem misleading; well, it is, but only slightly. While on a goodwill visit to the Soviet Union in 1926, silent film stars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks made a tour of the movie studios. Here, Ms. Pickford was prevailed upon to briefly participate in the making of a film. In the spirit of glasnost (though that wasn't what they called it back then) she agreed; following directions, she walked over to an actor she'd never met before and planted a kiss on his cheek. With this brief vignette in the can, director Sergei Komarov constructed a feature-length farce about a nebbishy young man who has no luck with the ladies. But once he's kissed by Mary Pickford, he virtually has to beat off his throngs of adoring female admirers with a stick! Inasmuch as Mary Pickford was perhaps the best-known woman in the world, her fleeting contribution to A Kiss From Mary Pickford enabled the film to rake in the rubles for many years to come. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
As co-directed by Fedor Ozep and Boris Barnet, the 1926 Russian silent picture Miss Mend (also known as The Adventures of the Three Reporters) constitutes an epic-length saga adapted from a 1923 pulp novel. The original work credits the author as an American, "Jim Dollar" though this was actually a pseudonym for a Russian woman, Marietta Shaginian). The film embodied a local response against the experimental cinema of Soviet directors such as Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov, and an attempt to emulate fast-paced American serials featuring such stars as Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. and Pearl White. The story, partially set in an imagined America dominated by cutting-edge technology and new social structures, comments on such issues as wealth, violence, racism and rape, in its tale of Vivian Mend, an urban professional who earns a living and raises her only child sans the help of any man, and three reporters who attempt to stop a biological attack on the U.S.S.R. by several unsavory Western industrialists. This set contains the surviving four hours of footage from the original serial, newly remastered and restored by David Shepard. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Igor Ilyinsky, Natalya Glan, (more)
Though many casual film fans are of the opinion that the Russian silent cinema began and ended with Montage and Propaganda, several charming romantic comedies and dramas emanated from the Soviet film industry of the 1920s. The Cigarette Girl of Mosselprom tells the tale of a young man who falls in love with the title character (Yulia Solnsteva). She becomes a famous film star, and herself falls in love--not with the hero, but with her cameraman. No one ever gets what he or she truly wants in the story, though they continue to pursue their lost dreams to the bitter end. Revelling in The Unexpected throughout, Cigarette Girl of Mosselprom is capped by an adroit surprise ending. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Igor Ilyinsky, Yulia Solntseva, (more)
The Marxist struggle reaches outer space in this fanciful Russian science fiction film from the silent period. Los (Nikolai Tsereteli) is an engineer who dreams of traveling to other worlds and imagines that a beautiful woman named Aelita (Yuliya Solntseva) lives on the planet Mars. Frustrated with the petty political conflicts that are a big part of life on Earth, Los builds a spaceship and travels to Mars, where he discovers that the lovely Aelita really does exist and is Queen of the Planet. However, the realities of political struggle do not escape him; it seems that the Martian proletariat are attempting to rise up and take power just as the Russian rank and file did, and Los once again finds himself standing between the ruling leadership and the workers attempting to take control of their own lives. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Yulia Solntseva, Igor Ilyinsky, (more)
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