Customer Reviews

East Side Story [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This look back at an obscure socialist cultural legacy -- a series of peppy musical films -- is both intriguing and weird. The clips themselves show a fantasy world of giddy happiness and lurid color not much different from other forms of East European communist propaganda. But what is both amusing and unexpected is seeing the extent to which Western popular musical sounds and images of the time (blaring saxophones, flippy hairdos and hip teens) were grafted onto a socialist framework. Sure there are the obligatory warbling peasant girls and lusty singing collective farm workers, but there are far stranger treats in store, including a tuxedo-clad suitor gliding through a suspiciously lavish living room on ice skates, courtesy of the Czechoslovak People's Republic. Surprisingly, the more orthodox and repressive Soviet satellites (GDR, Bulgaria) contribute some of the most entertaining examples of this all-but-forgotten genre. Interviews with local people who made and enjoyed these films puts them in perspective and rounds out the program.

This is a very comprehensive history of Soviet and Communist European musical films, including film clips and interviews with many of the surviving actors and directors. The movies discussed range from blantant propaganda where happy workers sing the praises of the new wheat harvesting machine to touching family stories. It's unfortunate that some of these films aren't widely available. One in particular is an outstanding East German film where the actors portray movie producers who have been ordered to produce a musical comedy, and they sing about how hard it is to get a funny musical movie about communism past the state review board. It would also have been interesting to see communist Chinese movies in a similar vein.

My credentials as a fan of screen musicals are suspect. In 56 years, I can count on one hand the number I've seen that I thought worth viewing more than once: CHICAGO (2003), EVITA (1996), HELLO DOLLY (1969), THE KING AND I (1956), and (dare I admit it?) MARY POPPINS (1964). Having said that, however, I found EAST SIDE STORY illuminating. During the Bad Old Days of the Cold War, what average American would've thought that the Warsaw Pact/Evil Empire was making musicals? And had been doing so for many years.

EAST SIDE STORY is a documentary roughly covering the period 1930-1970, when the Soviet Union, and its satellites after 1945, struggled to create Hollywood-like entertainment for the proletariat masses without sacrificing the central tenants of socialism. The fact that only forty musicals were filmed during this period suggests that the two concepts blended as efficiently as oil and water.

Chronologically, the documentary begins with the 1934 Soviet musical comedy, THE JOLLY FELLOWS, a rather unsocialist production that apparently only made it to the local cinemas after Stalin overrode the censors - a bad career move for them, no doubt - and personally approved it. As a matter of fact, Uncle Joe was a big fan of the genre, and gave a copy of a favorite reel to FDR as a gift. In any case, the visual narrative proceeds through several more Soviet releases, including the 1939 film with the catchy title TRACTOR DRIVERS and the 1946 COSSACKS OF THE KUBAN featuring synchronized wheat harvesting, and ending with the Polish, Czech, Romanian and (mostly) East German musicals of the 50s and 60s. Indeed, the costuming, hairstyles, and choreography of the DDR productions are so similar to Tinseltown fare that, if I squint my eyes against the cheesy sets and block out the German lyrics, I might just as well be watching a teenage beach blanket saga filmed in Southern California.

EAST SIDE STORY is liberally sprinkled with interviews with aging actors, production lackeys, and cinema historians. (Early on, it's pointed out that none of the films' directors have survived. A purge maybe, or just old age?) They establish quite clearly the dichotomy that existed between the desire to entertain audiences with big box office hits and the doctrinaire restrictions imposed by socialist ideology that tended to cramp the screenwriter's style. One of those interviewed wistfully observed, "If only socialism had been more fun." Gee, I don't know. I can see Stalin reprising Dick van Dyke's role as the dancing chimney sweep in MARY POPPINS, can't you?

A very entertaining look at the 40 or so musicals that were produced in the Eastern Bloc nations from the 1930's up through the 1970's. Although highly propagandist in nature, (no more so than the "happy" muscials that were being produced in Hollywood,at the same time,)there is this innocent naiveté about the monstrous happenings during the Stalin regime. Where as in the West, musicals made us temporarily forget, depression, war and everyday sacrifices, the musicals in the East in addition, promoted the heroism of the common worker(proletartiat)and the value derived in working for the goals of building socialist nation.

The footage of Communist musicals were precious, and I won't say that the interviews with directors, actors, and audiences weren't informative, but the sight of these musicals were so unique that I became frustrated when they kept cutting over to lengthy interviews that often became repetitive. Still worth seeing, though probably worth renting and watching once or twice...

I had heard rumours and seen some clips of Eastern European communist musicals before, but I never knew that someone had made a documentary about them until my research on tractors turned up this title.

Through as series of clips of the movies, interviews with the people involved in their production, audiences and recreations of party review committees, this documentary attempts to tell the story of a forgotten era of cinema from behind the Iron Curtain.

I have to say after watching this that some of these films look like the best movies ever. It is very frustrating to find out after my own further research that the amount of these movies that are actually available today can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

It is a bit sad that these films were never considered as `art' when they were released, as it means that many of them were just forgotten after the fall of communism. The people involved had a hard enough time making them in the first place and they deserve recognition for their achievements.

I also liked the funny anecdotes from this movie, such as Stalin liking to laugh it up with funny movies and having a fantasy for `boys photographing tractors'. The views of the audience members interviewed were also great to hear as you don't normally hear their opinions in this sort of documentary.

This documentary comes very highly recommended and I had been wanting to buy a copy for ages and also track down some of the movies shown in it even if I have order off amazon.de and watch them without subtitles.

Although a documentary about Communist movie musicals sounds like a Christopher Guest parody, this fascinating 1997 German production is the real deal, comrade. From the 1930s through the 1960s, over forty Iron Curtain films combined Socialism with song, labor with lyrics, propaganda with pirouettes, Russkies with rhythm, and Bolsheviks with bounce. Audiences in Russia, Bulgaria, East Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia were treated to such tune-laden escapist fare as TRACTOR DRIVERS, THE SWINEHERD AND THE SHEPHERD, VACATION ON THE BLACK SEA, COSSACKS OF THE KUBAN RIVER, and HARD WORK-HAPPY HOLIDAY. In addition to interviews with filmmakers, critics, and older Iron Curtain moviegoers sharing their youthful memories, the astonishingly rare footage unearthed by documentarians Dana Ranga and Andrew Horn will come as a revelation to even the most seasoned film buff. Now, that was entertainment-da!

This DVD provides an incredible historical journey through communist era musicals, something I never even knew existed prior to seeing this DVD compilation. It is very enlightening and entertaining! I highly recommend this DVD to anyone interested in this particular genre of documentaries.

There were 40 musicals made in the Eastern communist countries. The audiences loved them but the academics, politicians, party leaders and censors barely tolerated them and tried to force them to serve the grim worker mentality of the state. On the one hand, these musicals are oddly entertaining. On the other, they are a grim reminder of how human happiness and the human spirit is so often strangled by political and religious repressive systems. People want to laugh, love, and, yes, sing and dance. Too bad that that is so threatening to so many. This is an interesting documentary that was well worth watching.

An East German beach movie? It has to be seen to be believed!!! This and many other wonders await you in East Side Story. I especially liked the use of the "Kommittee" to make comments on films.