Альпийская баллада (1965)

The soundtrack is notable, the melodic airs recall the romantic influences of Ottorino Respighi and in other passages - such as the waterfall scene - an impressionism worthy of Manuel de Falla. Being a fugitive like Ivan and escaping through the steep and inhospitable Alpine mountains is already enough of a feat without adding difficulty by carrying a fainted woman, the young and impetuous Giulia Navelli, through gorges and blizzards of pure ice. He was right from the beginning to strongly reject her following him, he even slapped her. In vain, everything, destiny had the last word. This whole story, the journey of the trip - her crying but carrying the loaf of bread and eating between them - is like the pursuit of a dream of freedom but which, unfortunately, is constantly bombarded by the unforeseen inclemencies of nature (and so on). It will happen to both of them like when we dream but the night ends in a nightmare); so even if the film had not started at the end, with Giulia's mournful letter sent to Ivan's mother to Tereshki with its blue Belarusian lakes, in any case not even the least imaginative viewer could avoid assuming that the outcome will not be rosy. . Dying of cold, dying of hunger, now Giulia bathes in the waterfalls, now they lie down in the meadow between the alpine flowers and the clear sky while another ex-convict who also had to escape and now is only almost aphasic between sounds follows them closely. guttural It is impossible to be impassive in the face of a scene of expressionist rigor like that on the mountain, the wind blowing violently and Giullia lies down asking for bread and does not get up numb with fatigue and hunger; the contrast of the black and white is amazing "what the hell, get up, you wanted to go to camp, get up!" She won't do it and, full of fury, Iván leaves her, but returns for her in less than 3 minutes to carry her in a dramatic way. In itself, Iván's limp is pronounced because he never recovered from the initial bites of the German shepherd dogs that overtook him near a stream that had just escaped from the taaller of the pogrom. IN the end, when they are chased to the chasm and only have a cliff in front of them and the Nazis below, Iván's push to Giullia saves her life and corresponds to the return at the beginning of the film.