Vadim Spiridonov Movies
- 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)
- 1977
Grigori Chukrai is well-respected director, known in the West for his films Clear Skies and Ballad of a Soldier. Netipichnaya Istoriya, the original title, translates as "An Atypical Story," but the film was soon retitled Tryasina, which means "Quagmire." It shows how mother's blind love transforms her son into a deserter, bringing the boy to a kind of moral and social death. During World War Two, a widow is about to lose her only son to the military. Unable to bear that kind of loss, she engineers an accident just as she is taking him to the train station to begin his enlistment. Secretly, she takes her now helpless son back to her village home, and becomes an eccentric hermit in the eyes of the villagers, rarely venturing outside the house. At home, the boy becomes deeply dependent on her, even though they snipe and jab at one another in an incessant war for dominance. Years after the war has ended, his mother dies suddently of a heart attack. The boy has now become a pale, wizened bag of bones, and emerges from the house like some creature from the depths of the sea. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nonna Mordyukova, Vadim Spiridonov, (more)
- 1970
A scientist and his young daughter live by a scenic lake. A paper mill threatens to pollute the pristine water causing the father and daughter to express concerns about the environment. She falls in love with the builder of the project before she realizes he is already married. Her father's death prompts her to move to the city, but she vows to return one day. The film is verbose, plodding and sentimental. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Natalya Belokhvostikova, Oleg Zhakov, (more)
