TUMANNOST' ANDROMEDY

(vt The Andromeda Nebula; vt Andromeda the Mysterious; vt The Cloud of Andromeda)

   Film (1968). Dovzhenko Studio. Dir Eugene Sherstobytov, starring Viya Artmane, Sergei Stoliarov, Nikolai Kriukov. Screenplay Sherstobytov, Vladimir Dmitrievski, based on Tumannost' Andromedy (1958)by Ivan YEFREMOV. 85 mins, cut to 77 mins. Colour.

   A disappointingly polemical Russian adaptation of Yefremov's much better novel, TA tells of an attempt, 2000 years hence, to establish contact with an intelligent alien race living somewhere in the Andromeda Nebula. Most of the action takes place on a spaceship. The film's optimism about the future - manifest in the woodenly cheerful, healthy and uniformly handsome cast and the lack of dramatic tension of any kind (a problem not uncommon in UTOPIAN fictions) - is light years from the bleakness of later Russian sffilms such as SOLARIS (1972). The sets and special effects are good.

   PN

   See also: RUSSIA.