Pyotr Shcherbakov Movies
- 1989
A Russian entry in the 1990 Cannes film festival, Gorrod Zero top-bills Leonid Flatov as an engineer named Varadin. Lacking a few vital parts for an air conditioner, Varadin heads off to Gorrod Zero, aka "Zero City." He might have been better off staying bed. Before long, Varadin discovers that everyone in Zero City is a few cards shy of a full deck. Before the day is over, Our Hero is almost as loopy as the rest of the batch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leonid Filatov, Oleg Basilashvili, (more)
- 1984
This melodrama with a kind heart revolves around a decrepit old-age home that is in worse shape than some of its tenants. After Dr. Voloshina (Zhanna Bolotova) arrives on the scene, the leaky roofs get fixed, and everything is spiffed up, including the elderly residents who are given a renewed lease on life by the caring doctor. The old and new are contrasted in other ways as well: as residents discuss the bygone revolutionary days, modern music fills the room from a TV set, and helicopters make their noisy way to a nearby military base. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zhanna Bolotova, Yelena Fadeyeva, (more)
- 1963
This second feature film directed by Tatiana Lioznova tells the story of the first test pilot to fly a Russian-made jet. From the drawing board to the sky, details of the building and eventual flying of the plane are chronicled. Commentary states just how important the events leading up to the successful project were and what it meant for the air force and the country in general. Lioznova went on to produce and direct the immensely popular television mini-series 17 Moments Of Spring in 1973. The series has retained its popularity since its release, becoming once of the most fondly remembered and often-quoted events in Russian television history. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nikolai Rybnikov, Vladimir Sedov, (more)
- 1992
In this humorous sexual romp, the story begins as its hero (Gennadiy Khazanov), now an old man, is being pushed in his wheelchair at a Black Sea resort in post-Soviet Russia. His nurse is prim and very professional, the essence of asexual coolness. In a series of flashbacks, memories are screened of the man's happier days as a student in postwar Moscow, and then as a photographer at the same resort in the 1950s. He was an inveterate womanizer, and most of the time, the women were as willing as he was. His romantic career continued without major setbacks (though his encounter with a houseful of lesbians was a bit daunting), until he inadvertently begins an affair with the mistress of Stalin's chief spymaster and torturer, Laventy Beria. When he finds out about who her other boyfriend does, it is at a very inopportune time, and he suffers an attack of impotence which afflicts him frequently thereafter, for he cannot get the spymaster's face (and the fate he barely escaped) out of his mind. However, sometime in the course of these recollections, his memory heals itself, and he is potent once again, as is proved by the warm and protective way his once-cool nurse cares for him at the end of the film. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gennadiy Khazanov, Irina Rozanova, (more)
- 1964
This movie was originally filmed in 1962 as Zastava Ilyicha (The Ilyich Gate). It was one of the first films that reflected the younger generation's resentment of the older generation's ways. The original title referred to Lenin's paternal name (his full name was Vladimir Ilyich Lenin). Even after the decanonization of Stalin, Lenin still remained the icon for the old generation. "Ilyich" was often used as an affectionate term in Soviet iconography. The film invoked Soviet premier Nikita Khruschev's sharp criticism. Meeting the studio members, he said: "Do you want us to believe in the scene where a father doesn't know how to answer his son's question "how to live?" At the censor's insistence the movie was re-cut and released under the "apolitical" title Mne Dvatdsat Let (I'm Twenty) in 1964. In 1991, the film was re-released and shown at the London Film Festival with ninety minutes of the original footage restored, resulting in a film which was 175 minutes long. In the story, a young man palling around in Moscow with his friends is forced to confront the realities of his future and choose a direction in which to go. His friends are likewise brought up short by their limited opportunities for realizing their dreams. They have jobs or schools waiting for them, which are things their parents didn't have, so their older relatives are puzzled by the youngsters' evident distaste for their choices. Some of the restored scenes include one in which the boy meets his father's ghost, and a long scene which takes place at a poetry reading. The ghost scene, among others, represented a significant break from hitherto obligatory film conventions of social realism. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valentin Popov, Nikolai Gubenko, (more)
- 1983
The Russian Jazzman (or more appropriately Jazzmen) is set in the '20s, when American jazz music was "not recommended" by Soviet ideologists. The film follows the misadventures of four street musicians who scratch out a meager living playing two-bit engagements here and there and dream of being a real jazz band. The picture is a loving and charming tribute to the first Russian jazz enthusiasts. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Igor Sklyar, Alexander Pankratov-Chyorny, (more)
