Underplayed Gems

Autumn Marathon (1979)

Autumn Marathon poster
Original title
Осенний марафон
Directed by
Georgiy Daneliya
Genre
comedy drama, romance film
Country
Soviet Union
Runtime
1h 29m
Rating
7.1 of 10 from 69 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

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How it feels

A middle-aged translator in Leningrad juggles his wife, his mistress, his demanding neighbors and his coworkers. He cannot say no to anyone, which makes his life a quiet mess.

melancholicwrytenderwistfulreflectiveunderstatedgentle comedyslightly bleak

What happens

Autumn Marathon (Russian: Осенний марафон, romanized: Osenniy marafon) is a 1979 Soviet romantic comedy-drama, a winner of the 1979 Venice Film Festival, San Sebastian Film Festival and 1980 Berlin Film Festival awards in the best director and best actor categories. It was also selected as the Soviet entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 52nd Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. It starred Oleg Basilashvili as Andrei Buzykin, a married English-to-Russian translator in Leningrad who is going through a mid-life crisis and struggling to stand up for himself in his tangled relationships with his wife, mistress, neighbors, and co-workers. The cast included such notable Soviet performers as Yevgeny Leonov, Natalya Gundareva, Marina Neyolova, Borislav Brondukov, Nikolai Kryuchkov, and Galina Volchek. It was directed by Georgiy Daneliya. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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