The Red Tent

The Red Tent (Krasnaya Palatka) (1969)

Runtime: I saw the international 121 minute cut

Directed by: Mikhail Kalatozov

Starring: Peter Finch, Mario Adorf, Donatas Banionis, Claudia Cardinale, Sean Connery

From: Mosfilm/Vides Cinematografica

This is a film I've known of for awhile now and finally tracked down for viewing; there are a few different cuts out there but this version was the 121 minute edit that Paramount released in 1971 which featured a nice score from Morricone. For the first time, a Soviet film studio-in this case, Mosfilm-worked with a company from the West in a co-production, in this case an Italian studio.. This resulted in a one of a kind cast. Of course I'd be interested in a movie which stars Sean Connery (actually, despite the American advertising, his role is rather small), Peter Finch, personal favorite Mario Adorf, Donatas Banionis of Solaris fame, Yuriy Solomin of Dersu Uzala fame, Hardy Kruger and the resplendent Claudia Cardinale.

This was based on a true life incident back in the 1920's, and is told in a rather creative fashion. Umberto Nobile was an Italian aviator who in 1928 crashed the airship Italia in the Arctic region and in the whole ordeal of trying to survive for weeks and attempted rescues of the crew. The framing device: Nobile (Finch) is late in life and some ghosts from the tragedy come and visit him in his house and they discussed what happened in a trial of sorts.

Naturally, there is a range of emotions in the film, from the excitement of the wreck and the subsequent drama of the crew attempting to survive to such happy moments as Adorf discovering via radio that his wife just gave birth to a child. The framing device is a little unusual but in the end managed to work... at least for me. There was great cinematography on whatever snowy landscape in the Soviet Union they shot at-along with the other locations and this has everything from Arctic boom towns and Dutch angles to fisheye lenses, those furry Russian hats & polar bears, oh my. As long as you are patient with the movie, you may dig it as much as I did.