Music and Movie contest. Stilyagi - review by @papi.mati

Stilyagi

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I love musicals and I have plenty of them on my "favorite movies list". I adore "Hair" with its hippie atmosphere, I love "Jesus Christ Superstar" for mastering the songs, I could listen to "Chicago" every single day and I enjoy "Cabaret" with its thrilling message. As I am writing in the Steem-BRU community though, I have decided to make my publication about the musical from Russia.

One of the movies which I fell in love with was "Stilyagi". Even though the story is quite simple and kept in the comedy style, we can learn a lot from it. Before I watched it for the first time, I had no idea what "Stilyagi" means and I assume many of you don't know that as well, so let me explain:

_{American wife - song from the musical}

Stilyagi was the subculture from the Soviet Union, which was the most popular from the 1940s to the 1960s. That was the group of people, mostly young, who were fascinated with the Western world, which, obviously, during communism was prohibited. Stilyagi was fashion-oriented. They were wearing very colorful clothes, smuggled from the west or due to lack of possibilities to buy them, made on their own. If you are imagining American dresses while I am describing their clothes, you are wrong. The fashion was maximized to the caricatural extreme, so even though most of Stilyagi were assuming they look like US citizens, they had their own style, which was not present in any other place around the world.

_{The most powerful song from the musical. Each time I listen to it, I have a gooseskin}

Besides the clothes, a very important element of that subculture was in music. They enjoyed jazz, swing, boogie-woogie. Having vinyles with that kind of music was prohibited in the USSR, so they managed to record it on roentgen photos (in the mid-'50s police organized the action of massive arresting of people who had illegal records on x-ray photos their homes). The unofficial anthem of the subculture was "Chattanooga choo choo" by Benny Goodman.

Their political and moral believes were mostly counter to Soviet ideology. Even though Stilyagi were not politically active, they were denying everything that in the Soviet Union was valued and they were putting the accent on individualism and, at some point, capitalism. That was causing many repressions, which were the most visible until the mid-'50s. Group grew up so much that from 1955 repressions were not that strong anymore and it officially ended in 1957 when USRR legalized jazz.

_{Song-transformation of one of the characters}

The Movie

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The movie tells us the story of few Stilyagi friends from Moscow, with their everyday problems and joys. Even though repressions are presented in it, it is kept family-friendly, so instead of jail and violence, you can see just destroying the clothes of the youngsters and removing one of the characters from the university.

You will find there everything that you need to feel the vibe of the '50s in Moscow though - colorful clothes, jazz, x-ray records, repressions, lack of social acceptance to the subculture, anthem of Stilyagi... characters are well played and the music is stunning!

The ending may be a bit simple. All the movie is finished with the song where historical characters and modern citizens of Moscow are walking thru the street together and singing about the diversity. Sure, the message is beautiful, but it's not well made, it looks too direct.

I do love though that the essence of the movie is focused on the power of friendship. You may struggle with everyday life, you may have problems at home with your family, or at work, you may be totally excluded from society but when you join your group of friends, all that does not matter anymore. Isn't it the universal truth, no matter who we are, where and when we live?

Thank you for reading,
@papi.mati