THE GIRL FROM PETROVKA
US, 1974, 100 minutes, Colour.
Goldie Hawn, Hal Holbrook, Anthony Hopkins.
Directed by Robert Ellis Miller.
The Girl from Petrovka shows how Goldie Hawn emerged as a talented actress. This is an unusual vehicle for her. She has to portray the somewhat scatterbrained girl she frequently does. But this time she is Russian (mixed accent and all), a shrewd little girl lost in Moscow, and has to blend humour with pathos, taking the film to a sombre ending. On the whole she does well. But perhaps it is the old-fashioned love story, journalist in foreign country genre, that takes impact from the film. Hal Holbrook is convincing enough as the journalist. European location photography, especially Vienna as Moscow, are a great asset. The film provides a pleasing enough outing.
1. What kind of film was this? Or genre? Comedy, drama, thriller? How enjoyable was the film? Why? What response did it ask from its audience?
2. Comment on the style of the film and its success: how focussing on Joe Merrick, his telling the story in flashback, our identifying with him and seeing Octobryna through him. Did this help us to see the girl as she really was? Or merely through his eyes?
3. How important was atmosphere for this film? The visual presentation of Russia, Moscow, the countryside, the Black Sea etc.? The atmosphere of Moscow and its ideology? The references to Communism and Socialism in the dialogue and its impact on the characters? The importance of communist capitalist conflicts for the themes of the film? Would the film have made sense without this background? Why?
4. Was the title appropriate? Would it have been better to be more specific? How attractive was Goldie Hawn in the role? Did her typical personality and style blend with the character or did it obtrude? What kind of girl was Octobryna in herself? Did she make sense in this Moscow background? Her capacity for loving, her innocence, her calculated approach? Her need to grow up? Her capacity for affection, for pretty things, for sentiment, for traditions? Her capacity for pity and help? What was her relationship with the minister? Why? What did she offer him? Their happiness at the party, at the picnic visiting him, at the hospital? Why did she fall in love with Joe? Did she know she had? Her erratic appearances at his flat? Her enjoyment of baths etc., her depositing of the plants, then her going off? Her relationship with Leonid? Why did she help him when he was hiding, to escape, stealing the money? Her relationship to Kostya? His doing the ringing up for her? His lecture to her and its effect on her life? Her casual relationship with the soldier as a weapon against Joe? How rounded a character was Octobryna in the film? How interesting, how possible to identify with as a modern type character? Is this the main value of the film?
5. Comment on the goodness of Octobryna, her affection, the picnic sequence, the party sequence, her love for Joe etc.? How endearing was this? why? What was your reaction to her being arrested? Why? How true was what the judge said in the trial? How unjust was it? The impact of her farewell to Joe and of her going to prison? How did this leave the audience at the end of the film?
6. What kind of person was Joe? How typical an American journalist, his re relationship with his wife, career? His need for love and affection? How successful a man was he, how much of a failure? How much the beginnings of a burnt-out case? Why did he respond to Octobryna? How did she transform his life? Which incidents illustrated this best? His conflicting emotional responses to her? The consummation of their love? His response to her going to prison? What effect had her presence in his life on him?
7. How interesting a character was Kostya? His vitality? What values did he stand for? His black market work, his contacts, his kindliness for Octobryna, his helping of Leonid, his helping of Joe? What was the impact of his lecture to Octobryna and how did it change her life?
8. The importance of Leonid in the film? As a Russian, a socialist, a musician, his love for jazz, his own compositions, his escaping from the Soviet Union? Should he have escaped? why?
9. What did the music contribute to the film - the jazz score, the musical backgrounds, the song? How did the colour contribute to the film? The location photography, the scenic effects, the muted gold tones of so much of the film?
10. which sequences made most impression? What touches of acting, scene composition, situations, were best?
11. What were the main themes of the film? The basic humanity of men and women, people in a modern world, the socialist world and the capitalist world, the innocent abroad, the calculated innocent who needs to grow up? The interaction of human feelings?
