Osenniy marafon

This is a great comedy about what it means to have a weak character.

Outstanding is the performance of Yevgenij Leonov. Everybody should watch this film because there is a great lesson to learn about life.

Niffiwan from Toronto is not right (Interesting to note is that the director was female). The director is male and strong Caucasian macho with mustaches, born in Georgia. By the way Georgi is the name, like George. There is a rumor that heroes of his movies have latency homosexual complex but it is just a joke. But who knows? The film is pure genius. This is the story about soviet intellectual (not an average soviet man from Brezhnev's era), English to Russian interpreter, who read some lectures in some university. He live in a big apartment with many rooms - it is very unusual situation in Soviet Union for family with one child (the hero have one daughter). This is the symbol of privileged position for brain workers in Sovet Union society. But his work is silly and insignificant. He is in trouble with his slinky mistress (genius actress Marina Neelova), smart and understanding wife (also genius Natalya Gundareva, RIP), colleagues and so on. The problems are snowball running and his life is start to decline. This is not a comedy - this is a sad story that may be associated with brothers' Cohen movie "Fargo" or something like that. The quality of actors play is brilliant and absolutely realistic. I strongly recommended another Danelia astonishing film called "Kin-Dza-Dza" (strange adventures of mid-aged soviet foreman and his accidental fellow young Moscow student on another planet, kinda postapocaliptic totalitaristic Mad Max style world - the strong satire on all human civilization)

This film takes a while to get going, but once it does it's a pretty good film. I strongly recommend it to those who'd like to see how ordinary people lived in the USSR in the early 80s.

The film takes place in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), which is Russia's second largest city after Moscow. The cinematographer is this film is a very good one, and there are a lot of great compositional shots... I'd say that the cinematography in this film seems more western than a lot of other Russian films. The editing work and script, by contrast, is not always so good, especially in the beginning of the film (for the first 1/2 hour I didn't even know who the main character was!). The actors are all very believable though, and by the end of the film I pretty much understood everything that I was so confused about at first.

This film isn't a traditional comedy; it's more of a sad morality tale told with some humour to keep it from becoming depressing. If you liked "Moscow Does not Believe in Tears", you may like this movie as well. Interesting to note is that the director was female (EDIT: Sorry folks, he's male. I assumed that the director was Russian, in which case a last name ending with "a" would signify a female).

Overall, I'd give it a 7/10. Westerners may want to watch this if they want to see a "typical" Soviet movie from the last half of the century. Most critics only notice the more "avant garde" movies of Soviet cinema like "Andrei Rublev" or "Battleship Potemkin", and that becomes people's impression of what Russian movies are like. This is for those who want to see a simple movie about a man's life that can be pretty much universal anywhere; there is no over-the-top patriotism or strangeness in this film and it's a good film regardless.

BTW, the Russian voices are better than the English voice-overs.

As a student of Russian language and culture, one of my biggest pet peeves is the way people who lived during the Cold War talk about the Russian people and about Russian society. Most people have terrible misconceptions about Russian Society. One of the most interesting epochs of Soviet History is the Brezhnev Era. Some of Russia's most celebrated dramedies such as Rjazanov's "The Irony of Fate" were coming out at this time. If you want to get a small taste of what Russian Society was like (although it is impossible to fully understand what you don't live through), this is one of the best films you can find. In addition, it's quite witty and even belly laugh funny at times Andrei's neighbor and the Danish professor go mushroom picking. If you enjoy films, which perhaps don't focus on plot, but rather conduct deep character analyzes by portraying a series of events and their effect on the characters, then this is the film for you. It is actually slightly reminiscent of American comedies by Wes Anderson and Alexander Payne. ABSOL'JUTNO STOIT VAM SMOTRET' I KAK MOZHNO BYSTREE!!! NU CHTO ZH SIDITE-TO.. BEGOM!

The movie - The Autumn Marathon - is one of my favourite. I grew up in Soviet Union that transformed later into Russian Federation. I still remember those times. Actually, I remember times a little later than 1979 (I was born that year:)), but everything I see in this movie reminds me of my childhood: apartments, cars, clothes etc. I understand the mood of this film. Indeed, it was usual type of mood of "intelligensia" people. People who had good brains and realised they don't have much space to develop their talents. Of course, the character of the protagonist - Andrey - is complicated, he has many inside complexes and can't say "no" to anybody that causes problems for him and others. A man who is waiting for somebody else to made decision for him. He can't tear himself out of "love triangle" ( his wife, lover and him). At the end of the film we see how happy he is when it seems that his wife and lover finally left him. But everything gets back and Andrey's endless "marathon" running continues.....