12 Russian melodramas you’re not ashamed of

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The first major role of Konstantin Khabensky, the work of Renata Litvinova and two films shot on the streets of St. Petersburg.

12. The sky. Airplane. Young woman

• Russia, 2002.
• Melodrama, drama.
• Duration: 90 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 7.

TV journalist Georgy and flight attendant Lara met in an empty cafe. Passion instantly flared up between them. Now the heroes are just waiting for a new meeting between the next business trips and flights.

The play by Edward Radzinsky "104 pages about love" has already been transferred to the screens. In 1968, the picture "Once again about love" was published about a romance between a conductor and a scientist. The new version was created by director Vera Storozheva and screenwriter Renata Litvinova, who herself played the main role.

11. It doesn't hurt me

• Russia, 2006.
• Melodrama, drama.
• Duration: 104 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 8.

Young designer Misha offers his services to a wealthy girl Tata. She agrees to the order, but it soon becomes clear that the client just liked the charming young man. Tata herself does not tell anything about her life.

Another film with Renata Litvinova, but from the famous director Alexei Balabanov. After two parts of "Brother" and other harsh pictures, he suddenly surprised everyone with a touching melodrama.

10. Listening to the silence

• Russia, 2006.
• Melodrama.
• Duration: 96 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 9.

The provincial girl Nastya has a talent: she can hear music in silence. Arriving in Moscow, the heroine tries to help her sister Ale, who is treating her seriously ill son, and goes to work as a cleaner in the house of wealthy Dmitry. Nastya has to find her love and immediately face the cruelty of the world.

Of course, it's easy to see that the filmmakers used every possible classic technique. Here is the story of Cinderella, and the tragedy of a child, and even parallels of Nastya's pure soul with the music she hears. But sometimes such naive stories are needed.

9. Women's property

• Russia, 1998.
• Melodrama, drama.
• Duration: 89 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 9.

A young entrant Andrei Kalinin is trying to enter a theater institute. Not passing the test, he turns to a member of the selection committee, the famous actress Elizaveta Kaminskaya. And soon the heroes fall in love with each other, despite the age difference and many other problems.

It was thanks to this film, which was shot by Dmitry Meskhiev, that many viewers met the novice actor Konstantin Khabensky. And he was paired with Elena Safonova, already famous at that time.

8. Peter FM

• Russia, 2006.
• Melodrama, comedy.
• Duration: 86 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 0.

Masha works as a DJ on the radio and is going to get married. Maxim plans to leave for Germany and become an architect, but in the meantime he works as a janitor. One day they collide in a crowd. Masha drops the phone, and Maxim picks it up. He does not understand to whom to return the find, and this is how a relationship begins between two people who do not know each other by sight.

Residents of St. Petersburg often find fault with the realism of this film: heroes, like the characters in the film "The Adventures of Italians in Russia", sometimes suddenly move from one district to another. But in general, this is a very sweet and bright love story on the phone.

7. The garden was full of the moon

• Russia, 2000.
• Melodrama.
• Duration: 105 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 2.

Elderly Vera Andreevna has been living with her husband Grigory Petrovich for many years. But one day she accidentally meets Alexei - her first love. As a child, they were evacuated from besieged Leningrad to the same house. And after decades, feelings flare up again.

Most often, melodramas are filmed about the life of young people or about middle-aged people. And the more pleasant it is to see a bright and touching story about pensioners. And the magnificent play of Zinaida Sharko, Nikolai Volkov and Lev Durov makes the love triangle truly emotional.

6. Walk

• Russia, 2003.
• Melodrama, drama.
• Duration: 88 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 3.

The girl Olya gets out of the car and goes for a walk around the city. She immediately meets the romantic young man Lesha, and then with his friend Peter. In one day, the trinity manages to fall in love and quarrel, and at the same time get into a couple of unpleasant situations. At the same time, Olya is clearly hiding something.

Another film, which takes place on the streets of St. Petersburg. Director Alexei Uchitel invited almost the entire troupe of the Pyotr Fomenko Workshop Theater to his picture and created a very lively story, shot as if by accident.

5. Come and see me

• Russia, 2001.
• Melodrama, comedy.
• Duration: 101 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 3.

All the last years Tatiana has been spending on caring for her elderly mother, Sofya Ivanovna. Shortly before the New Year, she declares that she will soon die, and in the end she would like her daughter to have a husband. Immediately the doorbell rings, a man with a bouquet of flowers is standing on the threshold. In fact, he just made the wrong address, but this is how the romance of new acquaintances will begin.

Oleg Yankovsky, who played one of the main roles and directed the picture himself, said that he wanted to shoot something kind and light amid the gloom reigning around. So it turned out to be an almost fabulous New Year's story.

4. Eyes

• Russia, 1992.
• Melodrama.
• Duration: 83 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 3.

After an eye injury during a hockey game, Kostya ends up in the clinic. There he meets a blind girl Nastya. Soon he is discharged, but Kostya wants so much to stay with his beloved that he goes blind himself.

Of course, the plot of this film sometimes looks like a story from a Brazilian TV series. But all are compensated by charming actors and a constant belief in a happy ending.

3. Inadequate people

• Russia, 2010.
• Melodrama, drama, comedy.
• Duration: 102 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 4.

Calm educated Vitaly moved from Serpukhov to Moscow. The overly active schoolgirl Christina, who lives next door, immediately presses on him. And at work, a worried boss pesters Vitaly. He begins to think that he is among inadequate people.

The first and possibly the best film by Roman Karimov balances on the brink of melodrama and almost absurd comedy. And one of the most striking discoveries is the aspiring actress Ingrid Olerinskaya. She herself claims that she got to the casting by accident.

2. East-West

• Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, France, 1999.
• Melodrama, drama, historical.
• Duration: 121 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 4.

After the war, many Soviet emigrants decided to return to their homeland. Among them is Alexei Golovin, who went to the USSR with his French wife. But upon arrival, they immediately face the brutality of the Stalinist order.

The film was shot by the French director Regis Warnier with an international cast. Therefore, the wonderful Russian actors Oleg Menshikov and Sergei Bodrov, the youngest, play here together with Frenchwomen Sandrine Bonner and Catherine Deneuve.

1. Arrhythmia

• Russia, 2017.
• Melodrama, drama.
• Duration: 116 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 5.

Oleg is a talented doctor who works in an ambulance. He saves patients, but he cannot fix his personal life, gradually drinking himself intoxicated. His wife Katya is filing for divorce. Meanwhile, Oleg starts having problems at work.

This picture goes far beyond the framework of traditional melodrama, telling about the problems of family relations, and about the difficulties of Russian doctors. But, perhaps, the main advantage of "Arrhythmia" is the acting performance of Irina Gorbacheva, who played the role of Katya.