Leofwine_draca You know, I love watching early cinema. Those German Expressionist silents are still fantastic for the modern viewer to watch and the 1930s was a decade chock-full of excellence. Sadly, BY THE BLUEST OF SEAS is a rather dull affair, one of those art-house movies that's raved over by the critics but actually turns out to be pretty dull and insubstantial when it comes down to it.The story is nothing more than a simple love triangle between a couple of fishermen and the girl they both fall in love with. The acting is so minimalist as to be non-existent and the story that plays out is simplistic so that there's barely enough material for the short running time. What the film does benefit from is some very nice cinematography that makes the best of the locations (this was filmed in Azerbaijan on the shores of the Caspian Sea) but of course given the title colour is necessary to make this a truly great-looking production. BY THE BLUEST OF SEAS is nothing special, I'm afraid.

Martin Bradley There isn't a great deal to the Russian 'classic' "By the Bluest of Seas" other than its remarkable use its location around the Caspian Sea and yet its reputation among cineastes is extremely high. Unlike the propaganda films of Eisenstein and Dovzhendo, this is a simple love story and a tale of friendship that owes more to Hollywood than to early Russian cinema.Two sailors are washed up on an island where they both fall for the same girl, thus testing their friendship. It's a very simple-minded picture, luminously photographed by Mikhail Kirillov, charming enough in itself but hardly worth the critical plaudits that have been heaped on it.

vwild By the Bluest of Seas is a surprisingly warm and funny film from Soviet Russia. The story is rather slight. Two shipwrecked sailors wash up on an island in the Caspian Sea, set to work for the local fishing commune and vie for the affections of a local lass. There are jokes and songs, all handled with a light and joyful touch. Meanwhile the sun beats down, the wind blows and the waves roll, and this looks wonderful. You can almost feel the warmth and taste the salt. The small issue of who gets the girl brings the odd shadow, but all in all life on the commune is just grand. And that's about it apart from a tiresome communist moral at the end, which I suppose qualifies as propaganda, but is only as intrusive as the moral correctives at the end of Hollywood movies of the same period. By the Bluest of Seas is a tremendously warm hearted film that seems to come from a different world to the well known Soviet classics of the 20s and 30s.

Mozjoukine Boris Barnet's films are not the easiest to track, down so I have no idea how representative this one is of that lesser know celebrity of the Soviet Industry.BY THE BLUEST OF SEAS however proves to be a pleasant surprise and pleasant is a surprise among these - no invaders driven back into the sea, now vicious landowners, no loving portrait of a national military leader.Filmed in glowing sunshine, spaced by a menacing storm, it covers the two sailors banded up with the Caspian "Light of Communism" (well what to you expect?) fishing co-op who divide their time between making the boats run and competing for the lanky blond chair-lady of the board. The three leads are appealing, slim and unconventional and we enjoy our time with them. The storm is filmed with some ingenuity, with the cabin tilting in some sound stage machine and the ocean pounding the deck.The story is pretty slight and finally propagandist, with the blond remaining faithful to her sailor fiancé off battling the nation's maritime enemies, but it never has the heavy handedness of the body of the Russian product which survives.Things are helped by an excellent mid tone copy.