I took this last March at The House on the Rock
While this was classified as a musical comedy, I didn't find it as comedic as western ones. I really enjoyed the part with the three bicycles. It reminded me of the Triplet Song in the movie Bandwagon, and also the Mr. Bones section in White Christmas. That is generally what I think of when I hear "musical comedy." Oh! Also the monkey shooting the gun. I'm of the opinion that a monkey doing most anything is hilarious.
This dealt with biracial children and all that, which Showboat did (well, marriage). I was trying to figure out what the baby represented. The entire community (audience) cares for it, and they're all different republics joining together to sing him a lullaby. After the fact, I remembered "Stalin loves children"- but I'm not quite sure how this particular child would fit into that. By the end, when they were holding the child, all waving flags and singing, it's obvious that community was important.
There was one point when Von Kneishitz is staring through the frosted window at Martinov. It seems to be a staredown-
old versus new
bourgeois versus proletariat
Though both worked within the circus, their tasks allowed them to take on the characteristics of different "classes." Portraying Martinov as the "worker" we are to be on his side.
2 comments:
Neat picture...I'd never heard of that place before, but after looking it up, it definitely sounds like something worth checking out.
The lullaby song is a bit of a pious pose--making the Soviets/Russians of that time sound as though they were quite a bit more tolerant than they actually were. But it is true that at least ideally they were trying to create a "Homo Sovieticus" whose identity was determined not by race or ethnic identity, but by class.
i definitely got the feeling that the entire last ten minutes of the movie was dedicated to showing the openness of the soviet union and the hypocrisy of the united states(by shunning the mother).
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