Fervor and Tenderness

Abstract

The production of “major films” was an insistent preoccupation of Soviet cinema’s regulatory bodies both at government and at Party levels. A director regarded as particularly successful in this respect was Gleb Panfilov. His 1975 film, May I Speak?, addressed issues of personal responsibility. The balance of public and family duties, which were of enormous importance in political debates at the time the screenplay was written, and its sympathetic portrait of a leading official were reassuring to commentators at Goskino and in Party offices at various levels. Panfilov was, unlike most younger artists at Lenfilm, a member of the Party and valued his parents’ Communist principles. The argument of some post-Soviet commentators—that May I Speak? represents a veiled attack upon its protagonist, Elizaveta Uvarova—is difficult to sustain. Yet Uvarova remains an ambiguous figure, and the treatment of her is enigmatic, not least in terms of gender identities, as the discussion here shows.