''Optimistic Tragedy'' (, translit. ''Optimisticheskaya tragediya'') is a 1963

Soviet film The cinema of the Soviet Union includes films produced by the constituent republics of the Soviet Union reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history, albeit they were all regulated by the central government in Moscow. ...

directed by

Samson Samsonov Samson Iosifovich Samsonov (; 23 February 1921 – 31 August 2002) was a Soviet and Russian film director and screenwriter, he was granted the honorary title of People's Artist of the USSR in 1991. Samson Samsonov graduated from Gerasimov Insti ...

. It is based on the play '' An Optimistic Tragedy'' by

Vsevolod Vishnevsky Vsevolod Vitalyevich Vishnevsky (, – 28 February 1951) was a Soviet and Russian writer, screenwriter, playwright and journalist. Early life He was born in 1900 in Saint Petersburg and educated at a Petersburg gymnasium. During World War I ...

. During

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

of 1917, the Marine squad, led by

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

leader Vozhak starts the revolt. The Central Committee of the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

Party sends a woman

Commissar Commissar (or sometimes ''Kommissar'') is an English transliteration of the Russian (''komissar''), which means ' commissary'. In English, the transliteration ''commissar'' often refers specifically to the political commissars of Soviet and ...

to form

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

battalion from the marines to take part in the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

Plot

In 1918, aboard the warship ''Gromoboy'', anarchist sailors hold control until a woman commissar is sent by the Bolshevik Central Committee to impose order. The anarchist leader, Vozhak, dominates the crew, while the commissar is tasked with reorganizing the naval unit into the First Sailors' Regiment to fight on the Black Sea front. Among the few remaining officers is Lieutenant Bering, a former tsarist navy officer from the battleship ''Imperator Pavel I'', who is appointed to lead the regiment alongside the commissar. Her mission proves challenging as she must earn the sailors’ trust and eradicate the rampant anarchy. Vozhak incites an attempt to assault the commissar, but she defends herself, shooting one of the attackers and declaring defiantly, "Well, who else wants to try the commissar's body?" Despite pressure from his follower, the syphilitic Sipy, to kill her, Vozhak refuses, arguing that her anarchistic spirit makes her valuable. A tense dialogue ensues between the commissar, Vozhak, Sipy, and another anarchist sailor, Alexei, as they debate their loyalties and purpose. The commissar asserts the Bolsheviks’ direction and determination, even amidst resistance and skepticism. When the unit is reformed and sent to the front, the sailors confront difficult moral choices. Vozhak orders the execution of two former officers, only for the commissar to retaliate by commanding Alexei to execute Vozhak. Sipy betrays the unit, leading to their capture by German forces. The commissar is killed, but Alexei and a few others manage to escape captivity.

Cast

Margarita Volodina Margarita Vladimirovna Volodina (; born 1938 in Leningrad) is a Soviet film and stage actress. Her first husband was film director Samson Samsonov. In 1994 she went to her daughter to France, living in Paris. Awards * Best Actress of the USSR ...

as Commissar * Boris Andreyev as Vozhak *

Vyacheslav Tikhonov Vyacheslav Vasilyevich Tikhonov (; 8 February 1928 – 4 December 2009) was a Soviet and Russian actor whose best known role was as Soviet spy Stierlitz in the television series ''Seventeen Moments of Spring''. He was a recipient of numerou ...

as Aleksey *

Vsevolod Sanayev Vsevolod Vasilyevich Sanayev (; 25 February 1912, Tula – 27 January 1996, Moscow) was a USSR, Soviet film and stage actor popular in the 1960s–1970s. Sanayev, a Moscow Art Theatre (and later Mossovet Theatre) actor, was honored in 1969 with t ...

as Sipliy *

Erast Garin Erast Pavlovich Garin (September 4, 1980, born Gerasimov) was a Soviet and Russian actor, director and screenwriter. He was, together with Igor Ilyinsky and Sergey Martinson, one of the leading comic actors of Vsevolod Meyerhold's company and of ...

as Vozhachok *

Vsevolod Safonov Vsevolod Dmitrievich Safonov (; 9 April 1926 – 6 July 1992) was a Soviet actor of theatre and cinema. He was awarded the title People's Artist of the USSR Prize (1974). Biography Vsevolod Dmitrievich Safonov was born on 9 April 1926 in Moscow. ...

Oleg Strizhenov Oleg Aleksandrovich Strizhenov (; 10 August 1929 – 9 February 2025) was a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor. He was awarded People's Artist of the USSR in 1988. Biography Strizhenov was born in Blagoveshchensk in 1929. His family moved ...

as First officer *

Gleb Strizhenov Gleb Aleksandrovich Strizhenov () (July 21, 1925 – October 4, 1985) was a Soviet stage and film actor. Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1974). He was the older brother of Oleg Strizhenov, who was also an actor. Selected filmography *'' The T ...

Valentin Belokhvostik Valentin Belokhvostik (September 6, 1934 – June 10, 2003) was a Belarusian and Soviet actor, Laureate of the State Prize of the BSSR (1989), and National Artist of the Republic of Belarus (1994). Biography Belokhvostik graduated from the s ...

Ivan Bondar Ivan () is a Slavic male given name, connected with the variant of the Greek name (English: John) from Hebrew meaning 'God is gracious'. It is associated worldwide with Slavic countries. The earliest person known to bear the name was the Bu ...

Production

The film ''Optimistic Tragedy'' is based on the 1933 play '' An Optimistic Tragedy'' by

, set during the Russian Revolution.

directed the film. It was shot in Sovscope 70 on black and white film stock. The prints were split into three films for exhibition in

Kinopanorama 70 Kinopanorama is a three-lens, three-film widescreen film format. Although Kinopanorama was initially known as ''Panorama'' (, ''panoramnyy film'') in the Soviet Union the name was later revised to include its current name prior to the premiere scr ...

in some theatres.

Release

The film was entered into competition at the

1963 Cannes Film Festival The 16th Cannes Film Festival took place from 9 to 23 May 1963. French writer Armand Salacrou served as jury president for the main competition. The Palme d'Or was awarded to '' The Leopard'' by Luchino Visconti. The festival opened with '' Th ...

. The

Kino International The Kino International is a film theater in Berlin, built from 1961 to 1963. It is located on Karl-Marx-Allee in former East Berlin. It hosted premieres of the DEFA film studios until the Berlin Wall#The Fall, fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. T ...

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

opened on 15 November 1963 with a grand opening premiere of the film.

Reception

''Optimistic Tragedy'' was a Soviet blockbuster of 1963, with 46 million tickets sold. The film was named Best Film of the Year and Margarita Volodina was named Best Actress of the Year by readers of the Soviet film magazine '' Sovetsky Ekran''. Richard Porton, in his 1999 book ''Film and the Anarchist Imagination'', describes ''Optimistic Tragedy'' as "ingloriously

didactic Didacticism is a philosophy that emphasises instructional and informative qualities in literature, art, and design. In art, design, architecture, and landscape, didacticism is a conceptual approach that is driven by the urgent need to explain. ...

" and "typical of Soviet attempts to rationalize the brutal assault on the Kronstadt communards".

References

External links

* 1963 films 1963 war films 1960s historical drama films 1960s war drama films 1960s Soviet films 1960s Russian-language films Soviet historical drama films Soviet war drama films Russian Revolution films Films directed by Samson Samsonov Mosfilm films Soviet films based on plays Soviet epic films Soviet black-and-white films Russian Civil War films Russian-language historical drama films Russian-language war drama films {{war-drama-film-stub