Style vs. Individuality When watching this film, the modern viewer faces this problem: there is a familiar literary work, well transferred to film almost literally, there is a characteristic style of cinema of the 50s. But behind these two components, which are quite vivid, the individuality of this film is lost. Given that Nosov himself wrote the script for him, he had every right to change his stories as he wanted to adapt them for cinema. But despite this, the gluing of the two stories turned out to be very rough: only the boys could not cook themselves dinner and went to bed hungry, as they immediately show how they go home and prepare a suitcase to carry a dog in it. In 'Topinamburah', based on the same literary material, the combination of these stories by Nosov is made much more organic: the events of one story become the cause of the events of another. Here, the episode with porridge is simply inserted into action to fill the stay of children in the country with at least some adventures. Since both films are adaptations of roughly the same stories, this review will include a number of comparisons.
In itself, the style of this film is an individual thing, it may or may not like. I have not been able to find information on how happy Nosov was with the film, but since he himself was the writer of the script, it can be assumed that the film was made the way he wanted, and, most likely, his style corresponds to the aesthetics that Nosov had in mind. For the modern viewer, this aesthetic may seem too far-fetched and theatrical, resembling not a feature film, but a cartoon. It is no coincidence that Nosov’s works were often filmed precisely animated. Most likely, the specific manner of play in children is associated with this, their acting school was sharpened for the peculiarities of style. Similarly, it may be the opposite, it is this almost cartoonish style for a number of listeners will be associated with a joyful and serene childhood and be a great trump card of this film. This style fits well and the aesthetics of the realities shown in the film, for example, school uniforms with caps and buckles.
However, apart from this style, I can not name any advantages 'Friend' before ' Topinambures' There are no bright songs in this film, different stories are combined into a single action less organically, there are fewer of them, and, accordingly, there are fewer interesting events; this compensates for a number of inconsistencies in the newer film. Even the fact that the replacement of the train from the story by a steamboat first appears in this film only reduces the number of advantages of Topinamburov & #39, but is not its own advantage. This film looks not as something outstanding, but as quite good, but passing work, in which everything is professional, cute and positive, but at the same time, there are no characteristic memorable details. Not a leader, but a strong typical representative of children's cinema of the late 50s.
7 out of 10