A Lovers' Romance

Annotation for KRRR! 2017 by Varvara Šatunová

Romance of Lovers by director Andrei Konchalovsky is a film that won the Grand Prize at the Karlovy Vary IFF in 1974. It may not have a very complex plot, but it is a film of great emotions and meanings, which is remarkable primarily for its formal aspect. Which also makes Romance of Lovers a work that can be perceived from several different perspectives.

The main characters – Sergey and Tanya – are young, in love, and their hearts overflow with happiness. However, their destinies are unexpectedly divided under the influence of circumstances. The basic story, dressed in a musical costume, is presented by highly stylized, sometimes even pathetic acting. At the same time, however, it tries to work with the psychology of the characters through ingenious editing or with the help of color changes in the scene, where the deprivation of the main characters is sometimes depicted by a complete absence of colors, and on the contrary, happiness or joy are tuned to very bright and warm shades. But Romance of Lovers is also fascinating in the way it can mock itself – and above all, at itself. Through peculiar stylistic techniques and strongly self-conscious moments, we watch the film poke fun at its own genre, the typical division of Soviet films into two parts, the generation of the 1970s, and individual life problems. On the one hand, Konchalovsky tells the story with a considerable dose of exaggeration and irony, but on the other hand, he remains very serious. It is important to realize that Romance of Lovers is not only poking fun at itself, but also tells about deep love, about human transformation, about the art of living and not just surviving. It also becomes a lyrical story about the death of the old and naive, about the birth of the new, different, but no less great and real. The film Romance of Lovers thus represents a somewhat paradoxical combination of motifs that are both intensely bitter and consciously comical... and in both respects it is very pure and sincere.