Istoriya Asi Klyachinoy, kotoraya lyubila, da ne vyshla zamuzh (1966) User Reviews

newly liberated late Soviet classic

[mjneu59 · 8/10 · 5 November 2010]

It may be worth asking if there's a corollary between the quality of a film and the number of years it's been banned. Until 1987 only two people outside the Iron Curtain (Tom Luddy and Bernardo Bertolucci) had seen Andrei Konchalovsky's second feature, belatedly hailed (by Michail Gorbachev, no less) as a long lost classic of Soviet cinema. And not without good reason: the film is as fresh today as it must have been when first released in 1966, prompting immediate censorship by daring to depict Soviet citizenry in such an unflattering natural light. It wouldn't be difficult to imagine the Politburo's response to seeing, among other embarrassments, a drunken farmhand urinating on his overheated tractor engine, or a Farm Collective Chairman portrayed by a hunchback (who off screen was, in fact, an actual Farm Collective Chairman). Except for his three primary characters Konchalovsky employs a non-professional cast to illustrate the strong and particular attachment Russians feel toward their land, but the director's sentiments obviously run deeper than the Party Line. He stakes his faith in common humanity, warts and all, and after twenty years in bureaucratic limbo the refreshing honesty of his efforts is a revelation.

An amazing story for those who really know how to live love and die.

[buzz-62 · 11 October 1999]

One of the best examples of amazing black and white photography. How do we capture atmosphere and one's soul? How do we tell about them?

For those who believe in fate, this is a film to see as well as for those who do not believe in it. Do we really just get chosen for our miseries or do we create those miseries? What is the percentage of effect of IQ when we talk about fate?

She lived loved and slowly died as she danced her life away with the gypsy crowd. The deepest agony of surviving in the Soviet Union.

Beautiful story telling and visual as well as very good performances. Asia is my mom my sister and my girl friend.

It is a must for all those who are into black and white photograph and visuals as well as those modern man walking around "knowing it all".

Enjoy.....

No love for Asya

[edgeofreality · 10/10 · 2 October 2020]

Cinema-verite, poetic, brilliantly made and harsh view of life on a Soviet collective farm, where you struggle to tell the professional from amateur actors. A lame girl fails to find love in the rough men surrounding her. Well, gentle men from more sophisticated walks of life aren't always great either. Her last song and scream tell it all. Not easy viewing but essential for getting to know something about such a vastly different way of life, where love is as rough as anything else, yet still exists to be lost, perhaps more poignantly than ever.