The Red Queen - 2015 - 6/10
AKA - Krasnaya Koroleva
Splashy, lavish drama of Soviet fashion models through the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras.
Focus is on the striking Regina Kolesnikova, premier model of the Soviet house.
Haunted by her past, she drinks, abuses drugs, falls into bleak despair, bordering on madness.
Most of the other models around her are equally messed up. Soap opera territory.
Heavy handed melodrama boasts wildly over the top acting.
Real life glamour queen Regina Zbarska, the quintessential Soviet runway model of the 50's and 60's, was internationally famous. Whispers persist she was also a secret KGB operative. If so, she had access to Western designers, politicians, ambassadors. Everyone. KGB officials have neither confirmed, nor denied those rumors.
Difficult to assess this production, which I enjoyed beginning to finish (I am a long Vogue subscriber).
As noted, the acting is broad to the point of histrionics.
Since I had seen many of the actors in other Russian movies, I wanted to blame inept directing.
On the other hand, this could well be camp homage to Douglas Sirk’s florid excesses.
Set designs are saturated Technicolor, evocative of overripe MGM musicals (there are musical numbers in Red Queen, as well). After so many grayish looking US and Euro shows, this dazzles by comparison.
The studio press release also promised an exaggerated telling of Regina Zbarska which this certainly is.
