Estação de Trem para Dois

We usually watch our Russian movies with Japanese subtitles but this one had no subtitles at all - so I was very disappointed to find you haven't any plot summary for this one. You know its got to be a fascinating movie when five people who don't know Russian - and one of whom despises the language - watch it without subtitles, not just once, but three times!

Riazanov's Railway Station for Two is a delightfully unique work that jumps between triviality and complexity with a certain grace. On the one hand, the film is a dark comedy about a man for whom nothing goes right, a walking Murphy's law. On the other hand, it is a classic melodramatic romance about a working class woman and a member of the intelligentsia. However, the film is much more than either of these clichés. There is a wonderfully crafted development of relationship at play: over the course of the two or three short days depicted, one is well convinced that these two people have progressed from viciously bickering strangers to being truly in love. Riazanov manages to draw for the viewer the contrasting and overlapping struggles of these disaffected members of opposite social classes with a subtlety that might have been painfully overbearing in the hands of a different director. There are striking sociopolitical aspects to this film as well – casual depiction of the black market, references to the issues of profiteering and shortages, and even outright criticism of communism are remarkable, at least in contrast with earlier Soviet work. The clash of gender equality and tradition also comes into play at several times in the course of the film's brief love affair. All of these themes are dealt with in a wonderfully delicate way, accenting a sometimes saturnine and sometimes playful love story. Elements of Riazanov's style are reminiscent of early Soviet cinema – pressing psychological burdens, long and pregnant silences – in manner that is unfortunately sometimes alienating. The ending sequence in particular, divorced from the train station in which so much of the story occurs, is downright bizarre and troublesomely off-tempo from the rest of the film. The majority of Station for Two, however, is a well-wrought balance of social commentary and bleakly-humorous romance.

This is one of the best films I've ever watched. I like almost all Ryazanov's works, but this one has changed my life. Well, not directly mine, but my mother's. After watching this film, my mother finally decided that she can't suffer anymore from her husband, my father, and so she filed for divorce. That was a really wise decision, I must say! And now I'll try to explain what was the role of the film in her making such a decision.

In this film there is a song (soundtrack) sang by Lyudmila Gurchenko, who plays Vera in the film. The music is written by Andrey Petrov and the lyrics are by Eldar Ryazanov himself. I will try to do a translation of the lyrics for you to understand how this song affected a 34 year old woman with a 5 year old child:

We live like there is no hero, We stand like soldiers in a line. Don't be afraid to bet for zero And quickly overcome your life!

Remember us at the beginning? Today we try to never strive. Take smallest chance towards the winning And try to overcome your life!

Let streaks of gray be guests in your hair, It's never late to make a turn. Don't be afraid to bet all you have, And act like you have just reborn!

Whenever rain thrashes your suit's back Try to cheer up and feel alright The time has come to shuffle your pack And try to overcome the life!

Believe in dreams, believe in tales, Don't drag your things all 'round the place: You'll never take them into Hades, So better try and win the race!

Let there be no place for a sorrow When you can't beat your rival's card, You bet your life for the tomorrow - There is no win without a fight!

i watch the actors, lyudmila as vera in particular, and i wish they could make more films that i could access. meryl streep, whom i like very much, hasn't got a thing on lyudmila; this is one vibrant and vivid actress with a face the camera loves to love.

the movie seemed very french to me; my wife thought Italian. at any rate it is not an American film. the sensibility is far more oblique and understated. i recall a stephen rea film about the ussr where he is a detective tracking down a serial killer; i think that movie really tries to portray what life must be like in Russia, but finally it is really just a cliché when compared to this film. this movie breathes 'other' and we must switch gears to attempt to see who these folk are and what they are about. a very fine bit of film making that satisfies all the way thru.

Most comments seem to be filled with some nostalgia about when the film was released but now one only can say it just drags endlessly. Some scenes could easily be cut, especially the one at the fruit and vegetable market which serves no purpose at all and there are plenty of others so that one only can feel, get on with it!

The one redeeming feature is, that it shows life in the Soviet Union as it was at the beginning of the 1980s. There is a lot of small time corruption to make life bearable and I'm surprised that some of the criticism of the Soviet communist system was left in especially about the shortage of proper supply in shops and how everybody cuts corners for their own gain.