By the Victory Day, the magazine "Art of Cinema" and "Mosfilm" re-released the picture "Come and See". In the festive selection, we recall the masterpiece of Elem Klimov, and along with it - other iconic Soviet films about the Great Patriotic War.
"The exploit of the scout" (1947)
Films shot in the war and the first post-war years, as a rule, did not go beyond the genre of heroic drama, and "The Exploit of the Scout" stands apart from them. Yes, the picture of Boris Barnet fully meets the standards of heroic-patriotic cinema, but above all it is an exciting spy thriller. “The director enthusiastically played the adventurous genre on which he himself and his entire cinematic generation grew up, adapting to it the experience of the tragic space of his war films,” film critic Yevgeny Margolit wrote about The Exploit of the Scout, and perhaps more precisely. Will not say.
"The Cranes Are Flying" (1957)
Specially for the scene of the death of Boris, cameraman Sergei Urusevsky designed circular rails, which later became part of the classic camera toolkit. The film by Mikhail Kalatozov became the first (and still the only!) Russian film to receive the Palme d'Or - the main prize of the Cannes Film Festival. It would seem that this is not a reason for pride - however, the Soviet press in 1958 wrote extremely sparingly about the victory of the film at the "bourgeois" festival: in a short article in the Izvestia newspaper (without a title and photos), director Kalatozov was not even mentioned. Nor screenwriter Viktor Rozov.
"The Fate of Man" (1959)
After reading the eponymous military story of Mikhail Sholokhov, recorded by him from the words of a random counter, Sergei Bondarchuk, previously known only for his acting work, immediately wanted to film it. Before the film collected many awards, the artistic council accused Bondarchuk of the "scarcity" of the visual means used. But the director explained: the simple and sincere story of the protagonist should have been conveyed that way.
The Ballad of the Soldier (1959)
Oleg Strizhenov was supposed to play the main role in this poignant lyrical picture, but the director Grigory Chukhrai insisted on the candidacy of Vladimir Ivashov and was not mistaken in his choice: in the late 50s it was open. The artist's slightly naive face became the face of Soviet cinema for the whole world. Portraits of Ivashov as the Russian soldier Alyosha Skvortsov graced the covers of the world's leading publications, including Time and Newsweek. The film itself has received more than a hundred awards and prizes at foreign festivals and film academies.
"Ivan's childhood" (1962)
Together with the films "The Cranes Are Flying" and "The Ballad of the Soldier," Andrei Tarkovsky's debut full-length film presented Soviet war films around the world not as heroic dramas, but as tragic stories of ordinary people. Tarkovsky himself said that he chose the theme of childhood because “it contrasts most of all with war,” demonstrating its unnaturalness. Ivan's Childhood has received many awards, including the main prize at the Venice Film Festival.
The Soldier's Father (1964)
Director Rezo Chkheidze said that the best recognition of his work, he considers the case told to him when a young thief surrendered to the police, explaining that after watching "The Soldier's Father" he wanted to live honestly. The screenwriter Suliko Zhgenti used the image of his colleague-farmer, an old man who replaced the father of young soldiers, as a prototype for the protagonist. To keep the name of Giorgi Makharashvili in history, he did not change it and named the character in his honor.
"War as War" (1968)
In the story that formed the basis of the script, the writer Viktor Kurochkin wrote the main character from himself, but the film adaptation has a number of significant differences from the original, including a different ending. The film was shot near the border with Czechoslovakia with the participation of the Carpathian military. By coincidence, the filming process coincided with the introduction of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia, which is why the BBC radio broadcast that Soviet tanks were being pulled to the border under the guise of filming.
Liberation (1969-1971)
The entire Liberation cycle was supposed to be a response to Western films, in which the main merits of the victory over the Nazis were attributed to the Allied forces. The first version of the title of the epic was "The Liberation of Europe", and it was supposed to consist of only three films, but later the concept was changed, expanding the series to five. Director Yuri Ozerov tried to shoot exactly at the scene of events - not only in the USSR, but also in Italy, Germany, Poland.
"Officers" (1971)
They did not want to take Georgy Yumatov for the role because of his scandalous reputation, but the writer Boris Vasiliev stood up for the actor. Yumatov himself noted that he did not like this film. He assumed that the picture would fail at the box office due to the inexperience of director Vladimir Rogovoy, and considered his character too superficial for a person who had gone through a war. The fears were not justified - after the release of the film, the number of people wishing to enter military schools increased twenty times.
"Check on the roads" (1971)
The first independent film by Alexei German "Operation Happy New Year!" Was put on the shelf - the State Film Agency decided that the picture tarnishes the image of a Soviet soldier and deheroes popular resistance: after all, the main character of the story is a prisoner of war who went over to the side of the Germans. But then he surrendered to the partisans and expressed his readiness to atone for his guilt in blood for treason. Only in 1985 the film was released under the title "Check on the roads".
"... The Dawns Here Are Quiet" (1972)
Of all the actors of the film at the time of its release, only Olga Ostroumova was known, the rest only made their debut on the big screen. Andrei Martynov, who played Vaskov, was six years younger than his hero, but managed to convincingly embody this image. The film's director Stanislav Rostotsky, who went through the war, dedicated his work to a nurse who saved him from death by taking him from the battlefield. The picture earned the love of viewers not only in the USSR, but also in China, where it received the status of one of the most popular Soviet films.
"Only" old men "go into battle" (1973)
Director Leonid Bykov, who dreamed of becoming a pilot, was not admitted to the flight school because of his short stature. Later, his unfulfilled dream was embodied in a film about military pilots. Together with a couple of screenwriters, he tried to combine true stories about the times of the Great Patriotic War into one picture, collecting their heroes in one aviation unit. The film became popular, phrases from it were diverted into quotes, and monuments were erected to the heroes of the film, "Maestro" Titarenko (the hero of Bykov) and the mechanic Makarych (played by Alexei Smirnov).
"They Fought for the Motherland" (1975)
The role of Lopakhin was the last in the film career of Vasily Shukshin: the actor died of a heart attack during the filming period. Most of the scenes had already been filmed by that time, in the missing frames Yuri Soloviev acted as Shukshin's understudy, and Igor Efimov voiced the character. Later, a chapel and a monument to Shukshin were erected on the filming site. A sculptural composition depicting the heroes of the film is also installed near the building of the Ministry of Defense in Moscow.
Ascent (1976)
Larisa Shepitko's painting about two partisans who were captured was on the verge of being banned, but the director's husband, director Elem Klimov, found a way to show the "Ascent" to the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus, Peter Masherov. The official, who himself was a partisan during the war, was crying by the middle of the film, not embarrassed by the leadership of the republic who was present at the screening - after that the tape was released without a single edit. Ascension also received international acclaim, becoming the first Soviet film to receive the main prize at the Berlin Film Festival.
"Come and See" (1985)
Along with childhood impressions of wartime, Stalingrad-born film director Elem Klimov was inspired to work during the Cold War. For the edification of posterity, Klimov decided to shoot a picture that conveys all the horrors of wartime. The film was based on the works of Ales Adamovich and documentary evidence of the crimes of the fascists in Belarus. The script itself was named "Kill Hitler", symbolizing the call for the destruction of evil in people.