Viktor Kolpakov Movies
The Tale of Tsar Saltan is a colorful Russian fairy tale based on the classic poem by Alexander Pushkin. When Tsar Saltan is away at war, the scheming members of his court exile his young wife and newborn heir. The tsarina and the young prince Guidon survive and reach a remote island. Guidon saves the beautiful Princess Swan from an evil sorcerer and through a series of miracles she helps the prince to reunite with his father. ~ Rovi
- Starring:
- Vladimir Andreev, Larisa Golubkina, (more)
- 1965
In this provocative Soviet drama, an aged couple are left homeless after their farm burns down, and they head off to live with their impoverished daughter. When they arrive, they are appalled to learn that she has abandoned her child and husband to run away with a married man. The husband is now an alcoholic, so the grandparents stay on to support their son-in-law in his time of need and to help care for their grandson. Later, the errant daughter is dumped by her lover and returns. Many fights ensue until the grandfather banishes his troublesome daughter from their lives. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ivan Marin, Vera Kuznetsova, (more)
Shakespeare's 17th century masterpiece about the "Melancholy Dane" was given one of its best screen treatments by Soviet director Grigori Kozintsev. Kozintsev's Elsinore was a real castle in Estonia, utilized metaphorically as the "stone prison" of the mind wherein Hamlet must confine himself in order to avenge his father's death. Hamlet himself is portrayed (by Innokenti Smoktunovsky) as the sole sensitive intellectual in a world made up of debauchers and revellers. Several of Kozintsev directorial choices seem deliberately calculated to inflame the purists: Hamlet's delivers his "To be or not to be" soliloquy with his back to the camera, allowing the audience to fill in its own interpretations. Rarely seen in the US, this Hamlet (or Gamlet, as it was known in Russia) is not always successful, but is certainly more innovative -- and lively -- than Olivier's wildly overpraised 1948 version. Director Grigori Kozintsev would follow Hamlet with an equally radical adaptation of King Lear in 1970. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Innokenty Smoktunovsky, Mikhail Nazvanov, (more)
- 1957
Rasskaz Moei Materi (aka Stories of My Mother and The Communist) was one of Russia's more prestigious entries in the 1958 Venice Film Festival. Yevgeny Urbansky plays Vassili, a dedicated communist who assumes control of a strategically important warehouse during the 1917 revolution. Almost single-handedly, Vassili fends off the counterattacks of the loyalist White Russians, here depicted as double-dyed villains. He finds time to romance the beautiful Aniuta (Sofya Pavlova) before he meets a spectacular death at the hands of 20 of his enemies. Even those unsympathetic to the film's politics will be swept up by the excitement and grandeur of Rasskaz Moei Materi. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Boris Smirnov, Yevgeny Urbansky, (more)
- 1957
Veteran Russian character actor Nikolai Cherkasov plays the noble but befuddled title character in this Soviet adaptation of Don Quixote. Yuri Tolubeyev co-stars as Sancho Panza -- and if Sancho sounds a bit like Sherlock Holmes' Dr. Watson at times, it is because his voice was dubbed for the English-language version by Howard Marion-Crawford, who portrayed Watson on the 1954 TV series Sherlock Holmes. The film follows the path laid out three centuries earlier by Miguel de Cervantes, stopping short of Cervantes' original ending, which intimated that Quixote would never die (this was not in keeping with Communist ideology of the period). In this version, Quixote jousts with imaginary giants and mistakes milkmaids for aristocrats against the backdrop of the Crimea, standing in for the hills of Spain. Filmed in 1957, Don Quixote was not released in the U.S. until 1961 due to the heating up of the Cold War. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nikolai Cherkasov, Yuri Tolubeyev, (more)
