Counterplan (film) explained

Counterplan
Director:Sergei Yutkevich
Fridrikh Ermler
Starring:Vladimir Gardin
Music:Dmitri Shostakovich
Cinematography:Aleksandr Gintsburg
Iosif Martov
Vladimir Rapoport
Studio:Lenfilm
Runtime:118 minutes
Country:Soviet Union
Language:Russian

Counterplan (Russian: Встречный|Vstrechnyy) is a 1932 Soviet drama film directed by Sergei Yutkevich and Fridrikh Ermler.[1] The film's title song, "The Song of the Counterplan", composed by Dmitri Shostakovich with lyrics by the poet Boris Kornilov,[2] [3] became world famous. Shostakovich's composition, with new lyrics by Jeanne Perret, would be used shortly after in the notable song of the French socialist movement, "Au-devant de la vie".[4]

Shostakovich was to use the piece again in his Poem of the Motherland (1947), another film entitled Mitchurin (1948) and his 1958 operetta Moscow, Cheremushki!. In 1942 the song was given English words by Harold J. Rome under the title "United Nations on the March" and in this guise it was featured as the choral finale to MGM's patriotic war-time musical Thousands Cheer (1943). That same year, Leopold Stokowski made an orchestral arrangement of the song and this was given the title "United Nations March".

This film could be considered a Stalin propaganda film. The plot involves an effort to catch "wreckers" at work in a Soviet factory.

Cast

Notes and References

  1. Book: Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema. Peter Rollberg. Rowman & Littlefield. 2009. US. 978-0-8108-6072-8. 163.
  2. Book: Jacek Klinowski & Adam Garbicz. Feature Cinema in the 20th Century: a Comprehensive Guide. One: 1913-1950. 2012. Planet RGB Limited. 978-1-624-07564-3.
  3. Book: Matthew Tobin Anderson. Matthew Tobin Anderson. Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad. 2015. Candlewick Press. 978-0-763-68054-1.
  4. Book: Charles Rearick. The French in Love and War: Popular Culture in the Era of the World Wars. 1997. Yale University Press. 9780300064339.