| Where Has Love Gone? | |
| Starring: | Sofia Rotaru Valeriu Gagiu |
| Music: | Raimonds Pauls Yury Saulsky |
| Distributor: | Moldova-Film |
| Runtime: | 79 minutes |
| Country: | Soviet Union |
| Language: | Russian |
Where Has Love Gone? (Russian: Где ты, любовь?|Gde ty, lyubov?, lit. Where Are You, Love?) is a 1980 Soviet musical drama film written and directed by Valeriu Gagiu starring Sofia Rotaru as well as Valeriu Gagiu and Evgueny Menishov. The movie features songs performed by Sofia Rotaru, sequence of substantial dialogues. The setting includes Moldavian landscape and countryside life as well as Black Sea coast, Chişinău and Odesa.
Although heavily criticized by cinema experts, even by Sofia Rotaru herself, the film gathered more than 25 million viewers in the former Soviet Union. In 2002, the official video version of the movie directed by Valeriu Gagiu at studios Moldova-Film in 1980 was released by the ARENA Corporation.
After graduation from conservatory, music professor Marcela (Sofia Rotaru) teaches music in a village music school in Moldova. As a main solo vocal she is invited to join a musical vocal instrumental ensemble, which is being directed by astronomer Viktor. The first rehearsal takes place in the astronomic star observatory tower and that's where Viktor falls in love with Marcela. Andrei also has his idea about Marcela as he cheerly appreciates her first performance with their band. Marcela returns home to the village, where her local admirer waits for her next to her house door. The rehearsals lead to an invitation to perform on a cruise ship in the Black Sea. As the relationship with Viktor staggers, Andrei manages to approach Marcela. Love, artistic successes, and, as the genre requires, a victory at an international song festival are awaiting Marcela.
The shooting of the movie started in Kishinev. The all-Soviet star Sofia Rotaru was selected to play the main role. In fact, in the half-documentary, half-autobiographical film, Rotaru played her real self, even though the last name of the heroine (Botezat) was not the same as the main role artist.
From the beginning the movie was planned to be a musical film; that is why the Soviet singer Sofia Rotaru was invited.
The producer Valeriu Gagiu said:
As a result, the scenario was written in a way that it satisfied the conductorship as well. This was supposed to be the first full-fledged drama movie about Sofia Rotaru. The singer has agreed to play the role as she was on tour in Odessa. The shooting of the film started with an ensemble of actors, which represented the real cinema stars, even though the movie was a musical film: Grigore Grigoriu, Evgueny Menishov (presenter of the yearly song festival "Song of the Year" with Angelina Vovk), Viktor Chyutak cast. Because of the movie, Rotaru had to refuse to tour, what did not fit in with the plans of the director of Chervona Ruta ensemble, where Sofia Rotaru was the leading soloist singer. The shooting of the movie took place in Moldova, Crimea, and Odessa.[1]
One of the film episodes was shot in the museum-tower of the State University of Moldova. According to the producer Cagiu, he always dreamed of shooting something in the tower and he had specially planned a scene in it. Vaeriu Gagiu said:
According to the participants of the shootings, Sofia Rotaru experienced stress in front of the cameras and the producer had to work thoroughly and long with the singer; according to Gagiu, it would eventually lead to quarrels.
At that time, Sofia Rotaru was known throughout the whole Soviet Union, but was shy of her fame and stressed when she was stopped on the streets for an autograph, often she would lock herself in the hotel room. However, all the sacrifices proved to be efficient, as the film enjoyed a major success. Right after the release of Gde ty, lyubov'?, Sofia Rotaru was proposed a new leading role in the next drama film Dusha.
One of the most popular hits of Sofia Rotaru, the song "Red Arrow" (music: Aleksey Mazhukov, lyrics: Nikolay Zinoviev), was written and composed specially for the film Gde ty, lyubov'?.
Popular schlagers of 1970-1980s are performed in the film, created by Ion Aldi, Aleksandr Zatsepin, Alexei Mazhukov, Raimonds Pauls, Yury Saulsky.
Most of the songs were released in the album of Sofia Rotaru - Songs from the movie "Gde ty, lyubov'"
| N°[2] | Song | Performed by | Authors | Commentaries | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Come" Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: Să Vii | Sofia Rotaru | Lyrics: Dumitru Matcovschi Music: Ion-Aldea Teodorovici | first performed in the movie Where has Love Gone?, released in the album Songs from the movie "Where Has Love Gone?" | |
| 2 | "First Rain" Russian: Первый дождь/Pervy dozhd | Sofia Rotaru | Lyrics: Leonid Zavalnyuk Music: Aleksander Zatsepin | first performed in the movie Dusha, released in the album Songs from the movie "Where Has Love Gone?" | |
| 3 | "Mother's Heart" Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: Inimă de Mamă Russian: Осенняя песня/Osennyaya pesnya | Sofia Rotaru | Lyrics: Dumitru Matcovschi Music: Ion-Aldea Teodorovici | first performed in the movie Where has Love Gone?, released in the album Songs from the movie "Where Has Love Gone?" | |
| 4 | "Dance on the Drum" Russian: Танец на барабане/Tanets na barabane | Sofia Rotaru | Lyrics: Andrey Voznesensky Music: Raimonds Pauls | first performed in the movie Dusha, released in the album Songs from the movie "Where Has Love Gone?" | |
| 5 | "Ioane" (English: "Hey, John!") Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: Ioane Russian: Иванушка/Ivanushka | Sofia Rotaru | Lyrics: Dumitru Matcovschi Music: Petru Teodorovici | first performed in the movie Where has Love Gone?, released in the album Songs from the movie "Where Has Love Gone?" | |
| 6 | "Do Not Forget" Russian: Не забывай/Ne zabyvay | Sofia Rotaru | Lyrics: Leonid Zavalnyuk Music: Yury Saulsky | first performed in the movie Dusha, released in the album Songs from the movie "Where Has Love Gone?" | |
| 7 | "Gde ty, lyubov'?" Russian: Где ты любовь/Gde ty lyubov | Sofia Rotaru | Lyrics: Ilya Reznik Music: Raimonds Pauls | first performed in the movie Dusha, released in the album Songs from the movie "Where Has Love Gone?" |