Zolushka / Cinderella (1947)

Nadezhda Kosheverova, Mihail Shapiro: Золушка / Zolushka / Cinderella (SU 1947). Janina Zheimo (Cinderella), Aleksei Konsovsky (the Prince).
Плакат к фильму «Золушка» (СССР, 1947).
Источник: http://www.plakaty.ru/avtory/ofrosimov_lev_lvovich/
Время создания: 1947 (издан).
Автор или правообладатель: Лев Львович Офросимов (1912—1989) — художник, автор плаката; Издательство «Рекламфильм». From: Wikipedia.

Nadezhda Kosheverova, Mihail Shapiro: Золушка / Zolushka / Cinderella (SU 1947) with Faina Ranevskaya (Stepmother) and Janina Zheimo (Cinderella).

Золушка / Cenerentola / Tuhkimo / Askungen .
    SU 1947. Directors: Nadežda Koševerova, Mihail Šapiro. 82 min
    Sog.: dalla fiaba omonima di Charles Perrault. Scen.: Evgenij Švarc. F.: Evgenij Šapiro. M.: Valentina Mironova. Scgf.: Nikolaj Akimov. Mus.: Antonio Spadavekkia.
    Int.: Janina Žejmo (Zoluska), Aleksej Konsovskij (il principe), Ėrast Garin (il re), Faina Ranevskaja (la matrigna), Vasilij Merkur’ev (forestale), Aleksandr Rumnev (Pas-de-trois), Varvara Mjasnikova (fata), Igor’ Klimenkov (paggio).
    Prod.: Lenfilm. 35 mm. Bn.
    Songs: "Дразнят Золушкой меня" ["Tease Me, Cinderella"], "Добрый жук" ["A Kind Beetle"], "Песня принца" ["Song of the Prince"], "Я не знаю, что со мною" ["I Don't Know What's Wrong With Me"].
    Soviet premiere: 16 May 1947.
    Helsinki premiere: 28 Nov 1947 at Royal, distributed by Kosmos-Filmi Oy.
    Bologna: Il Cinema Ritrovato 2020: Early Women Directors in the Soviet Union
    Print from Gosfilmofond of Russia
    E-subtitles in Italian and English by Violetta Zardani.
    Viewed at Cinema Jolly, 30 Aug 2020

Irène Bonnaud and Bernard Eisenschitz (Il Cinema Ritrovato 2020): "Upon returning to a war-torn Leningrad, Nadezhda Kosheverova filmed a fairytale. With Zolushka she turned her back on reality and took a resolutely aesthetic perspective. Faithful to individuals and ideas, she surrounded herself with close collaborators and longtime friends. Theatre director and production designer Nikolay Akimov (1901–1968) had been her first husband (in 1953 she would film his production of Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin’s Teni / Shadows). He had been collaborating for 20 years with the playwright and satirist Evgeny Schwartz (1896–1958), who wrote the screenplay. Schwartz wrote plays that incorporated fairytale elements with contemporary allusions (here, to name one example, about the importance of being well-connected) – and his vitriolic humour earned him numerous bans. He wasn’t taking that risk with Zolushka but, instead of making a fairytale that conformed to the dominant ideology, as Aleksandr Ptushko was doing in his films, he wrote lines that would delight Soviet audiences for a long time afterwards."

"Unlike Ptushko’s Kamennyy tsvetok (The Stone Flower) made in Moscow and filmed in Sovcolor the previous year, Zolushka had to be shot in black and white. However, Nikolay Akimov’s colour sketches have been preserved (many of those sketches have been published in colour in Peter Bagrov’s book, Zolushka, zhiteli skazochnogo korolevstva, ZAO, Moscow 2011) and they give an idea of the intense desire to create a synthetic world, evoking miniature art, book illustrators or theater decorators at the end of the 19th century."

"Kosheverova’s co-director was Mikhail Shapiro (1908–1971), also from Leningrad, for the second of their three collaborations. Above all, she fought to give the main role to Yanina Zheymo (1909–1987), one of FEKS’s greatest talents (in two short films by Antonina Kudriavtseva, Schwartz had created for Zheymo the comic character of Lenochka), despite her age. “We don’t need”, said Kosheverova, “a budding sexuality to make the role a success, but a kindness, spontaneity and child-like innocence. And no one can play that better than Yanina Zheymo. Even at the age of 37”. She was supported by enthusiastic actors Erast Garin and Faina Ranevskaya. This creative reunion made the film an immediate and lasting success, achieving the dubious triumph of being colourised in 2009." Irène Bonnaud and Bernard Eisenschitz (Il Cinema Ritrovato 2020). – There is an extensive photo set of the 2009 colourized version of Zolushka at Internet Movie Database.

AA: I saw this hardy perennial for the first time. I can only agree with the general consensus about the freshness, tenderness, wisdom and charm of this interpretation. The most familiar fairy-tale of all times is reborn in the witty screenplay by Yevgeni Schwartz and in the nuanced direction by Nadezhda Kosheverova and Mikhail Shapiro.

In the genre of musical comedy make-believe everything must fit together, or everything falls. This Cinderella adaptation moves ahead in high spirits, without ignoring dark themes of jealousy, discrimination, machinations and injustice, but never giving up tenderness, humour, kindness and style. The cast is excellent, in the cinematography by Yevgeni Shapiro the tricks with transparencies work like a dream, and the music and songs by Antonio Spavadekkia are full of fun, panache and enchantment.

There is a special emotional commitment, tenderness and goodness in this movie that may be specific to the historical moment. The war, the most horrible of all times, had ended. Everywhere there was a spirit of reconstruction and an unheard-of baby boom. Children were welcome to this world, and the way the fairy-tales were told reflected this. In Finland our most popular classical fairy-tale movie was made during these years, Sleeping Beauty directed by Edvin Laine in 1949.

Cinderella may be the most-filmed fairy-tale. Last year in Bologna's 1899 Anno Quattro series we saw one of the earliest ones, Georges Méliès's Cendrillon (1899), his first multi-tableau film, "une grande féerie extraordinaire en 20 tableaux", in which he himself played Father Time. Also in Zolushka, the King decides to turn back time so that the party can go on one hour longer.

Cinderella is a universal tale, belonging in the Aarne-Thompson classification to ATU 510 A: "persecuted heroine". The oral tradition (the tale of Rhodopis) stems from ancient Egypt, where the shoe-fitting motif already appears, written down in the classical Antiquity in Greece, emerging also in Ancient China (Ye Xian) and One Thousand and One Nights (in several stories featuring three daughters), in Basile's Pentamerone (Cenerentola), retold by Perrault (Cendrillon) and the Brothers Grimm (Aschenputtel).

I missed the beginning because the screening overlapped with 1900 Anno Cinque: Gaumont Chrono Poche: Giancarlo Stucky at the Teatro Comunale.

The translation by Violetta Zardani was lovely, intelligent and seemed to catch the aroma of the dialogue.

The word I'd use to describe the spirit of Zolushka is generosity.

A good print from Gosfilmofond.
BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: SYNOPSIS FROM WIKIPEDIA:

Сюжет

В сказочном королевстве молодая девушка Золушка живёт в доме вместе с мачехой, двумя сводными сёстрами и отцом. Однажды король объявляет бал, куда приглашена и семья Золушки, однако мачеха приказывает Золушке сделать столько работы по дому, что бедняжка не успевает приготовиться к балу. Она идёт во дворцовый парк, чтобы издали понаблюдать за праздником. Здесь ей предстаёт фея со своим пажом, превращает тыкву в карету, крысу — в кучера, а лохмотья Золушки — в роскошное платье. Паж дарит девушке хрустальные туфельки, а фея предупреждает, что волшебство растает в полночь.

На балу Золушка очаровывает короля и принца, веселит гостей песней «Добрый жук», ест мороженое и забывает о времени. В спешке под бой курантов Золушка убегает из дворца и теряет на лестнице хрустальную туфельку. С последним ударом курантов волшебство рассеивается, и Золушка возвращается домой.

Король приказывает солдатам найти незнакомку по туфельке. Сёстрам Золушки башмачок не подходит, и тогда мачеха приказывает Золушке надеть его своими ловкими руками на ногу дочери Анны. Не признав в Анне прекрасную гостью на балу, король и министр бальных танцев устраивают проверку. Туфелька слишком мала для ноги Анны и потому слетает. В это время во дворце появляется Золушка со своим отцом и показывает собравшимся вторую хрустальную туфельку. Злая мачеха с дочками оказывается не у дел.