Comedy. The author of this review came across this picture quite by accident when he was engaged in his review activities, and it was not for nothing that he postponed this picture to himself for viewing in the distant future. This distant future has come, and the author watched this picture with some pleasure - and was completely delighted with watching it, since Soviet pre-war cinema is something unimaginable and ingenious. And here is a brief opinion - A magnificent Soviet pre-war comedy. The author looked at this picture very carefully, but could not find a single minus, so he will tell you only about the pros. And this should be the end of the introduction, and move on to the interesting.
So, the pros:
1. The scenario - the picture will tell us and show a brave and determined girl Katya Ivanov, who lives in the Far East and works at a local animal farm. The director of the sought-after animal farm ruins the work and makes life difficult for ordinary workers in every possible way. Seeing the injustice, the determined Katya goes to complain to her superiors (neutralizing and detaining the saboteur along the way), but this journey will lead the girl to Moscow and to unexpected love in the person of a young Red Navy man (an excellent student of combat and political training). We will see a lot of interesting situations in which Katya will find herself and how she will show her character in them. After all, the name of the painting corresponds very precisely to the content. After all, we will see not only the Far East, but also Moscow, which is very different from Katya's small homeland, but it is in it that she will find justice for the director and not only. Considering that an interesting case will trigger a chain of events that will lead to very interesting consequences. The ending is predictable, but it charges with optimism and faith in the Soviet people.
2. Humor - it's everyday here, and it will definitely pull a smile out of you, but don't count on wild laughter. You will receive a considerable dose of it from the famous clown "Pencil" (Mikhail Rumyantsev), and the rest of the artists will abundantly pull a smile out of you. Yes, it's naive, yes it's funny, and yes it's funny.
3. The atmosphere - the pre-war USSR is felt very well here, and not only because the main characters are from the Far East (after all, civil war has been raging in neighboring China for almost fifteen years, so the Japanese also intervened there, creating a very tense situation there). As long as peaceful life is felt, Soviet people are making plans for the future, they believe that peace and the victory of communism will soon come to the earth. The police will find all the missing, the Red Army will protect the country, and ordinary citizens of a great country will grieve only because of small trifles of a domestic or working nature. Everyone is smiling and everyone is confident in the future. The same atmosphere is present in another film by the same director (Konstantin Yudin) and the same main actress (Valentina Serova) "Hearts of Four", which the author has a review for, and he categorically recommends this picture for viewing.
4. Acting - all the actors are selected flawlessly, behave naturally in the frame, their dialogues and monologues are "alive". And here it's not only about their origin (almost all from a working or peasant environment), but also in excellent training under the guidance of competent acting teachers, because the Soviet film school is a great asset that needs to be studied, and especially now, in the age of mediocre actors and directors and their endless alterations of early (talented) works.
A little bit about the main characters:
1. Katya Ivanova, played by Valentina Serova, is an employee of a fur farm who decided to achieve justice and punish her director for abuse. During her journey, she will have to go through many incredible situations and prove in practice that the Far Easterners are the strongest and most inflexible people of the Soviet Country, always ready to help a comrade and it is better not to mess with such people (the episode with the Japanese is a clear confirmation of this). The author of this review remembers Valentina Vasilyevna from "The Hearts of Four", so he did not even doubt her acting talent. This girl with character will turn mountains without even paying attention to it. Bravo!
2. Sergey Berezkin, performed by Andrey Tutyshkin, is a Red Navy man, an excellent student of combat and political training, for his success in which he was awarded a trip to Moscow, on the way to which he meets the charming Katya Ivanova, and realizes that he will never be able to forget this extraordinary girl. He shows all his qualities in order to win this impregnable beauty, because there was an embarrassment that could endanger their happy marriage. Andrey Petrovich was no less convincing than Valentina Vasilyevna. Bravo!
It is a pity that we had to evaluate not the original version of the 1939 painting, but the castrated one, made in the Khrushchev-Brezhnev times (it is difficult to say more precisely, information on the date could not be found). They cut it out for about six minutes, and the mounting glues are visible. Joseph Vissarionovich did not please the censors. Well, you know the story.
And the picture "Girl with Character" is a vivid example of Soviet pre-war cinema, which perfectly demonstrates the hopes and aspirations of Soviet people at that moment, therefore it is still interesting both from a cultural and historical point of view.
A score of 10 out of 10 and a recommendation to watch!
