Zhanna Bolotova Movies
- 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)
- 1983
In this film first-time director Nikolai Skuybin tackles the differences between a fairly complacent middle class and the increasingly disaffected lower classes in Moscow. On a cold evening in the dead of winter, a social gathering in a comfortable city apartment is interrupted by an urgent knocking at the door -- a young and obviously poor woman is seeking refuge on this inhospitable evening. After the apartment owners decide to accommodate the woman, they are led on a downward spiral that takes them to the lowest echelons of society. In the end, the police come into the picture, and class divisions become more obvious. The director's subtle defense of the young people's viewpoint in the film might be weakened a little by the complexities of the plotline, otherwise, the film is an interesting sketch of new issues in Russian life at this time. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tamara Akulova, Sergei Shakurov, (more)
- 1981
A group of middle-aged men and women on a holiday take a trip to Yalta for a short vacation. Soon they shake down into smaller cliques that have an affinity of interests, with romances springing up among some of them, such as a charming woman and rather shy man who begin to feel a genuine attraction in spite of the fact that they are both married. Dreams and reminiscences are openly shared, reaching a final denouement in the last evening before the group splinters off and goes their separate ways. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Regimantas Adomajtis, Zhanna Bolotova, (more)
- 1977
The original Russian title Podranki can be translated as War Orphans. The protagonist is an adult writer who undergoes a flashback at the drop of a hat. He recalls how he was orphaned when his father was killed in World War II and his mother committed suicide. He remembers the appalling treatment afforded him by a sadistic orphanage official. And he muses over his losing contact with his brothers and sisters. This is why the grown-up writer is currently involved in lobbying for better treatment of Russian orphans. Orphans caused a minor stir in 1977 when it became the first Russian film in nearly two decades to be chosen for the Cannes Film Festival by the festival judges, rather than being submitted by the Soviets. The film did not see the light of a carbon arc in America until 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Juozas Budraitis, Alyosha Cherstvov, (more)
- 1973
When three peaceful aliens come to call and comment on the state of planet Earth a Soviet research scientist is forced to reevaluate his recent experiments with longevity. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sergei Bondarchuk, Zhanna Bolotova, (more)
- 1966
The director of this film, Larisa Shepitko, was the wife of the distinguished director Elem Klimov and a very promising director herself. Based on a true story, Krylya tells of the efforts of a famous female fighter pilot from the World War II era to make a life for herself in the postwar era. At 42, the present pales before her memories of the past, and of her true love, now long dead. She is unable to come to terms with her past nor with the present, in which she is the director of a high school and the mother of an adoptive daughter. Her attempts to compensate for her distraction all lie in the direction of appearing authoritative, but the students and her daughter, with the unerring instincts of the young, distrust and despise her. In her distress, she is forced even more deeply into reliving her memories of the only time in which she was truly alive, seeking some kind of answer or resolution. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maya Bulgakova, Zhanna Bolotova, (more)
- 1962
The point of this long, conventional, and politically nuanced drama about a Soviet citizen's sojourn in Western capitalist lands would be more effective if not so exaggerated. After Pavlov (Nikolai Eremenko) exits the former USSR, he wanders through various sites in Europe and in North and South America, absorbing other cultures and ways of life. Unfortunately for him, what he saw the most was the underbelly of capitalism -- drugs and drunkenness, corruption and immorality. Now that he is safely back in the motherland, he breathes a sigh of relief, though neither the society nor his brother welcome him home with open arms. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nikolai Yeremenko Sr., Tamara Makarova, (more)
- 1957
Many critics pointed out resemblances between Dom, V Kotorom Ya Zhivu (The House I Live In) and the better-known Soviet film The Cranes are Flying. Set in the years prior to and during WWII, the story centers on the various residents of a co-op house. Though the directors never show the war itself, its tragic impact is felt throughout the film. And despite the potential for Soviet propaganda, what sticks in the mind is the universality of the experiences endured by the leading characters. Dom, V Kotorom Ya Zhivu was one of Russian's entries in the 1958 Brussels Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valentina Telegina, Nikolai Yelizarov, (more)
