''Carnival'' (russian: links=no, italics=yes, Карнавал, Karnaval) is a 1981 Soviet
romantic comedy
Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...
directed by
Tatyana Lioznova
Tatyana Mikhailovna Lioznova (russian: link=no, Татьяна Михайловна Лиознова; 20 July 192429 September 2011) was a Soviet film director best known for her TV series ''Seventeen Moments of Spring'' (1973).
Film career
All ...
.
Plot
In a small
Uralic
The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian (w ...
city lives a young woman, Nina Solomatina, with her mother. Her father left her as a child and moved to Moscow. Dreaming study acting, Nina comes to Moscow, but fails the entrance examinations to the theatrical school. Deciding to try to enter next year, Nina temporarily moves in with her father and his family. Striving to provide for herself, she goes to work, but because of various incidents, she is not able to stay anywhere for a long time. In her personal life, Nina also suffers a fiascoMuscovite student Nikita very quickly breaks up with her for a new girl. As a result, Nina begins to understand that the big city is not the eternal carnival she imagined it to be, and instead of conquering the world, the main heroine returns to her hometo care of her ill mother.
The film ends on an ambiguous noteNina Solomatina appears as a famous singer performing at the full hall, it is not clear if all this is real, or just her imagination.
Cast
*
Irina Muravyova as Nina Solomatina (song by
Zhanna Rozhdestvenskaya
Zhanna Germanovna Rozhdestvenskaya (russian: Жа́нна Ге́рмановна Рожде́ственская; born 23 November 1950 in Rtishchevo, Saratov Oblast, RSFSR, USSR) is a Soviet and Russian pop singer, Honored Artist of the Russian Fe ...
)
*
Yury Yakovlev
Yury Vasilyevich Yakovlev (russian: Ю́рий Васи́льевич Я́ковлев; 25 April 1928 – 30 November 2013) was a Soviet and Russian actor. He was awarded the honorary title of People's Artist of the USSR in 1976.
Main works
...
as Mikhail Solomatin, father of Nina
*
Klara Luchko
Klara Stepanivna Luchko ( uk, Клара Степанівна Лучко; russian: Кла́ра Степа́новна Лучко́; 1 July 1925 – 26 March 2005) was a Soviet, Russian and Ukrainian actress known for her roles in the Soviet cine ...
as Josephine Viktorovna, the wife of Mikhail Solomatin
*
as Nikita
*
Vera Vasilyeva as Nikita's mother
*Alevtina Rumyantseva as mother of Nina
*Ekaterina Zhemchuzhnaya as Karma
*
Alexander Mikhailov as Remizov
*
Lidiya Smirnova
Lidiya Nikolayevna Smirnova (russian: Ли́дия Никола́евна Смирно́ва; 1915 — 2007) was a Soviet and Russian theater and film actress. People's Artist of USSR (1974). The winner of the Stalin Prize of the third degree ( ...
as Chairman of the Commission
*
Valentina Titova
Valentina Antipovna Titova (russian: Валентина Антиповна Титова; February 6, 1942 in Korolyov, Moscow Oblast SSSR) is a Russian actress.
Biography
Valentina Antipovna Titova was born on 6 February 1942 in the city of K ...
as landlady
*
Zinaida Vorkul as Zinaida, Solomatin's mother
*Georgy Zhemchuzhny as Karma's husband
*Andrey Gusev as barking entrant with kefir
*
Yelena Maksimova
Yelena Aleksandrovna Maksimova ( rus, Еле́на Алекса́ндровна Макси́мова; November 23, 1905 – September 23, 1986) was a Soviet film actress, Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1958).
Selected filmography
* Women of Ry ...
as visitor of the pawnshop
*Olga Blok-Mirimskaya as femme fatale from the movie in the cinema
*Vyacheslav Baranov as Zhenya
*
Vadim Andreev as Vadim Arturovich
*Vladimir Balashov as member of the Admission Committee
*Vladimir Smirnov as neighbor who brought a table
*Roman Monastyrsky as Dima, Nina's paternal half-brother
*Margarita Zharova as conductor
*Claudia Kozlenkova as woman in the subway
*Anatoly Pidgorodetsky as entrant
*Tamara Yarenko as neighbor
*Yakov Belenky as neighbor
Reception
''Carnival'' was the ninth most popular film at the box-office in the Soviet Union in 1982; it was seen by 30,4 million viewers.
In the same year, for her leading performance,
Irina Muravyova was recognized as the best actress according to the results of a survey of readers of the magazine ''
Soviet Screen
''Soviet Screen'' (russian: link=no, Советский Экран, Sovetsky Ekran) was an illustrated magazine published in the USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental c ...
''.
References
External links
*
{{Tatyana Lioznova
Gorky Film Studio films
1981 romantic comedy films
1981 films
Soviet romantic comedy films
Soviet musical comedy films
1980s musical comedy films
Films directed by Tatyana Lioznova
Russian romantic comedy films
Films scored by Maksim Dunayevsky
1980s Russian-language films