Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears

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Gigi T Once every year, I watch this movie. It is close to my heart because I grew up watching USSR movie. At glance, it may seem shallow but if you know the culture, it cuts deep. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/05/24 Full Review Lena S one of the best and famous Soviet movies to date. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 10/15/23 Full Review severthor P Nice comedy, only the actresses playing "young" heroines were almost forty years old. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 08/08/23 Full Review Audience Member An extremely relatable and intimate look at the hardships of daily life that will have the audience captivated is how I would describe the film Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears. Directed by Vladimir Menshev in the late Brezhnev Era around 1979-1980, Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears is a Russian film that follows the story of 3 young working class girls who live in a dormitory in Moscow and throughout the film we watch as events unfold in their lives for better or for worse. About halfway through the film a 20 year time skip takes place and we see where these characters have ended up. Some of the strong aspects of the film are the ways the characters are written and acted specifically the character of Katerina who is portrayed by Vera Alentova. Alentova's performance is amazing as we watch the character of Katerina go through hardship after hardship, yet in the end she steels her resolve and carves out the path in life that she wants. Even aside from Katerina, the problems that the characters face in the movie like not getting into school, having a low paying job, and relationship issues are all easily relatable for audiences which makes us connect with the characters even more and is all thanks to the writing in this film. Another strong aspect would be the settings, with most if not all of the scenes in the film being shot on location rather than on the sound stage which also gives the film a grounded and extremely realistic aspect which makes feel as if the audience is watching actual peoples lives unfold before them rather than characters in a film. One scene in the film that shows these strong points in action is in the second half of the movie when Katerina and her new love interest Gosha, played by Aleksey Batalov, are having a picnic and the exchanges between the characters and the beautiful woodland setting create this beautiful moment in these characters lives where they really connect for the first time and it feels like Katerina is finally happy, with the written being excellent and the beautiful on set location making this one of the most beautiful scenes in the movie. Like with anything this film does have some weak point with the biggest being the runtime, this is a long film with a run time of about 2 hours and 30 minutes, and I do think that some things could have been trimmed from the first half of the movie before the time skip. Which leads to the second weak point of the film which is we are introduced to a lot of characters in the first half of the film with there seemingly being two other girls as main characters alongside Katerina as if the film would be following all three the entire film. However, after the time skip, the film really begins to focus on Katerina and her life with the other two girls still playing roles in the second half however it feels as if they become more secondary characters. The last weak point would be the seemingly rushed or unfinished ending of the film which feels like it glosses over a lot of remaining plot lines and quickly tries to wrap up with a happy ending almost as if they ran out of time. Even though this is an older film I still think this film has a lot of value for almost any audience because of the relatable and grounded themes and problems the characters face that I mentioned earlier. The relatability aspect of this film means that a wide range of people who watch this film can most likely find one aspect that they relate to and can learn something from. Based on that I really think almost anyone, but specifically young adults and up from anywhere could watch this film and enjoy it for those reasons. Overall I was pleasantly surprised by this film and though a long watch with a somewhat rushed ending, I found myself really captivated by the story it had to tell and still left the film with a positive experience, I would give Moscow Does not Believe in Tears, 4 out of 5 stars. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Audience Member Very sweet movie, though some scenes were overly long. They mainly focused on only two of the three women, with Katya having the most prominent role in th end, being the one that admirably fought through all hardships to succeed in life on her own, while Lyuda in comparison just looked to entangle a successful man and while succeeding, it didn't work out for her in the long run. Has a distinct ït's from a different era" feel to it, which is always nice when you're looking to see how movies used to be years ago. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review Audience Member Oscar winning and rightly so. This film is very slow to begin with and comes across as hokey, thus the less than glowing reviews, but once they get into the present-day-period it really revs up and takes it self to the level of near masterpiecedom. It is a very cool and very smart female focused story and in typical Russian fashion portrays the swings and roundabouts of life very well. The scene in which Lyuda meets with her estranged lover is one of the greatest. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears

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