"Little Vera"

[Shrager, Miriam]

Dear Nicole and others,

I must disagree with Maryna Vinarska.
Every one is entitled to his opinion and has his own taste. I, for 
example, consider “Little Vera” to be a very good movie. Besides being 
honest and true, it is optimistic while portraying difficult life 
situations; and it does that in an artistic manner too (credit should 
be given for that to the director and the actors). The general opinion, 
which I encountered in Moscow among my friends and in the media, is the 
same as mine. In addition, this movie was listed in the cinematography 
book among the best movies of the last century (If I remember 
correctly, the book was published in the USA and its title is something 
like “The Best Movies of the 20th Century”).

That being said, it doesn’t mean you should teach it. I believe it is a 
bad idea to teach students something that you personally don’t like. I 
just wanted to address some of the categorical statements regarding 
“Little Vera”, which were posted on Seelangs.

Cheers,
Masha

Miriam Shrager
Indiana University
Bloomington



>
> Date:    Fri, 26 May 2006 10:39:02 -0700
> From:    Maryna Vinarska <vinarska at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject: Re: Something better than "Little Vera" (film course recommendation)
>
> Nicole Monnier <monniern at MISSOURI.EDU> wrote:I'm leaning now towards
> "Adam's Rib," which a
> number of people suggested (a film only dimly remembered - I fear my
> memories of "Little Vera" have cast a taint over ALL of the glastnost'-era
> films I have seen).
>
> Dear Nicole,
> unfortunately, I have no idea what the glasnost’-era films are and
> what they are supposed to be about. "Adam’s Rib", if this is your
> choice,  is just a very good movie,  which can hardly be ascribed to
> any specific era, just because an immense number of exactly such
> films have been created through the whole history of cinema in  that
> part of the world. If, however, the movie should  definitely be about
> Russian women as such, and only the one released not long ago, add to
> your list two more nice movies I can recall just now: "Eta
> zhenshchina v okne" and "Ty est’" (Viktoriia Tokareva wrote the
> script for this one). I think they were released in mid 90ties.
>
> As to “Malen’kaia Vera”, you are not the only one having a
> stomach problem when it is mentioned. Actually, I remember the time
> when it was released too. The reaction of all my friends and
> acquaintances was: “And what? Who needs this… movie?” No one
> even remembers it nowadays, and, sure, no one will watch it more than
> once, if ever at all.
> BTW, “malen’kaja Vera” is one more “krylatoe vyrazhenie”
> which you, probably,  won’t find in any dictionary. If it is used
> when talking about movies or books, it means “not worth watching or
> reading it”, to put it mildly.
>
> I myself would choose “Voditel’ dlia Very” from all those
> mentioned. It may be the best choice for students, no matter that it
> is not exactly about Russian women.  It is much more picturesque, so
> to say, more dynamic, it gives some insight into the history, and at
> the same time it says a lot about the essence of Russia and her
> people. And much more than all those films like “Interdevochki”
> or “Malen’kaja Vera” which, to my big surprise, managed to land
> somehow in some very very distant  libraries. And "Voditel dlia Very"
> is definitely the movie one may want to watch more than once, to my
> mind.
>
> Regards,
> Maryna Vinarska
>
>
>
>

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