Fascinating documentary about musical films made behind the Iron Curtain. From Grigori Alexandrov's Stalin-era gems like "Jolly Fellows" (1934) and "Volga Volga" (1938), to Ivan Pyryev's mind-bogglingly campy "Cossacks Of The Kuban" (1950), to Andrei Calarasu's Romanian curiosity "Vacation on the Black Sea" (1962), to Gottfried Kolditz's East German masterpieces like "Midnight Review" (1962) and "Geliebte Weisse Maus" (1964), the film covers the entire spectrum of the genre, from the ridiculous to the sublime.
September 9, 1997
East Side Story (1997) ***
Fascinating documentary about musical films made behind the Iron Curtain. From Grigori Alexandrov's Stalin-era gems like "Jolly Fellows" (1934) and "Volga Volga" (1938), to Ivan Pyryev's mind-bogglingly campy "Cossacks Of The Kuban" (1950), to Andrei Calarasu's Romanian curiosity "Vacation on the Black Sea" (1962), to Gottfried Kolditz's East German masterpieces like "Midnight Review" (1962) and "Geliebte Weisse Maus" (1964), the film covers the entire spectrum of the genre, from the ridiculous to the sublime.
