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| Images courtesy of Kino Lorber |
The second feature in the director’s chair of Soviet Russian
actor-turned-director Vladimir Menshov Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears is
widely considered among critics and filmgoers domestic and foreign among the
greatest Soviet romantic dramas of all time.
The third film in the country’s history to win the Academy Award for
Best Foreign Language Film (beating Kagemusha and The Last Metro),
a favorite of former president Ronald Reagan and as recently as 2021 it was voted
by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center as the number one example of
Soviet cinema. Though its director was
unable to accept the Oscar at the time of release, it nevertheless ushered in
Menshov as a formidable filmmaking talent on both sides of the pond, boosting
the career of actress Vera Alentova (also the director’s wife) and especially
reinvigorating interest in one of Soviet cinema’s greatest screen icons with The
Cranes Are Flying star Aleksey Batalov.
A decades-spanning saga based on Valentin Chernykh’s script Twice
Lied, the ensemble period drama Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears begins
in Moscow, 1958 involving three young women named Katya (Vera Alentova), Lyuda
(Irina Muravyova) and Tosya (Raisa Ryazanova) who live in a workers’ dorm. Katya’s a factory worker studying at night hoping
to attend college while Tosya works in construction as a painter amid dating
her co-worker Nikolai. Of the three, the
most flamboyant character is Lyuda who works steadily at a bakery while
loitering around the university library hunting for a beau. With the three looking for love, a party is
thrown with the flirty Lyuda inviting herself along while hobnobbing with a budding
ice hockey star named Sergei (Aleksandr Fatyushin) as Katya meets a popular TV
cameraman named Rudolf (Yuri Vasilyev). However
following an unexpected pregnancy which arises during Tosya and Nikolai’s
wedding, Katya and Rudolf separate but Katya decides to keep the baby whom she
names Aleksandra.
Fast forward twenty years later, Katya’s now the CEO of a
factory with a fancy car and swanky apartment with her teenage daughter. Maintaining close relations with Lyuda and
Tosya, we learn Lyuda (now a dry-cleaner) dreams for success have been dashed
by her ex-husband Sergei’s descent into alcoholism. Tosya and Nikloai on the other hand couldn’t
be happier with three well-reared teenagers to their name in what seems to be a
peaceful family. Katya’s still dating but
her love life remains unfulfilled. That
is until she crosses paths with Gosha (Aleksey Batalov) on a chance train
meeting on the way home from work. An
accomplished tool-and-die maker skilled in scientific instrumentation, the
intelligent and handsome Gosha hits it off with Katya immediately though he’s
of the belief men should make more money than women so she keeps her position
of power a secret. However, as things
pick up the TV cameraman Rudolf who previously abandoned her reenters her life and
reveals her status to Gosha, the situation becomes strained with Gosha’s macho
pride wounded as he too finds himself entrenched in alcoholism unable to accept
his romantic partner may in fact by the family breadwinner so to speak.
Originally envisioned as a melodrama before director Vladimir
Menshov reworked the film as a semi-autobiographical portrait of ordinary
Russian life, Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears was something of a
personal stepping-stone for the filmmakers.
Like the characters themselves, Menshov and his wife/muse Vera Alentova
experienced life through a hostel as well as visiting civilians of unskilled
labor for reference. With a good number
of factory workshop scenes filmed on location within the Khimvolokno Production
Association building in Klin, the film strove for a disarming if not
understated realism almost like a successor to Marlen Khutsiev’s frankly
Antonioni-esque work made during the Khruschev Thaw. Much of it comes from the film’s
understanding of the period drama before moving up into contemporary modernity
and the nature of romantic relationships in an ever-evolving social workplace
world.
The first thing one notices as the camera and opening
credits pan across Moscow is the music, a combination of original scoring by The
Irony of Fate composer Sergey Nikitin as well as a collection of
preexisting needle drops by Yves Montand, Robertino, Boney M, Klavdiya
Shulzhenko and even Nikitin himself alongside wife-singer Tatyana Nikitina. As the camera helmed by Stalingrad cinematographer
Igor Slabnevich panes about the city as the song and acoustic guitar strum over
the vistas, there’s a low-key hum of somber recognition of ordinariness. Rather than provide a glorified escapist or
otherwise fantastical vision of older and newer Russia with a twenty-year gap
in between, Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears and its creative forces aim
to paint a rather down if not somewhat plain, deliberately uneventful portrait
of life in the country around the late 1970s.
With several actresses reading for the role of Katya
including the director’s first choice Irina Kupchenko from Siberiade
before hastily casting his wife Vera Alentova in the central role in only her
third feature, the splendid multifaceted cast came together like
clockwork. Galina Polskikh declined the
role of Tosya which went to The Russia House actress Raisa Ryazanova
while the flirty loose Lyuda went to The Most Charming and Enticing actress
Irina Muravyova. All three actresses
hold their own and define each other’s otherwise ordinary characters through
their disparate personalities and particularly the weight of each-others’
separate love lives. The actor who
really shines in the picture is Aleksey Batalov in the role of Gosha the
instrument tool-and-die maker, initially declining the part but after accepting
ultimately won the USSR State Prize for his performance in a role that
singularly revitalized his career and gave the film a much-needed boost of ‘Russian
soul’ rounding out an assembly of pitch-perfect performances. Also moviegoers keen on cameos will spot some
notable actors appearing onscreen as themselves including Ballad of a
Soldier star Georgi Yumatov and Beware of the Car actor Innokenty
Smoktunovsky.
Though critics were initially chilly and indifferent to what
was perceived as a “cheap” if not “decadent” melodrama, Moscow Does Not
Believe in Tears nevertheless became a huge commercial success in its
native homeland as well as becoming a hit in the west with the Oscar win. Due to conflict with authorities at the time
over his political views, the director wasn’t able to accept his Oscar in 1988. To this day the two-and-a-half-hour Russian
romantic drama is an intentionally mannered and charming ensemble piece that
says a wealth about the Russian people without there being much more than a
handful of central characters navigating Moscow. Reportedly watched around eight times by
former president Ronald Reagan prior to his meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev, the
film serves as emblematic of the Russian spirit while trying to zero closely in
on a small select group of normal civilians going about their lives seeking
success and happiness however small the amount may be.
--Andrew Kotwicki
