Runtime: The version I saw was 128 minutes
Directed by: A bunch of Soviet directors
Starring: This is a documentary
From: Two Soviet companies and the American one that put together this compilation of footage
Not only do I deliver a review, but I also provide some education for those that don't know about an interesting format from way back in the day:
Before I talk about this I better make sure that people know what Cinerama even is; judging by number of ratings on sites such as Letterboxd and IMDb, not even that many film fans have seen the releases done by Flicker Alley of some Cinerama films, made by Cinerama Productions Corporation. That process is from the early 1950's and lasted a few decades; it was on a giant curved screen that wrapped around you almost 150 degrees, and the picture was shown via 3 projectors. This was impressive as it debuted even before the widescreen process of Cinemascope, which was the catalyst for all but a few specialized releases in modern times being widescreen of some type, whether 1.85:1 or something in the range of 2.35:1.
Not surprisingly, the showings of those documentaries were big deals and to best wow the audience, those films were all about the sights & sounds of locations all around the world. I hadn't seen anything from Cinerama before and the impetus behind me seeing this first was its presence on Amazon Instant Video. That seemed like the best way of trying out one of these; it wasn't even made by Cinerama Productions-rather it was several shorts made by companies in the Soviet Union using Kinopanorama, which is practically identical to Cinerama. They just put it together for American audiences and added an intro/narration from Bing Crosby.
What is seen here is various sights/sounds all across the Soviet Union in all the four seasons, scenes of life in Moscow, a few minutes at a dance company, and the ending moments are from the legendary Bolshoi Ballet. There are also segments that a few will find more objectionable by today's standards... whales are hunted and you see one butchered, and there's time spent at a circus. It's not a traveling one... rather, they hold performances in a circular arena with seating on three sides. There are comedic moments and trapeze stunts, yet you also see bits involving animals and there have been accusations that in general, critters in circuses aren't treated well. I can't say for certain about that but seeing lions get on the backs of horses as they ride around... I might not want to know how they were trained to do such a thing, even if the visual is pretty incredible. Also, there's a bizarre segment where you see trained bears do various things, the highlight being one driving a tractor! Somehow that is presented straight as if it's supposed to be as authentic as the rest of the footage.
I better explain how the image is simulated for disc release; the process is known as Smilebox and it emulates the curved screen the movies were originally shot for. Stitching the images together, where they are put together is obvious; then again that was always present in the print so that is to be expected if you ever watch one of these. As for my high rating on this, I am a nerd who enjoyed seeing all that footage from the Soviet Union, from horses pulling sleds on a snow-covered landscape to loggers transporting timber down the river; also, all the cultural material, such as the ballet and earlier, those native dances. While I watched the stream in HD, seeing it on Blu-ray would be better and the stream's audio was in mono; the other big selling point of the format was stereo sound, which was another novel feature for the time and Flicker Alley replicated the sound for the releases, so I don't know why the stream was like that.
This documentary shows the USSR in a favorable light, which was uncommon in the Cold War era and hell, the way things are now you won't find much praise for Russia. I'll be happy to support a smaller niche label that releases films like these and ones even more obscure, so in the future I'll be seeing at least one more of these.
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