Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears Reviews

Winner of the 1981 Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film, this nostalgic blend of comedy and drama is one of the most accessible Soviet films ever to reach US screens. Divided into two parts, the film begins in 1958 with the arrival in Moscow of three provincial girls--Lyuda (Irina Muravyova), on the lookout for a husband with big prospects; Tonya (Raisa Ryazanova), who already has a serious boy friend; and Katya (Vera Alentova), who falls for self-assured TV cameraman Rudolf (Yuri Vasilyev). After some high jinks (including Katya and Lyuda's masquerade as the daughters of a professor) Tonya marries her longtime sweetheart, Lyuda becomes the wife of a well-known hockey player (Alexander Fatyushin), and Katya becomes pregnant with a baby Rudolf disowns. Part two picks up the story 20 years later, with Tonya settled in marriage; Lyuda divorced and still searching for the man of her dreams; and Katya a single mother, factory administrator, and lover of a machinist (Alexsei Batalov) who thinks she is just another worker. When Rudolf appears again on the scene things get very complex indeed for Katya. Deceptively simple, funny, and touching, MOSCOW DOES NOT BELIEVE IN TEARS is neither innovative nor technically dazzling, but its familiar characters have a resonance that transcends national borders, and its bittersweet humor addresses the human condition in a language that needs little translation. The videocassette is available in both dubbed and subtitled versions.