best film: There are two possibilities to the question of Tatyana Samoylova’s best film. The Cranes Are Flying trumps Letter Never Sent but that is a phenomenal pair at the top. Both films were made at the hands of director Mikhail Kalatozov and renowned photographer Sergey Urusevskiy. Sadly, Samoylova was not a part of 1964’s I Am Cuba to collaborate for a third time with Kalatozov and Urusevskiy.
Tatyana Samoylova at just the age of twenty-three (23) here in The Cranes Are Flying
best performance: Samoylova plays Veronika in The Cranes are Flying and that is certainly her high-water mark as an actor. Samoylova is sublime in Letter Never Sent and certainly gets as much or more of the camera’s attention than her two co-leads do (Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy as Konstantin and Vasily Livanov as Andrey).
again from The Cranes Are Flying – the highlight of Samoylova’s short-lived, but spectacular career
stylistic innovations/traits: Tatyana Samoylova is a Russian actor with just seventeen (17) total film credits under her belt for her career and just two of those were in archiveable films. The two films make for a truncated resume for sure – and her The Cranes Are Flying performance is not Marie Falconetti in The Passion of Joan of Arc – but Letter Never Sent helps keep her from being a one-hit wonder.
directors worked with: Mikhail Kalatozov (2)
Letter Never Sent (1960) – Samoylova’s (playing Tanya) second time working with Mikhail Kalatozov
top five performances:
- The Cranes Are Flying
- Letter Never Sent
archiveable films
| 1957- The Cranes Are Flying |
| 1960- Letter Never Sent |
Have you seen her in the 1967 Anna Karenina? I have heard that it is one of the better adaptations of Tolstoy and she’s supposedly very good.
@Ce- I have not, and I actually haven’t heard that about this version.
Ah sorry, I had it confused with the 1965 War and Peace by Bondarchuk, which seems to be highly regarded. The former has some mixed reviews but I’m curious to see what Tatyana could do with that character nonetheless
@Ce – Ahh yes- I made the same mistake looking at her resume putting this page together.
@Drake,
A sort of strange question.
Does the magnitude of an acting performance has anything to do with body size?
Like in real life a tall, bulky person looks intimidating. If you’re casting for a role of a leader then a taller, bulkier actor will look more of a leader (you say Jean Gabin is a born leader) than a shorter actor. But do you think that the shorter actor can act that up and it depends on the overall acting prowess.
You were asking Drake but I’ll chime in. Physical appearance definitely adds to it but it’s possible for an actor who’s masterful enough to transcend that (Joe Pesci is terrifying in Goodfellas and he’s 5’3. Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone character has such a powerful aura around him and he’s 5’6) or the director can manipulate the camera to warp the physical presence of an actor (Tom Hardy is 5’9 but looks ginormous in The Dark Knight Rises because of the way Nolan frames him)
@Malith- we’re absolutely on the same page here.
To be particular, my question was with respect to Simone Signoret and Jeanne Moreau. So Moreau is an overall better actress and there’s nothing Signoret can do that Moreau can’t. But Signoret has this big presence about her. What are your thoughts on that?
I’m not super familiar with Moreau’s work but Weaver’s physical presence undeniably suits her more action oriented roles. It’s a factor/advantage that Moreau just physically doesn’t have
@Malith
Weaver? Are you talking about Sigourney Weaver or Alien films? I wasn’t talking about that. They’re American films made in late 70s to 90s Moreau would be in her 50s in 1979. And a French actress.
I was talking about Simone Signoret. Films like Army of Shadows and Les Diaboliques.
You don’t need a physical presence to play a notorious femme fatale or sort of a co-leader of resistance group. Right? These are French movies suiting Moreau’s age.
I’m with Matthew here too
@M*A*S*H-Given you are a huge Jeanne Moreau fan. I have some good news for you. I think Mr.Klien(1976) will be in the archives in the next update. Here Moreau plays co-lead alongside Alain Delon. Have you actually seen it?
@MASH I saw Signoret and my brain went into auto pilot and for some reason thought of Sigourney. Weaver made sense in that context too