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Movies / Upcoming / Stalin's Wife
Stalin's Wife

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Stalin's Wife (2005)

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Reviews Counted:11

Fresh:7

Rotten:4

Average Rating:5.9/10

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hr 44 mins

Genre: Education/General Interest

Theatrical Release:Apr 29, 2005 Limited

Synopsis: Nadezhda Alliluyev may not be a name that is easily recognizable to everyone. Even those who know she was the wife of former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin have encountered great difficulty in... Nadezhda Alliluyev may not be a name that is easily recognizable to everyone. Even those who know she was the wife of former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin have encountered great difficulty in gleaning any concrete information from the myriad ambiguities that surround this historical figure. Director Slava Tsukerman, whose eccentric 1982 sci-fi film LIQUID SKY is a cult favorite, examines Alliluyev's inscrutable life in STALIN'S WIFE. With precious little information to work with, Tsukerman's task proves to be an arduous one, but he manages to produce an engaging documentary nonetheless. Many former associates and family members of the Stalin clan are interviewed at length, while the director offers an interesting array of photographs and newsreel footage to help explain Alliluyev's story. The couple were joined in wedlock when Stalin's bride-to-be was just 16 years old (he was 39), although stories differ on how they met; one gruesome account contemplates the rumor that Stalin brutally raped Alliluyev, and then forced her hand in marriage shortly afterwards. As the film progresses, facts and myths become intertwined, with Tsukerman allowing screen-time to some wildly differing anecdotal folklore concerning Stalin's behavior. Was Stalin actually his wife's father? Did Alliluyev kill herself, or was the domineering dictator really responsible for her death? While the truth may never be known, Tsukerman's film offers an entertaining look at every side of the story, and sheds some light on Stalin's enigmatic spouse, whose place in history has now been made a little clearer. [More]

Director: Slava Tsukerman

Director: Slava Tsukerman
Producer: Slava Tsukerman, Myra Todorovsky
Composer: Joel Diamond

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Reviews for Stalin's Wife

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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
08/16/07
David Jenkins
David Jenkins
Time Out New York

As illuminating, trenchant and penetrating as any fiction film.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
03/01/07
Eric Monder
Eric Monder
Film Journal International
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/09/06
Time Out
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
08/21/05
Boxoffice Magazine

An intimate, chatty film, both cheeky and thorough, the kind of high-class historical gossip you might get if an eminent Soviet historian like Robert Conquest or Richard Pipes went to work for the National Enquirer.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
07/14/05
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

By the end of its excruciating two hours, Stalin's Wife has brought us no closer to its subject than does the eerie stone bust that adorns her grave in Moscow.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
07/14/05
Scott Foundas
Scott Foundas
L.A. Weekly

Results are solid, if stylistically unspectacular.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
07/14/05
Eddie Cockrell
Eddie Cockrell
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

If you have the slightest curiosity about the people and the period, Stalin's Wife is mandatory viewing.

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
05/05/05
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
New York Observer
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
04/30/05
AV Club

Documentary filmmaking on the cheap, comprised primarily of familiar newsreel footage and shot-on-video talking-head interviews.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
04/29/05
Ken Fox
Ken Fox
TV Guide's Movie Guide

There's plenty of passion beneath this movie's unadorned surface.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
04/29/05
Elizabeth Weitzman
Elizabeth Weitzman
New York Daily News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Unless you're already into this stuff, it'll be hard to stay awake.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
04/29/05
Russell Scott Smith
Russell Scott Smith
New York Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This dense biographical collage of images and memories of the Soviet dictator's second wife has a paradoxical quality.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
04/28/05
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Well-researched documentary on the mysterious Mrs. Stalin.

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
04/28/05
Phil Hall
Phil Hall
Film Threat

There's interesting material about Soviet history, but searching for answers about the revolutionary's spouse turns out to be less than engrossing.

Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
04/28/05
David Sterritt
David Sterritt
Christian Science Monitor
 
 
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