#Leonid Dyachkov

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Wings (Крылья) (Krylya) (1966) Larisa Shepitko

September 8th 2024

[garrett-strangelove]

I actually fell in love with Flambeau after a Soviet radio show. You won't believe the homoerotic tension between him and Father Brown there...

(I took their appearances from their voice actors Oleg Borisov and Leonid Dyachkov).

(This art is also a collab with bali_nkai)

Oleg Borisov (Father Brown)👇

Leonid Dyachkov (Flambeau)👇

[byneddiedingo]

Mayya Bulgakova in Wings (Larisa Shepitko, 1966)

Cast: Mayya Bulgakova, Sergey Nikoninko, Zhanna Bolotova, Panteleymon Krymov, Leonid Dyachkov, Vladimir Gorelov, Yuriy Medvedev, Nikolay Grabbe, Zhanna Aleksandrova. Screenplay: Valentin Ezhov, Natalya Ryazantseva. Cinematography: Igor Slabnevich. Production design: Igor Slabnevich. Film editing: Lidiya Lysenkova. Music: Roman Ledenyov.

Wings was the first feature by Larisa Shepitko, who made only four of them before dying in an automobile accident in 1979, only 41. It's a low-key character study of a woman, Nadezhda Petrukhina (Mayya Bulgakova), who was a decorated pilot during World War II but now leads a quiet existence as headmistress of a school that prepares students for work in the construction industry. She is admired by her colleagues and students but unfulfilled by her work. She has an adopted daughter, Tanya (Zhanna Bolotova), but they have grown apart: Nadezhda hasn't even met Tanya's new husband, and when she goes to a party where he's present she mistakenly greets the wrong man as her son-in-law. In addition to supervising repairs at the school and coaching the participants in the school's entry in a theatrical contest, she also has to discipline a rebellious young male student -- with whom, we see, she has a kind of sympathy that is stifled by her official duties. She occasionally sees a man, the director of the local museum where her picture as a war hero is on display -- on a visit to the museum she overhears a girl ask if she's still alive. And occasionally she visits the local airfield to watch cadets being trained. We get a flashback to wartime, when she had a lover, Mitya (Leonid Dyachkov), a fellow pilot whose death in combat she witnessed. Flight, that eternal symbol of freedom, is a strong force even in the earthbound life she leads, and we glimpse her fantasies of soaring through the clouds. So at the film's end, having quit her job, she takes a daring move to achieve that freedom once again. Spare but poetic, with a stunning performance by Bulgakova. 

[dweemeister]

You and Me (1971, Soviet Union) - directed by Larisa Shepitko

Born in 1938 in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Larisa Efimovna Shepitko was one of the most gifted Soviet directors of all time. A graduate from the famed Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK; alumni include Sergei Parajanov, Abderrahmane Sissako, and Andrei Tarkovsky), Shepitko made films that delved into human loneliness and isolation.

For her third and penultimate feature film, You and Me (Ty i ya) follows three protagonists attempting to pick up the pieces of their lives, seeking personal fulfillment. The film serves, broadly, as a critique of consumerism while fragmenting what would otherwise be a very linear narrative. Today, Shepitko is best known for her war drama film, The Ascent (1977, Soviet Union).

This print of You and Me is provided for free by the distributing studio, Mosfilm. English subtitles are provided in the settings; this video cannot be viewed from a tumblr embedding.

[oldfilmsflicker]

Krylya (Wings), 1966 (dir. Larisa Shepitko)