Sunday, June 28, 2015

Son bolelshchika / [A Football Fan's Dream]

SON BOLEL’ŠČIKA / Сон болельщика / Son bolelshtshika. SU 1953. D: Herbert Rappaport / Gerbert Rappaport. [Il sogno di un tifoso / A Football Fan’s Dream]. DP: Sergej Ivanov. C: Igor Moiseev, State Folk Dance Ensemble. P: Lenfilm. 35 mm. 4’. Col. From: Gosfilmofond.
    Viewed at Sala Scorsese (Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato) (Late Spring), introduced by Olaf Möller, 28 June 2015

Olaf Möller (Il Cinema Ritrovato catalogue and website: "Filmed stage performances – of theatre, opera as well as ballet productions – were a staple of Soviet cinema in the first half of the 50s – making it a particular sub-genre that connects the last of the Stalin years with the Thaw. In the USSR, this sub-genre might have been more important than anywhere else. For one thing, it became, similar to children’s films, a training ground for young talents; for another, it was also a sphere of production where formal(ist) experiments could be attempted, and sometimes were. The Soviet genius of this sub-genre is Gerbert Rappaport who here adapted the widely celebrated choreography by Igor’ Moiseev: football like never before, with cheery players jumping around as if possessed and a loony fan in a one-man-pitch-invasion mode."

AA: A zealous football fan rushes into the playground, is knocked out and sees a colourful football ballet dream. Herbert Rappaport made the most prominent Stalinist films in Soviet Estonia (Elu tsitadellis and Valgus Koordis). The Thaw must have been a very personal period of relief for him. A good print in dream colour.

No comments: