Primavera

This little known Soviet comedy from 1947, directed by Grigori Alexandrov, has a very interesting idea. Lyubov Orlova (one of the great Soviet female stars in the 1930s and 1940s) plays two roles here: she is a nationally celebrated but humorless scientist studying the use of solar power, and she is also a perky upcoming actress. A director (played by Nikolai Cherkassov, who played Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible in Sergei Eisenstein's films) wants to make a movie about the scientist's life. She initially refuses all help to the filmmakers so the director puts an ad in a newspaper to find a look alike actress to play the scientist. Eventually, the actress and the scientist get to meet (obviously their scenes together were made with split screens and other tricks). As they will get to know each other, and even switch roles, the actress will gain self confidence in herself, and the scientist will get to embrace her femininity and even find a place for love in her life.

The movie loses some momentum towards the end, but is a very fresh film, and it looks very modern considering is nearly 70 years old. Some aspects of the movie seem questionable, though. For example, was Moscow, just two years after the end of World War II, as prosperous a city as this film shows? Probably not. And from this movie, one could be forgiven to think that Stalinist Russia was a very fun place and era to live.