Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows FanStore News Showtimes

East Side Story

Play trailer Poster for East Side Story Released Jun 25, 1997 1h 16m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
Tomatometer 2 Reviews 100% Popcornmeter 50+ Ratings
Though its films were rarely exhibited on the other side of the Iron Curtain, the prolific Soviet film industry churned out more than propagandistic documentaries and epic-length versions of 19th-century Russian novels. This documentary explores the musical comedy genre in the communist era, when, just as in Hollywood musicals, characters broke into elaborately stylized song and dance numbers mid-movie, the difference being that these characters sang in praise of collective farms and factories.

Critics Reviews

View All (2) Critics Reviews
Mick LaSalle San Francisco Chronicle Rated: 4/4 Jan 1, 2000 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 3/5 Jul 1, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (4) audience reviews
Audience Member A documentary about Communist musicals! Seriously though, this documentary is very entertaining and fascinating. Of course the clips are rather hilarious, farm girls singing to their pigs and physical labour replacing choreographed dance sequences, but some of the films look genuinely fun, like "Midnight Revue", "The Little White Mouse" and "Hot Summer". Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Audience Member Engaging doc. Kinda fun. Especially the bits of "Hot Summer" -- now that's a film I need to see! Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Audience Member A documentary about Communist musicals! Seriously though, this documentary is very entertaining and fascinating. Of course the clips are rather hilarious, farm girls singing to their pigs and physical labour replacing choreographed dance sequences, but some of the films look genuinely fun, like "Midnight Revue", "The Little White Mouse" and "Hot Summer". Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review walter m "East Side Story" is a fun and informative documentary about musicals made behind the Iron Curtain, mostly focusing on those made in East Germany and the Soviet Union. The film relies on clips and interviews with performers, officials, and audience members talking about the films and how difficult it was to make them under the censorious regimes.(It was hard enough to simply make a film and have it released but it was even harder for a musical.) The musicals strived to be a mix between entertainment for the masses(which tried to compete with Hollywood musicals of the same time) and propaganda by the government. The makers of this documentary argue for a more flexible type of Communism, one that would give artists more creative freedom. "East Side Story" gives a good glimpse at a little known part of cinematic history.(Most of the films discussed have not been released here in the States.) I was entertained by the clips and would very much like to see some of these movies in their entirety. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews
East Side Story

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Cast & Crew

View All Cast and Crew
View All East Side Story photos

East Side Story

View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis Though its films were rarely exhibited on the other side of the Iron Curtain, the prolific Soviet film industry churned out more than propagandistic documentaries and epic-length versions of 19th-century Russian novels. This documentary explores the musical comedy genre in the communist era, when, just as in Hollywood musicals, characters broke into elaborately stylized song and dance numbers mid-movie, the difference being that these characters sang in praise of collective farms and factories.
Director
Dana Ranga
Screenwriter
Dana Ranga
Distributor
Kino International Corp.
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
German
Release Date (Theaters)
Jun 25, 1997, Original
Box Office (Gross USA)
$7.7K
Runtime
1h 16m