Les ailes

I'm a frequent but casual movie viewer and I really enjoyed this film. I often find films enjoyable that deal in (for me) obscure themes and genres. So I was intrigued that this was produced in the Soviet Union in 1966, which was solidly in the cold war era. Add to that actors I couldn't possibly recognize playing roles I don't typically see and spare but careful direction and production, and for me this was a winner. Uncontrived and unpretentious. The themes it dealt with were (IMO) surprisingly "unpatriotic/heroic" and not propagandist. There's a nice balance of pathos and irony and, contrary to at least one of the other reviews, the film is not humorless at all. If there is more Soviet-era cinema like this I would be interested to see it.

This Russian film is about the fortunes of former war heroine flyer Nadezhda Petrukhina, who is working as a schoolteacher in the aftermath of the war and becoming increasingly dissatisfied with her lot. Her daughter Tanya (Zhanna Bolotova) has married an older man, Igor, who Petrukhina clearly thinks isn't good enough for her, while the teacher is herself courted by a museum director, Pavel Gavrilovich (Pantelejmon Krymov).

Centring on the former lady flyer and taking the film at a nice slow pace, we follow her through several days and activities such as going to a museum, catching up with old friends at the airfield, meeting Igor's more intellectualised friends, and chewing the fat with a cafe waitress, eventually waltzing with her to the strains of the Great Waltz.

'Wings' is a film of quiet beauty which remains long in the memory after you've seen it - whether it is the school play you remember, with the dancing Russian dolls, or the cleaner mopping the school corridors, or Boris the deputy head painting the walls, or the sight of Petrukhina muching sausage with the workers in the pub, or the final swoop of wings as she takes to the sky once more, or the flashbacks to her co-flyer sweetheart in the war.

Nadezhda (aka Nadya), a school director and WWII heroine pilot is greatly respected by everybody. When she expels a boy from school for pushing a girl (she started it) Nadya gets to thinking. She had to make it in a man's world and has to continue being tough every day (deny her femininity, in a way) to get ahead. But is she maybe overdoing it a little? When offered a dance she declines although she would probably like to, and she denies that there is anything more than a platonic friendship between her and a male museum director. In what situations can she allow letting her guard down, allow being seen as a woman? She and her adopted daughter are more like good acquaintances, having completely different ideas about life and about being a woman. Where did she go wrong? She meets women who are quite happy with the modest roles assigned to them, apparently a lot happier than her. Is this the life she wanted?

All this thematically rich contemplating and melancholy of Nadya's happens without words. Mostly what we see is Nadya doing her job, administrating, exchanging words with people who recognize her, dealing with a young student who looks up to her, wandering around, going to bars, etc. She clearly isn't all stern and cold, she puts on a matryoshka doll costume to perform in a school play when a student suddenly drops out, she has a little personal woman-to-woman talk with a bar woman and then waltzes with her through the deserted bar, she gets giddy practically as soon as she smells alcohol and hence makes a fool of herself at her daughter's wedding celebration. In between all this we often see her thinking. What she really thinks about mostly is up to the viewer to interpret. One reviewer, for example, figured that Nadya's thoughts are purely those of nostalgia, for she is stuck in the glory days of her past while the present passes her by. Well, some of the things I think she thought about you can read in the first paragraph, so this review is thereby concluded.

This is a film directed by Larisa Shepitko--a woman whose life was cut very short at age 41. Because Russian movies are generally pretty tough to come by here in the US and because her career was short, there aren't a lot of opportunities to see her films.

"Wings" is a very slow-moving film. This isn't necessarily a criticism--just a comment on the style. Instead of telling the viewer a lot about the lady who is the subject of the film, you slowly begin to learn more about her as she appears to be in the throes of an existential crisis.

Nadezhda Petrovna is a woman in her early 40s, though she appears much older. She is the principal of a high school but seems vaguely dissatisfied with her job and personal life. Watching her, she seems rather sexless and emotionally stunted--and a bit lost. As the film unfolds, you learn through brief flashback scenes that she was a pilot during WWII and apparently since then, she has been in a bit of a fog. And, the only time she smiles or seems at ease is when in an airplane. Throughout nearly all of the film, Petrovna walks about in a rather tentative and slow-motion manner--and it may take some getting used to in order to enjoy the film. Perhaps 'enjoy' is not the right word, as this isn't meant to be enjoyed but more appreciated for the character study that it is. Visually and especially musically, this is a very, very good film--very evocative but slow and with a rather vague ending that might disappoint many. I give it a 7, as it IS a quality production--but not one that I'd heartily endorse.

By the way, while this is NOT a funny film and won't elicit a lot of laughs, I did love seeing the school play where a few of the kids were dressed like nesting dolls (matryoshka dolls). This was pretty cute.

A schoolmistress, former glory of the USSR air force, reflects on her life.

Within the post-war cinema (1960s), it's one of the best Russian films I have ever seen.

By Larisa Shepitko, one of the best female directors of all time, 'Wings' is the portrait of a woman who, even with a stable and successful life, feels an enormous nostalgia, when remembering the days on the front line to defend her nation.

The pace, slow and calm, is perfect for the effect that Shepitko intended to do.

The love for the country overrides the personal romance, and family and social relationships are questioned, when the desire to return to the former glory days consumes insanely the little that she still has inside her.

It's also a pertinent approach to feminism, and the role of women in the Soviet hierarchy.

The cinematography is very good, with a fabulous composition.