Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears
Short description
Set in Moscow in the late 1950s, the film follows three young women who arrive from the provinces, share a room in a workers' dormitory and take jobs in a factory while hoping for love, security and a better life. Each pursues happiness in her own way, and each ends up with a very different fate. Katerina's path proves the hardest: a relationship with a cameraman leaves her pregnant and on her own, and she raises her daughter by herself while building a career. Twenty years later she has become a factory director, more professionally successful than her former roommates, yet still without a partner, until a chance meeting with a warm, practical mechanic opens a new possibility.
Vladimir Menshov directed the film from a screenplay by Valentin Chernykh, with Vera Alentova as Katerina, Aleksey Batalov as Gosha, Irina Muravyova as Lyudmila and Raisa Ryazanova as Antonina among a credited cast of 78. Produced by Mosfilm, it runs 142 minutes and mixes comedy, drama and romance within a Soviet setting.
It was released in February 1980 and has remained widely seen: it holds a 7.6 out of 10 rating on TMDB from roughly 300 votes, and its worldwide box office of about 3 million dollars reflects a theatrical life extending well beyond the Soviet Union. The film belongs to the early stretch of Menshov's directing career and stands as a portrait of ordinary women navigating ambition and private life in the capital.
What's left behind the scenes
- During Gosha and Kolya's farewell, a shadow from a microphone can be seen on the wall.
- Yuri Kuzmenkov could have played Antonina's husband. However, an assistant brought in two actors whom Menshov did not know. One was Boris Smorchkov, who was cast as Nikolai, and the other was Alexander Fatyushin, who became the hockey player Gurin in the film.
- When the characters played by Alentova and Batalov turn on the television (before Alexandra arrives), the test pattern on the screen is accompanied by a waltz from the film 'The Prank' — Vladimir Menshov's previous directorial work. A similar technique is used in Menshov's next film, 'Love and Pigeons,' where a fragment of 'Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears' is shown on TV.
- The film's screenplay was written by Valentin Chernykh for a competition for the best film about Moscow. It took only third place. In fact, the first two places were not awarded to anyone at all: no worthy candidates were found.
- For the role of Gosha, a forty-year-old locksmith, the director auditioned Vitaly Solomin, Leonid Dyachkov, and other actors. None of them were a fit. Menshov then decided that, as a last resort, he would play the role himself.
- At the moment Volodya's (Oleg Tabakov) mother-in-law rang the doorbell, his hair was disheveled, but in the very next second, his hairstyle was perfectly in place.
- A scene was removed from the film in which the hockey player Gurin (Alexander Fatyushin), who had announced that he had 'quit drinking and was moving into coaching,' reappears drunk and says, 'Lend me another three rubles to make it even.' The director was asked to cut this, with the reasoning: 'Let's leave some hope. Let the audience believe that Gurin has reformed.'
- In one of the scenes, Irina Muravyova's character approaches a high-rise building wearing white shoes, but once inside, she is wearing black ones.
- Irina Kupchenko and Margarita Terekhova were invited to play the role of Katerina Tikhomirova.
- The film's director, Vladimir Menshov, played a small cameo role. His character is one of Gosha's friends who attended the picnic.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
