To say frankly I have seen this movie when I was ten or something. I was astonished and embarrassed of the tremendous score and epic, fragile acting of Smoktunovsky and Vertinskaya. They did not perform, they lived the life on the screen. It was so true, so uncompromising, so tensely. The tragedy of the story impressed me very much. I could not explain why I was so involved in that performance and why it stroke my mind like a thunder. I think from that moment I became a bit older. Something important happened. Now I am 39 and I still feel the same emotional collapse when watching that victory of spirit and truth. Pure cinematographic magic.
