damirradic14 Grigori Aleksandrov co-directed some of the best films by Sergei Eisenstein, "Staroye i novoye", "Oktyabr" and "Que viva Mexico!". He was as much talented as Eisenstein, but with much more sense for genre movies, especially comedy. In his films he blended brave formal devices, a genre narration and a humor, and he did it with a great skill. "Tsirk" is an excellent example of Aleksandrov's style. The film is visually expressive, includes some typical modernistic devices, but with populist aim, some scenes are made in Busby Berkeley way, and so on. Also, "Tsirk" is a great propaganda movie and it tells the truth about American racism of those times, using this for glorification of Soviet Union as a tolerant and progressive society. (In fact, regarding racism, Soviet society of that time really was progressive in comparison with the United States.) Final scenes celebrates Lenin, Marx and Stalin in superb artistic way (a long double exposure is fascinating), and the film glorifies not only Soviet Union, but Soviet Russia, too. In fact, Soviet Russia is adored homeland in the film as a result of Stalin's Russian nationalism.

Teodor Georgiev As someone who doesn't watch musicals (I cannot even stand watching Disney movies with younger members of my family), I found Circus quite enjoyable. The music was as well-done as I could ever expect it to be, the acting was wonderful, and the plot drew me in. To be fair, that's not to say the movie is perfect. The plot was interesting, but still quite thin (a flaw many movies still suffer from today) and a lot of the characters embody fairly basic archetypes. Perhaps worst of all, the song at the end goes on for so long, it costs the movie credibility – we can no longer ignore that it is propaganda. But as a whole, it stands firm. The acting is fantastic, and the plot is overall interesting. Although it is described as a comedy, the film shouldn't be taken lightly; the initial scene where Marion removes her wig after the show shocks the audience as being immediately human. The ending is heatwarmingly sweet, and surprisingly progressive for the time period. While it is a good movie, the ending song reminds us that it is in the end still propaganda. Comparing it to earlier Soviet propaganda films is interesting. October for instance was a celebration of the revolution, reminding audiences of how much it took to happen. By comparison, Circus celebrates how wonderful Soviet Russia is. One film commemorates the revolution that happened while the other attempts to convince us that it was worthwhile. They are two different films from two different time periods, outlining two different goals of the rulers at the time.

Andrei Pavlov "Tsirk", to my mind, is as enjoyable as Mr Charles Chaplin's "The Circus". Unluckily our film did not miss the chance to show off some pressure of Stalin propaganda. The final demonstration and the portrait of you-know-who must have been omitted for the sake of importance and art.The scene with the trio awaiting Rayechka and entertaining the audience at the circus with their repetitive fooling around on the bicycles is one of the funniest sequences ever.The scene with Marion Dixon dancing and singing in Russian with a very peculiar accent is one of the most amazing and exhilarating black-and-white scenes I've ever seen.The scene with the two rivals (Ivan Petrovich Martynov vs. Von Kneishitz) staring each other down and out through a frosting pane is superb and feels very weird and even fearsome.The scene with a close-up of Mary before her dangerous performance is one of the most powerful.The scene with the people chanting a kind of lullaby in different languages to a black child while handing him over to one another is simply outstanding and very tender.The names. I really enjoy the use of names and numerous puns in our old films. Here the name of the main villain is "Kneischitz" (do you get the sound of it?) and one of the silly characters is called "Taburetkin" in one conversation instead of his personal "Skamejkin". As to the way Mary uses "Petrovich"... Nice verbal tricks.The funniest lines: "She was a Negro's lover! And she has a black child!!!" (Von Kneishitz) "So what? Ha-ha-ha!" (Russian audience)I could go on...Verdict: Mrs Lyubov Orlova is one of the finest actresses of the black-and-white era. Her talents are amazing (in singing, acting, dancing, intonations, stunts, good looks, powerful presence, etc.).8 out of 10 (without uneasy exaggeration at certain points and Stalinism it would zoom higher). Thank you for attention.

silasbankhead Grigori Aleksandrov's film Circus is an entertaining piece of Stalinist/Socialist propaganda that differs greatly from Eisenstein's historical, earlier film October. October mainly serves the purpose of commemorating and remembering the Bolshevik Revolution and to help reinstate the strength and effectiveness of socialism to the people. Eisenstein's documentary style not only celebrates the revolution, but also aims to help the public better understand the historical process of the political revolution. On the contrary, Circus is a film that touts the greatness of life under Stalin and the superiority of the Soviet state. It contains all the elements of a Socialist Realism film. Through a pro-socialist narrative, Aleksandrov manages to cover many aspects of the Soviet state and current life of the people.Circus tells the story of an American named Marion who is banished from the US because a black man impregnates her. Marion escapes to Russia to start a new life in the circus and joins up with lustful, anti-Russian ringmaster who happens to be in love with her. The ringmaster knows her secret about the black baby and threatens to reveal it unless she marries him. The problem is that Marion has fallen in love with a Russian acrobat and later out of sheer jealousy, the ringmaster reveals the identity of the woman's child in front of the circus audience. Rather than ostracize the woman, the Soviet audience embraces the child and sings him to sleep. Next we see Marion and the acrobat as a couple leading a huge parade through Red Square singing about the freedoms that Soviet Russia provides. Circus displays the elements of ethnic equality, new and productive construction, and the glory of life under Stalin many times in the film. Ethnic equality is evidently portrayed during the acceptance of the black baby and his talented, but flawed American mother Marion. At the beginning of the film, Marion retreats to Russian as some sort of free land of acceptance, far more tolerable than her native America. The message is clear that socialism is a society of acceptance and capitalism (or the United States in this case) cannot tolerate diversity.When the non-Russian reveals the black baby, Marion finds great comfort in the fact that she is welcome among Soviets. The crowd proves this emotion when they embrace and protect the child from the ringleader while singing him a lullaby in several different languages. The lyrics of the song include lines that say the baby has a bright future awaiting him in Russia. Also, Marion's acrobatic lover says to her, "I always considered you to be a socialist." The message is that good people are all socialists. Concerning new construction and soviet productivity, there is a scene towards the end that shows the brand new underground subway system. It is obvious that the system is new and it is a symbol of the work and rewards of socialism. We see many people using the transportation system and a shot of the mammoth escalator leading to the subway points out the difficulty in building the system.Perhaps the most absurd and blatant form of propaganda comes and the end during the massive parade that is lead by Marion and her acrobatic lover. They are marching with a giant banner of Stalin and Marion is asked, "Do you understand? (the socialist system)" and she replies, "Now I do." I think it is amusing that it takes a huge march through Red Square singing about freedoms to the backdrop of their leader and claiming to be the "most democratic of democratic constitutions" to understand the Soviet system. Perhaps this was put in the film so the viewers would walk out of the film thinking they too "understand" the system.