Volga-Volga
| Volga-Volga | |
|---|---|
 Film poster, 1938. | |
| Directed by | Grigori Aleksandrov |
| Starring |
Lyubov Orlova Igor Ilyinsky |
| Music by | Isaak Dunayevsky |
| Editing by | Yeva Ladyzhenskaya |
| Release dates |
April 24, 1938 (Soviet Union) May 16, 1941 (U.S.) |
| Running time | 104 min. |
| Country | Soviet Union |
| Language | Russian |
Volga-Volga (Russian: Волга-Волга) is a Soviet film comedy directed by Grigori Aleksandrov, released on April 24, 1938. It centres around a group of amateur performers on their way to Moscow to perform in a talent contest called the Moscow Musical Olympiad. Most of the action takes place on a steamboat travelling on the Volga River. The lead roles were played by Alexandrov's wife, Lyubov Orlova, and Igor Ilyinsky.
According to Orlova, the name of the film is taken from a popular Russian folk song, Stenka Razin, that Alexandrov sang while rowing with Charlie Chaplin in San Francisco Bay. Chaplin jokingly suggested the words as a title for a movie, but Alexandrov took it seriously and named his new film Volga-Volga.[1]
The feature was said to be Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin's favourite film.[2] Nikita Khrushchev in his memoirs says that in the pre-war period Stalin laughed at him since he resembled a character from the film.
In 2006, a colorization of the original black-and-white film began. The colorized version premiered on the Russian First Channel on February 14, 2010.
Gallery
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Igor Ilyinsky and Mariya Mironova
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Igor Ilyinsky
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Lyubov Orlova
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Andrey Tutysgkin
References
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Volga-Volga. |
- Volga-Volga at the Internet Movie Database
- Volga-Volga at allmovie
- Stalin's favourite film restored in colour, AFP, 12/02/2010.
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