Anniversary of The Dawns Here are Quiet
In most materials about the film masterpiece of Boris Vasiliev and Stanislav Rostotsky, the date of the premiere is called November 4, 1972. This is so and not so. Indeed, Soviet cinema viewers saw the film in November 1972. But even earlier, on August 27, 1972, the film was seen by participants and guests of the Venice International Film Festival.
True, it should be noted that from 1969 to 1979, the Venice Festival was in crisis, and in some years during this period was not held at all. But be that as it may ... The film "And the Dawns Here Are Quiet" participated in the competition in the nomination "Best Foreign Film" of this film festival. And lost to "A Clockwork Orange" by Stanley Kubrick. In total, 7 films participated in this nomination, representing Great Britain, Germany, India, Kuwait, the USA and the USSR (2 films). Almost all the films, with the exception of Larisa Shepitko's film “You and Me,” received some comforting prizes. True, as a result of the crisis, the prizes were purely symbolic. But, again, however. "And the Dawns Here Are Quiet" received the so-called "Memorable Prize". It is clear that the significance of this prize is completely incomprehensible. IMDB, for example, does not mention it at all. But we are not talking about that now.
And not that we have any doubts as to the validity of the decision to recognize Stanley Kubrick as the winner of the movie masterpiece. As the saying goes, the judge (or jury) is always right. (True, again, due to the crisis experienced by the film festival, there was no jury at the festival for 10 years.)
Moreover, we dare to assume that the film by Stanislav Rostotsky did not receive the main prize for the reason that at this film festival the main prize - the Golden Lion - was received by the Soviet cameraman Anatoly Golovnya. He received the aggregate of merits to world cinema, just like Charlie Chaplin and Billy Wilder. (By the way, both Stanley Kubrick, Charlie Chaplin, and Billy Wilder were proud of the prizes received at this film festival. So, there’s absolutely no reason to belittle its value.) To give more than one prize “in one - Soviet! - hands”, that so called "civilized" world did not understand. But the mere fact that the film in such international conditions was nominated for the main prize, and even before the premiere at home, says a lot. More specifically, on the unconditional recognition of the film by the professional cinema community.
And on November 4, 1972, a film demonstration began in the Soviet Union. And in the first year, 66 million moviegoers watched the film - a record number in the entire history of Soviet film distribution.
And in 1973, the film was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Foreign Film. But again it lost, this time to Luis Bunuel’s film “Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie)”.
I presented these data in order to show that the film was rated very highly by the professional cinematic community in Europe and the USA. About the audience in the Soviet Union has already been said. It can be added that in billionth China, the film was rated so highly that a multi-episodes series remake was even shot. And one more thing: 80% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users put "eight", "nine" and "tens" to the film. The overall view rate for Rotten Tomatoes is 90%!
But what about film critics? Not in any significant American and Western European publications devoted to cinema, there is not a word about this film. IMDB provides one (!) Professional review from a British publication dated 2011. And, judging by this review, the author watched the movie on DVD. We can safely conclude that in the cinemas of the USA and Western Europe the film was not shown at all, and the DVD was released only 40 years after the release of the movie theaters. In short, there is yet another example of the silence of the USSR’s participation in the war against fascism, another example of the implementation of the strategy to formulate the myth that the Americans won the war exclusively.
According to FilmGourmand, the film "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" has a rating of 8.901 and takes 180th place in the Golden Thousand.
