Voenno-polevoy roman

I only in the last few months learned of Natalya Andreychenko. I first saw her in "Meri Poppins, do svidaniya", a Soviet version of "Mary Poppins"; it was one of the most whacked-out movies that I've ever seen.

Now comes "Voenno-polevoy roman". I would call it the Soviet Union's "Carnal Knowledge". A convoluted story of lost love in the midst of WWII, and screwed-up relationships after the war, I don't know whether or not they were trying to say anything with the movie. I spent the whole time heckling it a la "Mystery Science Theater 3000" (I've done that with a lot of Soviet movies; seriously, they're so full of themselves that they're practically begging for it).

Anyway, it's not a bad movie. Just weird. The only movie that I've seen that ends with a guy using gutters as musical instruments.

This film might be perceived by many as melodramatic and yet it is a delicate study of things that happen so often - people falling in love with those who are not capable to love them back, seeing people through the dream of love past and gone, being in love with those who are so opposite that it is only a matter of time for the love like a ticking bomb to explode and wound with hurt and pain. It is melodramatic indeed but yet so real - something that everyone can relate to, except it's a bit different when love happens during the war. The film is set briefly during the World War II and mostly in after-war time - probably in Moscow. The actors are magnificent - they did great jobs showing strength, vulnerability and humanity of the characters in that time when everyone was trying to get their lives back on track and in such desperate need not to be alone in that difficult time. Great found locations and after-war Soviet fashions give the film wonderful authenticity and the true feeling of that time. The song that is often heard throughout the film has a haunting quality - the lyrics are a constant reminder that everything might have been different if it wasn't for the war.

Bubbling out of the Ruskie archive (that's the way they financed NIGHT WATCH) comes this draggy eighties film with in washed out Commie-color, with Panfilov's great Inna Churikova registering in third billing.

The idea has promise. On the WW2 front, death and destruction is always near and a soldier notices that his officer has two things in the dug out that make his life more interesting - music and a woman. Despite being warned off, he presents the girl a scraggy flower before they go off to likely death.

Years later in the city streets, he recognizes her laugh and finds she has become an abrasive single mother street peddler. Half out of sympathy and half out of infatuation, he tries to improve her life, with wife Inna understandably non-plussed.

There are plenty of nice moments and the picture of eighties Russian life is a plus but the piece lacks structure and discipline and attention wanders.