“They’re Jolly Fellows – And So Are We” / a retrospective of films by Grigori Alexandrov / a screening of “Jolly Fellows”

Soviet cinema is seen differently today than it used to be. In the People’s Republic, many generations of Poles were forced to watch it. The contemporary young viewer watches it without being hampered by ideology, and with a growing sense of fascination.  Alexandrov (1903–83), the Soviet creator of the classic Soviet musical comedy who collaborated with Sergei Eisenstein, used the American convention of burlesque and musical in his pictures. He inclined toward carefree satire, where the plot was less than imperative. His most beloved films are “Jolly Fellows” (1934), “Circus” (1936), “Spring” (1946) and “Volga, Volga” (1938). The last of these was the USSR’s most popular comedy, and was Stalin’s favorite picture. The music for Alexandrov’s work was written by Isaak Dunayevsky (1900–55), an unjustly overlooked Russian composer of Jewish extraction, the author of songs for the masses and Soviet operettas (the famous “The Wind of Liberty”). The director’s wife, Lubov Orlova, starred in his films. Stanisław Janicki will speak about Alexandrov’s remarkable work, while trying to show the younger generation how they might approach this cinema, which they find so unfamiliar and exotic.
Tagi: “They’re Jolly Fellows – And So Are We”