East Side Story

Rating:
Summary: A documentary look at the wonders of Communist musicals
Review: This 1997 documentary about movie musicals produced by Communist countries was worthwhile for me as I learned that Stalin's favorite film was "Volga Volga," directed by Grigori Alexandrov. Stalin watched the film over 100 times and sent it to FDR as a gift during World War II. "East Side Story" presents clips from some of the 40 musicals made, mostly in the Soviet Union, Bulgaria and East Germany, with hearty peasants and workers singing and dancing their way through fields and factories. The clips are mixed with interviews with those who made these unorthodox examples of socialist propaganda, nostalgic moviegoers, and the requisite film historian. Certainly it is fascinating to meet the Eastern Bloc versions of Elvis Presley and Doris Day, and some of the musicals are halfway decent. One of them, "Hot Summer," was made the same year as "My Fair Lady" and actually made more money as well as persuading thousands to go have fun at the beach. But then there is the Russian woman who sadly but accurately observes that sometimes people have to hold onto some basic lies just to survive from day to day. Combine that sobering thought with the campiness of some of these musicals, and you have a provocative documentary.

Rating:
Summary: A documentary look at the wonders of Communist musicals
Review: This 1997 documentary about movie musicals produced by Communist countries was worthwhile for me as I learned that Stalin's favorite film was "Volga Volga," directed by Grigori Alexandrov. Stalin watched the film over 100 times and sent it to FDR as a gift during World War II. "East Side Story" presents clips from some of the 40 musicals made, mostly in the Soviet Union, Bulgaria and East Germany, with hearty peasants and workers singing and dancing their way through fields and factories. The clips are mixed with interviews with those who made these unorthodox examples of socialist propaganda, nostalgic moviegoers, and the requisite film historian. Certainly it is fascinating to meet the Eastern Bloc versions of Elvis Presley and Doris Day, and some of the musicals are halfway decent. One of them, "Hot Summer," was made the same year as "My Fair Lady" and actually made more money as well as persuading thousands to go have fun at the beach. But then there is the Russian woman who sadly but accurately observes that sometimes people have to hold onto some basic lies just to survive from day to day. Combine that sobering thought with the campiness of some of these musicals, and you have a provocative documentary.

Rating:
Summary: Poorly researched, inaccurate slop.
Review: This film must have been made by committee. No one cared about it, I'm certain. It misrepresents itself, firstly, as an authority on Soviet musicals. When there's almost no Soviet musicals in it! For all practical purposes, it's only about East Germany after WWII. Not only is the extensive and mind-bending phenomenon of the post-WWII Soviet musical not present. At one point in this documentary the narrator says something like: there were no Soviet musicals after the 60's! The interviewees have almost nothing to say. The musicals that are there, are not in anyway well-represented. Wait for the real documentary. This simply isn't it.

Rating:
Summary: Not just 'Girl Meets Tractor'
Review: This is a very comprehensive history of Soviet and Communist European musical films, including film clips and interviews with many of the surviving actors and directors. The movies discussed range from blantant propaganda where happy workers sing the praises of the new wheat harvesting machine to touching family stories. It's unfortunate that some of these films aren't widely available. One in particular is an outstanding East German film where the actors portray movie producers who have been ordered to produce a musical comedy, and they sing about how hard it is to get a funny musical movie about communism past the state review board. It would also have been interesting to see communist Chinese movies in a similar vein.

Rating:
Summary: Not just 'Girl Meets Tractor'
Review: This is a very comprehensive history of Soviet and Communist European musical films, including film clips and interviews with many of the surviving actors and directors. The movies discussed range from blantant propaganda where happy workers sing the praises of the new wheat harvesting machine to touching family stories. It's unfortunate that some of these films aren't widely available. One in particular is an outstanding East German film where the actors portray movie producers who have been ordered to produce a musical comedy, and they sing about how hard it is to get a funny musical movie about communism past the state review board. It would also have been interesting to see communist Chinese movies in a similar vein.

Rating:
Summary: Bizarrely Entertaining
Review: This look back at an obscure socialist cultural legacy -- a series of peppy musical films -- is both intriguing and weird. The clips themselves show a fantasy world of giddy happiness and lurid color not much different from other forms of East European communist propaganda. But what is both amusing and unexpected is seeing the extent to which Western popular musical sounds and images of the time (blaring saxophones, flippy hairdos and hip teens) were grafted onto a socialist framework. Sure there are the obligatory warbling peasant girls and lusty singing collective farm workers, but there are far stranger treats in store, including a tuxedo-clad suitor gliding through a suspiciously lavish living room on ice skates, courtesy of the Czechoslovak People's Republic. Surprisingly, the more orthodox and repressive Soviet satellites (GDR, Bulgaria) contribute some of the most entertaining examples of this all-but-forgotten genre. Interviews with local people who made and enjoyed these films puts them in perspective and rounds out the program.