The story of the last year and a half of Tsar Nicholas II and his family from the February Revolution of 1917 to their execution in July 1918.
Many adventures befell a beautiful dog named Michael. He was stolen and sold many times, he lived with both kind and cruel owners, and even performed in the circus arena. And so, during his difficult wanderings, Michael falls into the hands of a lonely sailor, Doug, who, at the risk of losing his job, takes the dog with him.
This film is of interest primarily because it contains within it the entire surviving footage of an unfinished 1974 film by the same director, Slave of Love, which was successfully remade shortly thereafter by another director, Nikita Mikhalkov.The "cover" story is about a woman (Jeanne Moreau) newly released from prison camps in the 1940s back into Russian society, who finds that there is no place for her in the world she has come back to. However, this painterly film is so filled with striking and surreal imagery that it would be misleading to say that the story is of any great importance in relation to that.
On New Year's Eve, in the forest palace of culture, the animals staged a beauty contest, in which the winner was determined by a computer. Meanwhile, the computer-savvy mother crow wants to make sure her daughter wins. She succeeds, and the beautiful Fox leaves the palace upset. The kind-hearted winner gives her the crown, realizing that she received it undeservedly. When Foxy won the competition and became Miss New Year, little Crow became Miss Honesty.
The social ferment in late 19th century Russia which led to the 1917 Russian Revolution is movingly portrayed in this lengthy historical drama, which is very faithful to the 1907 novel The Mother by the celebrated Marxist writer Maxim Gorky (1868-1936). In the story, "the mother" (Inna Tchourikova) has no other recourse than to watch her decent, kindly husband turn into an animalistic, drunken brute as a result of working in the inhuman conditions of a steel mill in the town of Sormovo. When he begins to express his suppressed rage by beating her, she is defended by her teenaged son Pavel (depicted Viktor Rakov as an adult, Sacha Chichonok as a boy). After his father's death, Pavel is forced to go to work in the same factory. However, Pavel and his friends begin investigating Marxism and socialist thought, and work to organize their fellow workers.
The fairy tale film in a modern style tells about nine-year-old Shurochka and her sister Katya, who spend their holidays at their grandmother's dacha. An elf, the prince of a magical kingdom, is in love with Shurochka. Another character, Igor, the son of wealthy parents, dishonestly takes possession of a magic sword, as a result of which the inhabitants of the dacha are in serious trouble, and the life of the magic kingdom is in jeopardy. A film in which footage of live actors is skillfully combined with stop-motion puppet animation.
By browsing this website, you accept our cookies policy.
