Stalingrad
About Stalingrad
Fifteen front-line cameramen follow the battle from the city still intact, the Red October plant and the tractor factory, through bombing, street fighting, and the crossing of the Volga, to the link-up of the fronts, German prisoners, and Field Marshal Paulus. The film closes with a rally and march on the Square of the Fallen Fighters. Yuri Levitan reads a commentary by Vasily Grossman.
Cast & crew
More about Stalingrad
Leonid Varlamov directed. He and Alexander Kuznetsov wrote the shooting plan. Kuznetsov, put in charge of the newsreel group in September 1942, ran fifteen cameramen on the Stalingrad and Don fronts. The last shots were made in the first days of February 1943. Russian accounts say the film reached Soviet screens the next month. English Wikipedia dates a release to 14 May 1943. The dedication calls it a documentary of one page of the war against the German invaders.
Themes
Background
Varlamov and Ilya Kopalin had made the feature documentary Moscow Strikes Back in 1942. The Stalingrad film uses that model on a battle fought inside a city.
Making
Boris Shadronov filmed the city from the air in daylight, in view of the German lines, with Yuzef Rogozovsky. Abram Krichevsky later said that once he was in the city he dropped the heavy cases so he could move in the street fighting.
Look
Fifteen newsreel cameramen shot the battle from the intact city through the street fighting to Paulus's surrender. Aerial views were made in daylight.
Music
Boris Mokrousov composed the score. Yuri Levitan reads Vasily Grossman's text. Vasily Lebedev-Kumach wrote the song.
Notes
- The U.S. release is titled The City That Stopped Hitler: Heroic Stalingrad, with Brian Donlevy narrating and John Wexley among the writers. That cut is listed at about 78 minutes.
- Vasily Lebedev-Kumach wrote the song lyric. Boris Mokrousov is the composer on the Russian credits.
- Colonel-General Andrei Yeryomenko and Nikita Khrushchev are on screen as front command.
- Kuznetsov issued the last 300 meters of reserved stock so the undamaged city could be filmed.
- Cameramen on the Russian credits include Valentin Orlyankin, Avenir Sofyin, Boris Vakar, Abram Krichevsky, Mikhail Poselsky, and Boris Shadronov.
Scenes
- German aircraft bomb the city and workers' detachments form.
- Soviet troops cross the Volga under fire.
- Paulus is shown among the captured German generals.
- A rally fills the Square of the Fallen Fighters.
Influenced by
- Moscow Strikes Back (1942)
