Traktoristy (1939) Soviet era "socialist realism"

Soviet cinema throughout the 1930s was not only narrow-visioned Socialist Realism, music and comedy,  represented also are alternative stories and internationally recognized master works.


With a unique lyrical voice actor turned director Boris Barnet cleverly transcended common genre expectations, working outside the strict constraints demanded by Socialist Realism. Barnet's bold artistic technique became a huge influence on later generations not only of the 50s Soviet Thaw filmmakers but on the 60s New Wave French filmmakers. 
 
Okraina, Outskirts (1933) is an incredibly innovative film, a cinematic technical marvel, beautifully crafted it is infused with Barnet's dynamic visual style. This early sound feature could almost pass for a silent film.
Outskirts tells the tale of peasant workers, the Great War and the 1917 revolution in the context of a provincial community set in a remote village on the outskirts... 
Lyrical and tragic, war/nationalism tears apart family and friendships. Barnet was an actor's director, he skirted around the stereotypical portraying deeply drawn individual characters while avoiding exaggerated Socialist rhetoric, pathos and idealized heroism. There is no glory from battle here, everyone is tragically affected.
Barnet touches on topical issues, focusing on life at the frontlines, the difficulties facing returning soldiers, the workers & the Russian Revolution, romance, capital exploitation, and significantly kinship across the national divide. 
Boris Barnet set a distinct new tone, he possessed a unique individual voice in Soviet Stalinist cinema with his 
deeply humanistic worldview it is a trademark signature style, a special quality to his art I call the Barnet Touch.

              

Sudba barabanshchika , The Drummers Fate (1956) 
Based on a 1939 published story from writer Arkady Gaidar "The Drummer's Fate" is a wonderfully entertaining adventure drama film. The author lived through turbulent times and accomplished much in his fascinating but tragically short life. His tales are filled with camaraderie, the romanticism of the revolutionary struggle, of altruistic pioneers. Gaidar's works originate from his front line life experience, his writings became a huge influence on the rise of volunteer children's/youth organisations across the Soviet Union. The Drummers Fate surprises with a blend of adult noirish drama and as an exciting boys own adventure. 12 year old Sergei Yasinsky gives a first class natural and engaging performance in this his only screen credit. Left to his own devices following a serious of misfortunes that have torn his family apart Sergei is accosted by thieves and spies. shady characters that try and take advantage of the resourceful youth, the son of an engineer who had been working on a secret project. 


Timur i yego komanda aka  Timur and His Squad (1940)  Based on a novel author Arkady Gaidar also wrote the screenplay for this wonderfully inspirational tale one based on his own youthful experiences.  A gang of village boys is led by young Timur  they sneak around secretly doing only good deeds, helping out families of Red Army officers and soldiers, supporting their community elders and small children, and fighting off a gang of hooligans, certainly nothing at all misguided in this brand of Soviet Sociialist Realism.

The novel on which this film was based gave rise to the Timurite movement, a youth volunteering movement which became a massive phenomenon throughout the Soviet Union. The 'Timurites', as they were called, emulated the activities of Timur in the novel and the popular movie, by performing good deeds within their communities.
Interesting to note that the novel 'Timur and His Squad' remained part of the curriculum in every Soviet school up to the 1990s. Timurite youth movements were also established in the GDR (German Democratic Republic), Poland, Bulgaria, Czechoslavakia and North Vietnam.
                                            

Shchedroe leto , Bountiful Summer (1951) Dir. Boris Barnet.
Rural villagers arm in arm are making their way to the station where a local work heroine is returning from Moscow. Having received honorary awards, her homecoming is greeted with much excitement and proud celebration. Arriving also is an old friend, assigned as the collective farm's new accountant, his return will inevitably ignite the film's modest romantic intrigue. A bullock cart rolls along, the backdrop is one of vast productive pastures, perched on top of freshly cut straw a young kolkhoz worker sweetly sings of love.

