unbelievable
This long surpressed film is now available in a gorgeous restored version. To get more info on this film, and you should, read about it on Google.
The Fall of Berlin is a 70th birthday present from Josef Stalin to Josef Stalin. It was partially written, produced and directed by Stalin and though one Adolf Hitler has more screen time, Stalin's presence is everywhere, even in scenes in which he ia absent. It was direceted by a hack named Michail Chiaureli who seems to have been Stalin's favorite director.It was scored by the great Dimitri Shostakovich whom Stalin hated. Shostakovich wrote a glorious score.
For audience appeal there is a minor love story between as unattractive a couple as posssible but the story is about the famous leaders of World War Two.
Hitler, Goebbels, Goering, Churchill, Roosevelt, Mololtov, Zhukov, Malenkov and others all appear, some fleetingly yet Stalin reigns supreme.
The Yalta Confereence is fascinating. Stalin is the...
The best of the Worst
The Fall of Berlin
Soviet Union
Fictional Historical Melodrama
1949 - Color - 151 Minutes DVD region 1-6(0) monoaural soundtrack
(Part I and Part II on the same DVD)-
Russian, with English subtitles.
Distributed by: International Historical Films
Studio: Mosfilm
Director: Mikhail Chiaurelli
Screenplay by: Pavlenko and Chiaurelli
Music: Dmitri Shostakovich Lyrics: E. Dolmatovsky
Orchestra of the Ministry of Cinematography of the USSR
Musical Director: A. Guak
The best of the worst! One if the greatest examples of revisionist propaganda. If it wasn't such a serious time in Russian history, this movie would be laughable. Viewed by some 42 million Soviet citizens in 1949, when first released. Made with Stalin's personal supervision, but then banned in the Soviet Union for decades after his death. Most of the ideals set forth in the movie are aligned with the book Falsifiers of History, published in...
First film dealing with the end of World War II is good, solid entertainment despite its propaganda intentions.
Perhaps not the most sophisticated film ever made about World War II, but this 1949 Soviet film is a rousing, solid, popular piece of filmmaking. Reportedly made as a present for Stalin's 70th birthday, who took great interest in its production, it was made with considerable production values (for that time) and in great Agfacolor film, taken as war reparation from the Germans. It's a propaganda film alright, but is very well made. As far as I know this was also the first fiction film dealing with the fall of Berlin (though the film, despite its title, deals with all the war in the eastern front, starting from the German invasion of Russia and not just its ending). I'm sure its intended audience - the Soviet masses who just have been through WW2, appreciated the movie. Hitler and his minions (who all speak in Russian in the film) are portrayed as grotesque, pathetic buffoons - but this is not necessarily a bad thing since they are the comic relief of the movie. Also fun is the...
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