Tarakanova (1930)
Tarakanova is a 1930 French historical drama film directed by Raymond Bernard and starring Édith Jéhanne, Paule Andral and Olaf Fjord. It depicts the life of Princess Tarakanoff, the pretender to the throne of Catherine II in Eighteenth Century Russia.
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Reviews
Surprisingly incoherent and boring
Sadly Over-hyped
The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.
It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
The intrigues of Imperial Russia provided a fertile source of melodrama for filmmakers during the 1920s, and at first glance this lavish French production would seem to present a familiar variation of a foolproof romantic formula. The far-fetched but enjoyable story introduces a handsome young General who falls in love with a beautiful gypsy girl being groomed in secret to assume the throne in place of a look-alike princess, who meanwhile refuses to abandon the holy anonymity of her convent hideaway...and so forth and so on. Sadly, the film itself has dated pretty severely after all these years, and the awkward 'sonorization' (the synchronized music and sound track added during the mad, post-'Jazz Singer' rush into talkie technology) only makes it appear even more stiff and static when seen today. Of academic interest only.