Filmed in a pale pastel "Sovcolor" Barnet's romanticized film overflows with an exuberant crazy charm, the films many musical numbers create a stirring somewhat enchanting air of nostalgic naivety, an atmosphere timeless in appeal... On a homely couch two friends reunite, Piotr and Nazar play an accordion and sing a traditional folk tune under a portrait of Stalin, accompanied with the benevolent gaze of Nazar's elderly mother... Under blue skies everyone is busy, beaming with smiles, filling bags of wheat that will be used to feed the country. As productivity records are being broken in the fields the film story concludes. Optimistic characteristics anticipate a bright and happy future in a land of abundance, where the spirit of mutual aid and humility motivate working selflessly for the common good.

Propaganda is a fiction like any other. Undeterred in the restrained late Stalin era, Boris Barnet masterly composed another of his impressive works of cinematic art. "We must remember that a socialist state must give a socialist spirit to movie audiences". A triumph of Soviet "socialist realism", exaltation of the peasant and working-class, the glorification of the collective, inspiring heroic destinies. With an idealized coordinated rhythm, workers, trucks, harvesters and tractors all seem to sing in harmonious unison, an anthem of collective progressive prosperity.

One of only seven features from Soviet Union cinema in 1951, it was French, film critic, director Jacques Rivette's first film review for Cahiers du Cinéma. Written in Feb. 1953, he praised Barnet and his film... "Truth is often silenced: with the exception of Eisenstein, Boris Barnet must be considered the best Soviet filmmaker... But who is Boris Barnet? No one will know, he murmured himself; surely a man of spirit, taste and heart; Isn't that enough? .."

                 

                                                                               

Friedrich Ermler (1898–1967) began his career in the early silent era, his fabulous film Катька бумажный ранет , Katka’s Reinette Apples (1926), was a turning point for him, the first film in which he gained fame within and outside the Soviet Union.
Under Stalin and “socialist realism” Friedrich Ermler  in the 30s worked as filmmaker entirely in the praise of the leader and the Soviet system. For his efforts Ermler won a total of four Stalin prizes. One of them was for the Great Citizen (1939), which has been considered a propaganda film justifying the great terror of 1937-1938…

Later in his career Friedrich Ermler directed also a touching love story Неоконченная повесть , Unfinished Story (1955).
The death of Stalin in 1953 contributed greatly to the change of focus and direction of Soviet film. Superhuman heroes of the fields and factories are replaced here with high-education motivated professionals of both sexes, engineers and doctors. Filmed during a period of Soviet cinema transition, great heroism is replaced with broader humanistic themes. Unfinished Story is an intimate portrait of "unheralded," ordinary people whose everyday lives the film gently follows.

The excellent triangle drama stars Elina Bystritskaya, she plays attractive district doctor Yelizaveta Muromtseva. A compassionate soul she cares deeply about her patients, a member of the party's regional committee she is also strong and independent, a career woman dedicated to her work. Bystritskaya gives an excellent performance, restrained yet profoundly passionate.
Doctor Muromtseva is busy both at the clinic and with house calls, there is an air of genuine reality in the account of her daily schedule. Her most challenging patient is the hardened paralyzed shipbuilder Yuri Yershov played by Sergey Bondarchuk…

Filmed over four seasons in a somewhat drab Soviet colour process, the natural dynamics however are splendidly highlighted with distinctive locations. Music plays a significant role throughout, notable is a visit to the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia where a Tchaikovsky Symphony is performed. The story culminates in an allegorical finale, symbolically similar to the ending of Spring on Zarechnaya Street (1956), open to interpretation, the thawing and progression from Stalin's time towards a new era, still unknown…

A huge success in the Soviet Union and for actress, Elina Bystritskaya who was voted the best actress of the year by Sovetskaya kul'tura in 1955, 
Wonderfully entertaining Classic Soviet Socialist Realism Cinema... The final shot/moment just so beautiful !

                                                                                                 Elina Bystritskaya ,  Sergey Bondarchuk ...