''Shine, Shine, My Star'' () is a 1970

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by Alexander Mitta.

Plot

Events in the film take place during the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

. In a small provincial town at first come to power the red, then the white and then the green. The protagonist is the self-taught theater director Vladimir Iskremas (a pseudonym, which is an abbreviation of "Iskusstvo — revoljucionnym massam" – "Art - for the revolutionary masses") stages the tragedy of

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc ( ; ; – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the Coronation of the French monarch, coronation of Charles VII o ...

. He is obsessed with the ideas of theater and its transformation under the new revolutionary art.

Cast

* Oleg Tabakov as Vladimir Iskremas * Elena Proklova as Christina Kotlyarenko (The Rat) * Yevgeny Leonov as Pashka, the host of the illusion * Oleg Yefremov as Fyodor, artist-autodidact * Vladimir Naumov as Staff Captain *Leonid Dyachkov as Ohrim * Leonid Kuravlyov as Commissioner Serdyuk * Marlen Khutsiev as Prince *Konstantin Voinov as white officer *Boris Boldyrevsky *Alexander Milyutin as guard * Aleksandr Porokhovshchikov as white officer * Lyubov Sokolova as wife of Fyodor * Aleksandr Filippenko as white officer *Anatoly Eliseev as Vakhromeev, murderer of Fyodor *Tatyana Nepomnyashchaya as Margarita Vlasevna, dancer *Lyudmila Khmelnitskaya as Anyuta, a tall dancer * Irina Murzaeva as Tapera *Pavel Vinnik as husband in the silent cinema *Mikaela Drozdovskaya as wife of the staff captain * Nonna Mordyukova as Madame * Rogvold Sukhoverko as assistant of Ohrim (not in the credits)

Production

At first Rolan Bykov was supposed to play Iskremas. But after he starred in the prohibited 1967 film ''

Commissar Commissar (or sometimes ''Kommissar'') is an English transliteration of the Russian (''komissar''), which means ' commissary'. In English, the transliteration ''commissar'' often refers specifically to the political commissars of Soviet and ...

'', the actor was listed as "disgraced" and Oleg Tabakov was hired for the role instead. The working title of the picture, ''Comedy about Iskremas'', was not accepted by the commission at acceptance of the picture. Mitta came up with the new name ''Shine, Shine, My Star'' - coinciding with the famous romance. In the episodic roles of white officers in the film three notable Soviet film directors were cast: Vladimir Naumov, Marlen Khutsiev and Konstantin Voinov.Интервью с Г. В. Баснером
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References

External links

* Soviet comedy-drama films Russian-language comedy-drama films Films directed by Alexander Mitta 1970 comedy-drama films Russian Civil War films 1970 films Mosfilm films 1970s Soviet films 1970s Russian-language films {{1970s-USSR-film-stub