Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears

Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears
Poster for USA promotion.
Directed by	Vladimir Menshov
Written by	Valentin Chernykh
Starring	Vera Alentova Irina Muravyova Aleksey Batalov Natalya Vavilova Raisa Ryazanova Oleg Tabakov Leonid Kharitonov
Music by	Sergey Nikitin
Cinematography	Igor Slabnevich
Editing by	Yelena Mikhajlova
Studio	Mosfilm
Release date(s)	11 February 1980 8 May 1981
Running time	140 minutes
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Russian

Moscow Does not Believe in Tears (Russian: Москва слезам не верит; translit. Moskva slezam ne verit) is a 1980 Soviet film made by Mosfilm. It was written by Valentin Chernykh and directed by Vladimir Menshov. The leading roles were played by Menshov's wife Vera Alentova and by Aleksey Batalov. The film won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1980.

Plot

The movie is set in Moscow from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. It tells a story about three provincial girls who come to Moscow. They are settled in the same room in a dormitory and eventually become friends. Katerina (Vera Alentova) strives to earn her degree and also works hard at a factory. She house-sits an apartment for rich Moscow relatives for a while, and her friend Lyudmila (Irina Muravyova) convinces her to pretend that they are the daughters of a rich professor, in order to seduce intelligent, wealthy Muscovite men. At a party thrown by Lyudmila in the apartment, she meets a man Rudolf (Yuri Vasilyev) who works as a cameraman for a television channel. He eventually rapes Katerina, resulting in her becoming pregnant. Rudolf refuses to marry her or acknowledge the child as his own. This leaves Katerina alone with a baby - Rudolf's mother tells her to leave her son alone and offers her money, which Katerina refuses.

The movie shows Katerina with tears in her eyes setting her alarm clock in a dormitory where she just arrived after bearing her daughter, Alexandra (played by Natalya Vavilova), then takes a 20-year leap forward in time. Katerina is then shown waking up to the sound of an alarm clock in her own apartment. She still hasn't married, but she is now the director of a large factory. She has a lover, an older married man named Volodya (Oleg Tabakov), but she still feels that something is missing in her life.

One evening when Katerina is returning home from her friend's dacha in the countryside on a train, she meets a man named Gosha (Aleksey Batalov). Soon after they start seeing each other, but an unexpected return of Rudolf seems to ruin everything. Rudolf is part of a news crew that arrives at Ekaterina's factory to do a report on the factory's great production rate. He does not recognize his ex-lover at first but when he does he wants to make amends and meet his daughter. Katerina doesn't let him call or visit their home. But Rudolf comes against her will when Gosha, Katerina and Alexandra are having dinner. He tells them about the interview, and at that moment Gosha finds out that Katerina is a director and that her salary must be bigger than his own. Being a man that can't let a woman be on top of him in any way, Gosha gets upset and leaves.

For several days he is nowhere to be seen, he doesn't call and doesn't come to Katerina, until at last she and her former dormitory roommates gather in her apartment and decide that they have to do something. Nikolai (Boris Smorchkov), the husband of Antonina, sets out to find Gosha. He finds him drinking and after getting drunk with him he convinces Gosha to return to Katerina.

The final scene of the movie is set in the kitchen of Katerina's flat. Gosha eats soup, while Katerina watches him with tears in her eyes. Gosha asks "What's wrong?" Katerina replies "I've been looking for you for so long". After a moment of thought Gosha says "Eight days." Katerina says "No," and repeats, "I've been looking for you for so long."

Cast

• Vera Alentova - Katerina Tikhomirova
• Irina Muravyova - Lyudmila
• Aleksey Batalov - Gosha
• Raisa Ryazanova - Antonina
• Aleksandr Fatyushin - Sergei Gurin
• Boris Smorchkov - Nikolai
• Viktor Uralsky - Nikolai's Father
• Valentina Ushakova - Nikolai's Mother
• Yuri Vasilyev - Rodion Rachkov
• Yevgeniya Khanayeva - Rachkov's Mother
• Zoya Fyodorova - Hostel's Security
• Natalya Vavilova - Alexandra
• Liya Akhedzhakova - Olga Pavlovna, Club's Director
• Oleg Tabakov - Vladimir, Katerina's lover
• Vladimir Basov - Anton Kruglov
• Cameo appearances:
  • Andrei Voznesensky
  • Innokenty Smoktunovsky
  • Georgi Yumatov
  • Leonid Kharitonov
  • Tatyana Konyukhova
  • Pavel Rudakov and Veniamin Nechaev

Awards and recognition

• The film won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1980, and was chosen to participate in the International Film Exchange.
• The film was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 30th Berlin International Film Festival (1980).^[1]
• Vera Alentova has been named as the best USSR actress according to a poll by journal "Sovetskij Ekran" (1980).
• In 1981 it was awarded the USSR State Prize.^[2]
• US President Ronald Reagan watched the film several times prior to his meetings with the President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, in order to gain a better understanding of the "Russian soul".^[3][4]

Songs from the film

• Bésame mucho
• Daddy Cool
• By Sergey Nikitin and Tatyana Nikitina:
  • Александра (Alexandra)
  • Диалог у новогодней елки (A dialogue by the New Year's tree)
• By Klavdiya Shulzhenko:
  • Давай закурим (Davai zakurim / "Lets take a smoke")

References

1. ^ "IMDB.com: Awards for Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears". imdb.com. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079579/awards. Retrieved 2010-08-22. 
2. ^ about movie on kinoros.ru (russian)
3. ^ Сиротоэкранное кино, Журнал «Власть» № 40 (643) от 10.10.2005.
4. ^ Интервью с Верой Алентовой и Владимиром Меньшовым, "В Нью-Йорке с Виктором Топаллером", RTVi.

External links

• Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears at the Internet Movie Database
• Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears at AllRovi
• An interview with Vladimir Menshov (Russian)
• Trailer and Screenshots