July Rain

July Rain (Июльский дождь) is a 1967 Soviet drama film directed by Marlen Khutsiev.

Plot
July Rain is story about the rather boring life of 28-year old Lena, her mother, her longterm boyfriend Volodya and their intellectual friends - and Zhenya, the stranger she has occasional telephone conversations with since he once lent her his jacket during a heavy rain.

Cast

 * Yevgenia Uralova as Lena
 * Aleksandr Belyavsky as Volodya
 * Yuri Vizbor as Alik
 * Yevgenia Kozyreva as Lena's Mother
 * Alexander Mitta as Vladik
 * Alla Pokrovskaya as Lelya Kurikhina
 * Valentina Sharykina as Lyusya
 * Ilya Bylinkin as Zhenya (as I. Bylinkin)
 * Yuri Ilchuk as Leva

Style
Just like Khutsiev's previous film, I am Twenty, July Rain is heavily inspired by the French New Wave, with its combination of realism, subjectivity, discontinuous editing and long takes. It has also often been described as the Soviet version of an Antonioni film.

The story about Lena and her friends is interspersed with long documentary scenes from Moscow. The film can be seen as a declaration of love to Moscow and its younger generation, and was possibly Khutsiev's angry response to the heavy criticism he encountered from Nikita Khrushchev for I am Twenty and its portrayal of Soviet youth worrying about money and jobs and listening to Western music.

Although I am Twenty won a price at the Venice Film Festival, the Soviet authorities refused to send July Rain to Venice when it was invited to participate.