MOSCOW DOES NOT BELIEVE IN TEARS Movie Review

Moscow Distrusts Tears
Moskwa Sljesam Nje Jerit

Three man-hungry girls arrive in Moscow in the 1950s, hoping to find love and happiness. Over the course of the next 20 years, we discover their successes, their compromises, and share in what they've learned about love and life. If you change the setting to New York or Los Angeles, you'll be reminded of glossy 1950s Hollywood movies that aren't all that different except for the factories and the decor. Nevertheless, the dull Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears got a lot of playdates in U.S. theatres, not because the film is particularly radical or exhilarating (it isn't either), but because everyone remembered the name from the 1980 Academy Awards show. There were a few titters in the audience when the nominees were announced (it was the title that got laughs), but there was a general gasp when this film was announced as the winner. It hadn't been released here yet, so no one knew what to make of it, but there was a kind of “with-a-name-like-Smuckers-it's got-to-be-good” buzz surrounding the movie's surprise victory. When it was released, critics seemed to be getting in line to proclaim its virtues, though its scanty charms did manage to elude American audiences in general. (It was a smash in the USSR.) The video release is a full half-hour shorter than the original cut, yet is no less enervating.

NEXT STOP … Little Vera, Repentance, How to Marry a Millionaire

1980 115m/C RU Vera Alentova, Irina Muravyova, Raisa Ryazanova, Natalie Vavilova, Alexei Batalov; D: Vladimir Menshov; W: Valentin Chernykh; C: Igor Slabnevich; M: Sergei Nikitin. Academy Awards ‘80: Best Foreign Film. VHS, LV COL, IME, KIV