Cinderella (1947)

hyped garbage

A Masterpiece!

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Since we in the west are used to seeing the Disney versions of "Cinderella", it may surprise us that there was in fact a Soviet version. You probably never assumed that the USSR could have made such a glossy movie, but "Zolushka" is one impressive piece of work. For a country that wasn't into aesthetics, they produced a movie that was a real piece of eye candy. The screenwriters added a satirical side to it, but you'll probably best remember the costumes and scenery. During the ball, one of the stepsisters has Princess Leia hair buns.Basically, this movie is more interesting than the ones released by Disney. I suspect that they had fun making it, especially with Faina Ranevskaya's emoting as the stepmother. An truly enjoyable time.I bet that Yanina Zheymo had to beat guys off with a stick after starring in this.

I don't understand. Russian but I enjoyed every minute of it! When I think that this was made just after WW II, it's even more amazing as it has such a lavish look to it. Several of the Russian speaking reviewers refer to the jokes and witty dialogue which, of course, I missed but there was so much to enjoy visually that I didn't feel that I was missing anything. The beautiful "exterior" sets are particularly charming and have a perfect Fairy Tale feeling to them! There appears to be a use of miniatures although if they were, everything looks so good that it's impossible to know. It's just that so many of the sets are so large it's difficult to imagine that they were full size. I was similarly impressed by the special effects which were, I believe, exceptional for the period. When I think that this was made during the Stalinist period, i'm impressed that the film appears to be free of any hint of a political message although if I understood the language, I might have detected some subtle references. I would really recommend this - even if, like me, you don't understand Russian. And P.S., I'm also stunned to know the ages of the Prince and Cinderella! The whole time I thought they were extremely gifted teenagers!

A simply beautiful and enchanting Soviet film. Zolushka is very sumptuously produced, the costumes and sets evoking a really magical fairy-tale warmth and the photography doesn't hinder them in any way, no signs of going-through-the-motions or trying too hard. The score is just lovely to listen to and very distinctively Russian in sound. The songs sparkle as much as the script and story, the lyrics are clever and the melodies easy to remember. The writing is charming and the humour is hilarious, very smartly scripted Zolushka is. The story is simply enchanting, the Cinderella story is an old- though timeless- one but with Zolushka it doesn't feel that way, the tale is told with freshness, wit, charm and warmth and all that by being faithful in spirit to the story. The two leads are great and utterly believable- even when much older than their characters as has been said already- and the stepmother is appropriately formidable, while the fairy is nicely benevolent and the king is both regal and funny. The voices are also good. All in all, really beautiful and any Soviet film or fairy-tale-musical(or both) aficionado will be under its spell(as corny as that sounds). 10/10 Bethany Cox

When I saw this movie I was going to point out that this film was meant for children audiences only cause it had the mentality of it and it wasn't meant for adults.Cinderallas being 12 years old and prince charming looking 13 . The step mother looks more like grandmother. The Two step sister could be her , Cinderella's , mother and aunt.And because the two step sister's were vying to be the wife of the prince would make it very campy by todays standard because of age differences. But I was surprised to discover that the actress ,who played Cinderella Yanina Zhejmo, was born 1909, and the actor who played the prince ,Aleksie Konsovsky,was born 1912, They didn't look that old. These actors might be dwarfs, may be . They are taller than midgets and have youth appearance. The actors playing the rest of the roles were taller than them . I might be wrong about it.It's not impossible for people to have youthful appearances but they arn't tall neither.This moves designs and costumes were shot as if it was going to be shot in color. At that time AGFA color was now available in Russia ,whay didn't they use it ? This version the prince had a single parent. His mother ,the queen, must have died . Although I don't understand Russian, It had excessive talk. The king was a bad temper character , throwing his wig and crown off every time he lost his temper .It's still very campy by todays standards