Riazanov's Railway Station for Two is a delightfully unique work that jumps between triviality and complexity with a certain grace. On the one hand, the film is a dark comedy about a man for whom nothing goes right, a walking Murphy's law. On the other hand, it is a classic melodramatic romance about a working class woman and a member of the intelligentsia. However, the film is much more than either of these clichés. There is a wonderfully crafted development of relationship at play: over the course of the two or three short days depicted, one is well convinced that these two people have progressed from viciously bickering strangers to being truly in love. Riazanov manages to draw for the viewer the contrasting and overlapping struggles of these disaffected members of opposite social classes with a subtlety that might have been painfully overbearing in the hands of a different director. There are striking sociopolitical aspects to this film as well – casual depiction of the black market, references to the issues of profiteering and shortages, and even outright criticism of communism are remarkable, at least in contrast with earlier Soviet work. The clash of gender equality and tradition also comes into play at several times in the course of the film's brief love affair. All of these themes are dealt with in a wonderfully delicate way, accenting a sometimes saturnine and sometimes playful love story. Elements of Riazanov's style are reminiscent of early Soviet cinema – pressing psychological burdens, long and pregnant silences – in manner that is unfortunately sometimes alienating. The ending sequence in particular, divorced from the train station in which so much of the story occurs, is downright bizarre and troublesomely off-tempo from the rest of the film. The majority of Station for Two, however, is a well-wrought balance of social commentary and bleakly-humorous romance.
... View Morehttp://www.RUSCICO.com/catalog/cataloguedvd/catalogue_121.html RUSCICO Does good DVD with RU EN DE FR ES IT subtitles. Japan greetings! Children a lot of Russian cinema are on the Internet you means badly search. Forgive for English as for me speaks Google.Present I has learned about that that Russian cinema to interesting world through Esquire) HTTP://esquire.RU/IMDbVery interesting article I haven't begun to cry nearly Is proud for our cinema It is very pleasant to hear that it makes such effect on the spectator which at all doesn't understand language) it and does cinema by the present!
... View MoreI keep this movie on the top of my favorite Soviet movies. Typical Russian dark humor and sharply piercing plots, right into heart of human love.No other director has done so well in the balancing popularity and literary art. The beauty is plain, but keeps coming back to your memory.I grow up in China but and this title is imprinted into my memory of the wandering time, a seemingly peaceful time, with undercurrent of our human fates in the vast system, and hence the life without a border.Centrel Russia ( west Siberia) has never been so vivid, and never be so warm. It requires some traveling in the vast inland to fully understand the beauty.
... View MoreWe usually watch our Russian movies with Japanese subtitles but this one had no subtitles at all - so I was very disappointed to find you haven't any plot summary for this one. You know its got to be a fascinating movie when five people who don't know Russian - and one of whom despises the language - watch it without subtitles, not just once, but three times!
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