It bugs me that I can’t remember where else I’ve seen the actor in the white jacket in Afonya.  It was some bit part in a film, just like in this one.
It was good to see another Georgi Daneliya film.  So far I’ve seen:
- I Step Through Moscow (1964)
- Afonya (1975)
- Mimino (1977)
- Autumn Marathon (1979)
- Kin-Dza-Dza (1985)
One of these is not like the other four.    The last four have good character studies and have elements of “sad comedy,” a term most often used for Autumn Marathon.   It’s pretty hard to see that in the first one. Of course there were eleven years between I Step through Moscow and Afonya. One wouldn’t expect the full range of talent from a 34-year-old director that would develop later.  But now I’m interested in watching some of the films from that period between 1964 to 1975 to look for clues as to how that talent developed.
By the time Afonya was made it was there.  Good film. I expect it will bear much re-watching. Â