Russia with love DAVID GRANT KEIR ILLUSION AND escape are the themes of Letter to Brezhnev, a new film currently showing. The very title evokes an era which now seems ong past an eighteen year period when Brezhnev ruled the roost in the Soviet Union detente was the order of the day, and when Star Wars was just a film. This film deals with the attempts of two young women to find relief from their boring lives in the run-down. depressed Liverpool of the 1980s. Elaine and Teresa, having scorned the petty rivalries of their local pub and boyfriends, make for the nightlife-in Liverpool.
In need of money to finance their amorous plans (they are long-standing 'cobbing off' part ners) Teresa steals a wallet from a man who tries to chat her up in a bar. Caught red handed they high-tail it to the city's flashiest disco... with ripped-off punter and his mate in hot pur suit. In the disco they notice two Russian sailors, and Teresa, bold as brass, goes off tr chat them up. For Flaine it is love at first sigh
From here on in the film deals with the obstacles put in the way of Flaine's and Peter's romance. First they have nowhere to take their two Russian lovers. A hotel is eventually decided upon, despite the fact that this uses up the last of their ill gotten gains. Chicken factory worker by day and disco queen by night. Teresa is reluctant to 'spend all her money on men', but concedes that a night with Sergei mighi be worth it after all. is shown as being based solely on sexual attrac tion - so much so that it doesn't seem to matter that neither understands a word that the other says. But the opposite is the case for Foreign Office, have yet to be overcome. Elaine and Peter. Their love remains 'pure and unconsummated. They spend the night literally conflicts with a sharp dry. 'wishing upon a star'. Unfortunately, the film rather labours the point. Indeed, whenever it reaches a particularly romantic moment, the camera zooms skyward to show 'their star twinkling in the firmament. This even happened in one scene when it was raining. True love, it seems, has the power to dispel clouds! and a ferry across the Mersey later, it's time for Peter and Sergei to go back to the ship... and back to Russia forever. The last few minutes are agony for Elaine. In the days and weeks that follow, all she can think of is Peter.
But he is in Soviet Russia, and she is stuck in Margaret Thatcher's Britain. Who can possibly bring our star-crossed lovers back together? Teresa suggests a letter to Brezhnev. The reply from Pravda's Marge Proops contains a one International, No. C. January/February 1980
Hello sailor! strong, clearly the answer is yes. But the open hostility of her family, not to mention the to the solution that the film offers. The film returns to a high, dealing with these humour. 'Why don't you go out and play with your acne?', screams an exasperated Elaine at makes clear. She has to escape. This central message of the film is both its wornen like Elaine and Teresa is pointless and existence. monotonous. A boring combination of dole team that produced it.
international REVIEWS Thatcher, rather than an apology for Stalinism. many or France for all the difference it makes 'Escape' for Elaine is a one-way ticket into a almost vicious strictly defined heterosexual relationship with a 'Love' is something mystical that happens to people rather than all, but the definition of love it presents is a thoroughly romanticised and unreal version of One or two misgivings aside, this is an ex- the movies! If only life's problems could be solv-
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