Spring

Spring (1947) is a Soviet musical comedy to watch online on iFILM, directed by Grigory Alexandrov. Lead actress Lyubov Orlova takes on a double role: an operetta singer named Vera and a solar-energy physicist named Irina, who happen to share an uncanny resemblance.

When film director Gromov (Nikolai Cherkasov) travels to recruit the scientist for his new picture, he runs into the wrong woman first — and the confusion multiplies. Scheduled meetings, official trips and spontaneous encounters all land with the wrong person. Both women end up living each other's plans. Love, it turns out, gets sorted out anyway.

By 1947, Alexandrov and Orlova had built one of Soviet cinema's most recognizable partnerships, starting with Jolly Fellows (1934) and carrying through Circus (1936) and Volga-Volga (1938). Faina Ranevskaya plays a supporting role that reads as minor on paper, yet her few lines are among the most quoted in the film. Spring screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 1947. Watch it online on iFILM.