Russia’s early film revival

The most serendipitous import of 1997 was a German-made compilation movie titled “East Side Story,” which recalled the fitful but sometimes memorable history of film musicals made under communist regimes.

The most auspicious and/or mind-boggling examples originated in the Soviet Union and East Germany between the mid-1930s and early 1960s.

A curiously wistful and edifying consequence of the decline of communism in Eastern Europe, “East Side Story” made a persuasive case for the incongruous entertainment value of these song-and-dance period pieces. I assumed it would be only a matter of time before some repertory management would program several conspicuous titles in a revival series offering fresh looks at the entire movies.

That follow-through never happened in Washington. Something like it can be enjoyed belatedly during a retrospective at the National Gallery of Art called “Envisioning Russia: Mosfilm Studio,” which begins next weekend and continues every weekend through June.

A pared-down version of a series showcased early this year by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, “Mosfilm” revives 10 movies made under the auspices of the Soviet Union’s pre-eminent movie studio (still a major source of Russian feature and television production today) between 1925 and 1959.

It could be argued that the most prestigious titles are Sergei Eisenstein’s legendary rabble-rouser “Battleship Potemkin” — which brought Mosfilm’s antecedent, Goskino, international renown in 1926 — and Mikhail Kalatozov’s “The Cranes Are Flying,” which won the grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1958.

I believe the best justification for this backward glance is that three of the 10 selections are Soviet musicals fondly recalled in “East Side Story”: Grigori Aleksandrov’s “Jolly Fellows” of 1934, Ivan Pyryev’s “Tractor Drivers” of 1939 and Eldar Ryazanov’s “Carnival Night” of 1956.

Better late than never, here’s a chance to see them in full, in theatrical prints — and there’s no admission charge at National Gallery film programs.

I assume Netflix rents VHS copies of “East Side Story”; a few seem to be available at Amazon.com. It remains the best single source for familiarizing yourself with the strange-bedfellows nature of Soviet musicals in their heyday.

Mr. Aleksandrov, originally known as Sergei Eisenstein’s principal assistant on “Potemkin” and other silent classics, seized an opportunity rejected by his mentor after their return to the Soviet Union in the early 1930s from a problematical three-year sojourn in the United States and Mexico.

In the seemingly wacky, irrepressible “Jolly Fellows,” a screwball comedy of errors about a shepherd mistaken for a popular jazz musician, Mr. Aleksandrov contrived to reconcile Communist Party ideology with the musical-comedy gusto of Busby Berkeley musicals at Warner Bros. and Marx Brothers musicals at Paramount.

A frivolous affront to cultural bureaucrats, the movie was championed by Maxim Gorky, who brokered a screening for Josef Stalin, who enjoyed himself so heartily that Mr. Aleksandrov became a fair-haired filmmaker.

This official favor was not a lasting boon to the director’s reputation, of course, although I’m not sure that guilt by despotic association is strictly imposed on vintage Soviet filmmakers.

It has always been easy pickings to scorn Leni Riefenstahl for glorifying Adolf Hitler. Mr. Aleksandrov seems to have contrived an ingenious way of playing the fool and humoring a tyrant in treacherous times.

The popularity of “Jolly Fellows” was confirmed in three subsequent musicals that revolved around leading lady Lyubov Orlova, who became Mrs. Aleksandrov for the remainder of her long life. She was a newcomer in “Fellows,” where she introduced the title song.

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