User reviews

I have seen excerpts of this movie in "East Side Story", it is a beautiful musical. The musical is a rare gem. It belongs to the genre of Communist musicals. These musicals are mostly unknown in the West. That is a shame, some of them are worth watching. The problem is: where can I find this classic Romanian movie in the United States?

A film made in Romania in 1963, when the supreme commander was not yet Nicolae Ceausescu, but the heavy smoker before him, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. The country was still engulfed by the hustle and bustle of building Socialism, building and singing, singing and building... at least in movies. It's true, in real life too, it was massively built at that time, blocks, factories, public institutions, a lot of factories mostly, more of them useless. The builders of this film with action only on the seafront, in Mamaia, are 3 beautiful young women, Anna Széles, Melania Cârje and Ileana Sandu. They sing all the time "fly under the sky without clouds, the serenade of youth...", a song broadcast all the time on the radio in those years. At the same time, the 3 young women prepare the cement for a new hotel on the seafront: pure Soviet stahanovist style! A very young and beautiful Alexandru Repan will fall in love with the blonde Széles and even take her in his arms and kiss her, which is rarely seen in a Romanian film of the communist period. Many other renowned actors of that era, such as Iurie Darie, Ion Fintesteanu, Costache Antoniu, Jules Cazaban, Aurel Giurumia, Willy Ronea, Dem Radulescu, Puiu Calinescu (the natural huge comic talent, here in a tiny stupid role of a fireman), they all strive to be funny but they fail completely. The movie is a total waste of time.