A delirious documentary that unveils a part of film history until now unknown in the west: Soviet and Eastern-bloc communist musicals. Featuring hearty peasants and workers singing and dancing their way through fields and factories, these Hollywood-style musicals interpret American escapism in socialist terms.
Most famous among Russia's 1930 musicals was Volga Volga, Stalin's favorite, which he viewed more than one hundred times. During the 1950s and 60s the East Germans, Czechs and Romanians churned out these low-rent Jerome Robbins-esque musicals, many of which promised that consumer heaven was just a pirouette away. "Who knows how things could have turned out if Socialism had just been more fun?" asks East Side Story.
Filmmakers Dana Ranga and Andrew Horn have done a superb job locating and excerpting the best moments from films never before seen in the West, such as Hard Work, Happy Holiday (GDR, 1950), Vacation On The Black Sea (Romania, 1963), Tractor Delivers (U.S.S.R., 1939), My Wife Wants To Sing (GDR, 1958), Woman On The Rails (Czechoslovakia, 1965) and many more. Newsreels, commercials, outtakes from press censorship files and appearances by the "stars," including Karen Schroeder (the "Doris Day of the East") all contribute to this one-of-a-kind That's Entertainment, Comrade. |
