Tatyana Kravchenko Movies
- 1989
Based on a novel by Nikolai Leskov (which also inspired Andrzej Wajda's 1964 feature A Siberian Lady Macbeth and a modernistic opera), the story concerns Katerina (Natalia Andreichenko), the disgruntled wife of a boorish merchant (Nikolai Pastukhov). When she falls in love with Sergei (Alexander Abdulov), Katerina inveigles the handsome youth into helping her murder her husband. Irony piles upon irony in the sturm-und-drang closing scenes. The title Lady Makbet Mitsenskovo Uezda literally translates to Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Natalya Andreichenko, Alexander Abdulov, (more)
- 1986
A charming tale of romance told with comic highlights, Kak Molody My Byli also has an underlying theme of a less-than-ideal reality. Sascha (Taras Denisenko) and Julka (Jelena Sehkurpelo) have fallen in love, and both lead full and rich family lives. It is the early 1950s and the end of World War II is hardly ancient history. During the war, Julka was exposed to some dangerous chemicals whose effects are still with her. The young couple enjoy their time together and plan on going off to school to study, but they will eventually have to come to grips with Julka's physical disabilities. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Taras Denisenko, Jelena Sehkurpelo, (more)
Director Semyon Aranovich combines historical combat footage with a mix of black and white and murky color to create a fairly seamless narration about specific Soviet soldiers in the Baltics in 1944 and the women they meet and/or lose. War takes its toll on the one hand as buddies are killed in action -- demonstrated in the deliberate kamikaze dive of a damaged Russian plane into a German warship. On the other hand, personal relationships are themselves often tragic. Just after Bebolrov is wounded, he finds out his wife has a lover, just after Gavrilov joyfully meets his son, he begins to doubt the little boy is his, and just after Cherepovets starts a romantic liaison with Maria, she is killed by an act of war. Life offers no assurances, not even for a short while, and even in the face of these and other hardships, the soldiers will soon have to go into battle again. A poignant review of faces at the end of these travails reveals just how many did not survive. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rodion Nakhapetov, Alexei Zharkov, (more)
- 1983
Director and writer Gleb Panfilov adapted Maxim Gorky's play Vassa Zheleznova for this theatrical film that recounts Vassa's iron rule over a dissipated merchant family several years before the 1917 revolution. When her profligate husband is about to be hauled into court for an act of moral turpitude, Vassa (Inna Churikova) convinces him to commit suicide before he ruins the entire family and their fortune. After he concedes and dies, Vassa spies on everyone in the household and tries to keep her self-indulgent daughters and a high-society brother from harming the family's interest or holdings. Then her Jewish daughter-in-law Rachel (Valentina Telichkina) arrives from Switzerland with news that Vassa's son is dying, and she wants to take their own son, now in Vassa's care, back home with her. The two woman clash in a climactic showdown, and the unexpected result of their altercation sets off a chain of events that presages the grand-scale, 1917 "showdown" to come. This film won the Gold Medal top prize at the 1983 Moscow Film Festival. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Inna Churikova, Vadim Mikhailov, (more)
