Severnaya lyubov (1927) - A very cold, very quiet Soviet drama

You should probably only watch this if you are a die-hard fan of Soviet silent cinema or you really like Yevgeni Zamyatin’s writing. If you need a movie with a fast plot or people actually talking out loud, you will hate this within five minutes. It is a slow, cold, and very grainy experience. ❄️

I found a copy of this recently and honestly, the first thing I noticed was the snow. It looks heavy and gray, not like the fake Hollywood stuff. You can almost feel the dampness in the air through the screen.

The story is about love in the North, but it feels more like a story about waiting. There is a lot of waiting. People wait for boats, they wait for the snow to stop, and they wait for each other to say something important on a title card.

Zana Zanoni is the standout here for me. She has these incredibly dark, piercing eyes that do all the heavy lifting when the script gets a bit thin. There is a close-up of her looking out a window that feels like it lasts three minutes. It is a bit much, but also kind of beautiful if you are in the right mood.

Some of the guys in the village have the most ridiculous hats I have ever seen. One actor, I think it was Boris Litkin, wears a fur hat that is so big it almost swallows his entire head. It made me laugh in a scene that was supposed to be serious.

The pacing is very weird. It reminds me of Mishki protiv Yudenicha in how it just sort of wanders around before getting to the point. It is definitely not a movie for someone who is tired or sleepy. 🥱

I noticed a scene where a dog runs across the background and almost trips one of the actors. They just kept it in. I love little mistakes like that in old movies because it makes them feel real.

Zamyatin’s writing shows up in the way the village feels like a trap. It is not sci-fi like his book 'We', but you can feel that same sense of being stuck. The environment is basically its own character that wants to freeze everyone to death.

The lighting in the indoor scenes is pretty messy. Sometimes half a person’s face is just total darkness for no reason. It was probably just bad equipment back in 1927, but it makes the movie feel spookier than it is.

There is a lot of drinking. Every time someone sits down, a bottle appears. It makes sense because if I lived in a place that looked that cold, I would probably be drinking too. 🍶

The ending doesn't really give you a big hug or a clear answer. It just sort of... stops. It felt abrupt, like they ran out of film or the sun finally came out and they had to go home.

Overall, it is a mood piece more than a story. It’s fine, just very, very slow. Watch it with a blanket and a hot coffee.