Marriage (1944) User Reviews

Probably best movie of the decade

[Strannik2004 · 9/10 · 20 March 2005]

The 40th- yearly 50th years of the soviet cinema were very difficult due to severe censorship. Official propaganda didn't pass movies which didn't glorify Stalin and communist party. Moreover WWII damaged cinematography seriously. That's why release of Svadba(aka Marriage) is the enormous success for cinema fans. Great directing, great plot/dialogs, great actors(Garin,Fedorova,Ranevskaya,Gribov,Abdulov) turned this movie into the real masterpiece. Even now,60 years after Svadba's appearance, this movie remains the greatest classic production of the Russian cinema.

My rate:9/10

A real constellation

[konstantinkliushkin · 9/10 · 26 May 2020]

In the West, sometimes the number of stars employed in a picture is used as a measure of the merits of a film. If this criterion could be applied to the "Marriage", it would probably be recognized as one of the most worthy films of the century. In fact, the film features: 11 people's artists of the USSR, 2 people's artists of the RSFSR, 4 honored artists of the RSFSR. Moreover, not all were indicated in the credits. Of course, at the time of the film's creation, many of its actors did not yet have all the regalia that they had been awarded for their entire creative lives. But we are not talking about official ranks and awards, but about the highest level of talent of the star collective assembled by Isidor Annensky. This team, combined by a talented director with the genius of Chekhov, ensured the creation of a film masterpiece for centuries. A masterpiece in which each frame, each episode, each replica is a separate work of art. Due to the historical features of the moment the picture was released, it did not participate in film festivals. What festivals in 1944?! Judging by the lack of reviews of professional Western film critics, the picture is poorly known in the West. Perhaps only in 1945, in the wave of the allied mood, it was shown in the United States and some European countries. And that's it. So, once again, you can sympathize with the audience of Western countries, which, due to the most severe censorship, are deprived of the opportunity to see some Soviet film masterpieces.

A rare non propaganda comedy from the Stalinist regime

[cynthiahost · 10/10 · 9 June 2010]

It is rare to see a film classic made at the time Communism was controlling Russia. Since we were friend during the war it was released in the united states in 45.The focus is a family , a typical Russian family , planning their daughters wedding. It starts with an organ grinder with a parrot who tells he story. We see the daughter singing the song that the grinder is singing while poppa is helping her role up her yarn. Every body , the mother too, is preparing the wedding supper. The future groom shows up to talk to

Papasita about the dowry.Another ,who is involved in th wedding, is paid by the mother o bring this retired official to the wedding.They never actually show the wedding ceremony just the party .I wander if this might be propaganda against ministers performing the wedding? I don't know.Well every body is having a good time at this wedding. They do a variation of the waltz. They do what I see as a twister which leads to Russia's traditional folk dance, it takes place in the 1880's or 90. This female guest starts to flirt with the male guests ending up playing the kissing game . Earlier her and a male guest sing a song while he plays with the guitar. The groom shows up and she tries to flirt with him but he rejects her moves. There's one scene where the same male guest makes some criticism about the mother material quality. She's already drunk gets mad and shows to the guest that all her stuff in her house is high quality.Then the retired official, that you see earlier playing with his pet fish,shows up. He has a good time until what he says is not taken seriously. everybody thinks it's a joke. This hurts his feelings and he leaves.Mean while, the groom is hating the party. eventually he takes a knife and goes to the wedding bed a tares it to shreds. About this time it's daylight and the feathers starts to float all over the town. Before you know it the bride and parents and guest are out side walking as they are crying passing the music grinder as he finishes the story. I think there was a message against the upper class.

Not enough to be amused

[AndreiPavlov · 5/10 · 29 September 2005]

Soviet/Russian cinema has a lot to offer. If it were as widespread as Hollywood films, quite a number of USA features would have been just knocked off the top 250 IMDb list. More than 50 Soviet/Russian titles would be there. The discussed here title would most likely not, though.

A young man is to be married against his will. The reason is very simple: he visited the house of the young lady and ate and drank "free of charge" with her father a bit too much and too often. There is no escape. Soon the wedding feast is shown and then goes the sad finale.

It is considered to be the cult comedy of the Soviet cinema. Hopefully, it is not. Also, it is not good that one of our actors (Mr Erast Garin) is called "Buster Keaton of Soviet cinema" (as written on the DVD box), while this comparison makes one actor superior and humiliates the dramatic talent of the other. It is a good screen adaptation but it is too long (it seems to be, though it's only about one hour) and not funny enough. These actors could and did really make the cult comedies - but not in this case. It also happens that you expect something seriously funny to happen but nothing happens.

Only a 5, because of something missing. If we did not have such treasures of the genre as "Podkidysh", "Mimino", "Deja vu", and quite a number of others, it would be very-very good. But let's highly appreciate the real funny stuff. Thanks for attention.