ZOYA (DANIELLE STEEL’S ZOYA)

US, 1995, 171 minutes, Colour.
Melissa Gilbert, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner, Diana Rigg, Peggy Cass, Denise Alexander, Samuel West, Jennifer Garner.
Directed by Richard Colla.

Zoya is one of the many novels filmed for American television in the mid-1990s, the books of Danielle Steel. The films are very entertaining, soap operatic, lush re-creations of period, popular matinee entertainment.

This film is rather wider in scope. It opens in 1917, just prior to the Russian revolution. It shows the life of the aristocrats, their loyalty to the tsar and tsarina. The film also shows something of the brutality of the revolution and the refugees and their life of poverty in Paris. However, Melissa Gilbert as Zoya, the central character, meets a charming American military man played by Bruce Boxleitner, marries him and moves to the United States. Happily married there, she has two children. However, her husband dies suddenly, she finds that she is in financial difficulties. However, she is able to give ideas to a fashionable clothing store in New York and becomes known as Countess Zoya and a celebrity buyer. She also has a trip to Paris, after twenty years, to buy clothes – at the outbreak of World War Two. Here she meets a charming buyer and marries him.

In the meantime, her son is very loyal to his mother and loving while her daughter, an early role for Jennifer Garner, is embittered. The film progresses through the decades after World War Two, the growing up of the children, Zoya’s success in her business world, the sadness of losing her husband, losing her daughter in a car accident. Ultimately having a trip back to Russia with her granddaughter. There is something for everyone. Melissa Gilbert has to age from seventeen to her seventies. At times she does not look as if she is ageing at all. The men are regulars in television movies. However, there is great strength in David Warner’s presence as the sympathetic Prince Vladimir but, especially, with Diana Rigg as Zoya’s grandmother.

1.The popularity of Danielle Steel’s novels? The television film versions? Entertaining matinee material? The lavish spectacular aspects? The soap opera aspects?

2.The settings, Russia before the revolution, the experience of the revolution, Paris in the 1920s, New York in the 1920s and 30s? After World War Two? Revisiting Paris in the 30s? Russia in later decades? The costumes, décor, fashions? Lavish costume and production design? The atmospheric musical score?

3.Zoya’s story: the prologue with the house on fire, the rescue of the children? Going back to her life in Moscow, age seventeen, her loving parents, her dancing classes, a countess, the relationship with the tsar and tsarina? Her grandmother’s presence? The servants? The outbreak of the revolution? Her relationship with her brother, his military career, his being wounded, dying? The soldiers entering the palace, the death of her father, of her mother? The grandmother and the escape, the servant helping them? The arrival in Paris, the grandmother having to sell her jewels and take little money? Settling into an apartment? Zoya and her searching for a job, her self-confidence, going to audition for Diagelev, getting a job (because she had already had the measles as so many dancers were getting)? Her grandmother’s negative reaction to her becoming a dancer? Her meeting Clayton Andrews? Charmed, going out with him? Falling in love? Her grandmother’s disapproval, arranged marriages? Trying to ensure Zoya’s future before she died? Her reliance on Prince Vladimir, his attentions, help, his being a taxi driver, the Russian émigrés in Paris? The grandmother warning Clayton Andrews to leave, his trying to deceive Zoya about his intentions, his going to the war front? The end of the war, his return? The grandmother’s dying, confessing to Zoya? General Pershing’s return for a Paris conference, Clayton’s return? Vladimir arranging for them to meet, proposal, the wedding, moving to the United States? In the United States, the gossip about Zoya and her being upset? Clayton and his business, the years passing, his investments in stocks, the collapse of the stock exchange? His sudden death? Zoya and her children, her strong response to her financial situation? Going to the shop, her discussions with Axelle? Proposals for shop design, advising the newly rich, fashions? The success of the years? Her son and his love for his mother, success? Sasha and her self-absorption, phoning her mother, wanting attention, her bitterness? Zoya’s trip with Axelle to Paris, the fashions, meeting Simon, his courting of her, coming back, marrying? Nicky’s support, Sasha’s accepting it? Continued success, the children growing up, education? Freddie and his proposal to Sasha, Zoya’s resistance? Sasha going off with her husband? Nicky and his marrying Elizabeth? The irony of their later separation and divorce? Simon, his gift of the shop, Zoya’s pregnancy, the birth, the shop, the loss of Simon? The years passing? Sasha’s return, with the child, Freddie having been a wife-beater? The reconciliation? Sasha and the trip, the crash, in a coma, turning off the life support? Nicky and his clashes with Elizabeth? Zoya and her taking care of her granddaughter? The years passing yet again, the business deals, the sales at the shop? Zoya and her granddaughter going to visit Moscow, seeing the ballet? A 20th century fairy tale? Romance?

4.Clayton, military, genial American, his politeness, love for Zoya, going to the front, the grandmother warning him off, his return, the happy marriage? His sudden death? Simon, genial, courtship, happy marriage, the son, the shop, his death?

5.The children, their growing up, the son and his love for his mother, the daughter and her alienation? Their marriages, separation, deaths?

6.The portrait of Prince Vladimir, congenial? Evgenia, Diana Rigg’s style, the strong woman, saving her granddaughter from the revolution, living in Paris, her death? Tradition and belief in arranged marriages? Not having a career as a dancer? The scenes with Clayton? Her repentance on her deathbed?

7.Axelle, the shop, fashions?

8.The range of characters in Russia, in Paris, in New York? In the business world?

9.Popular ingredients – with the touch of the predictables? But entertaining nonetheless?