Masha and I watched “Scarlet Sails.” I had read it once before, and now I’ve finally seen the 1961 movie.
Summary. An 8-year-old girl in the dense forest meets a stranger. As a result of the psychological trauma from that day, she almost ends up husbandless for life, but one day a certain Grey skillfully plays out a fairy tale and takes the girl with him on a ship with sailors. The whole town is seething with jealousy that the local outcasts made it into the limelight without lifting a finger.
If I remember correctly, there is a sequel where Assol moves in with Grey and changes her name to Anasteysha, but that’s a whole different story.
Honestly, I kind of missed the moral of the movie. Like, there’s the movie “Obsession.” There the guy had a dream and he pursued it, and finally—happiness. But why do Russian and Soviet fairy tales always suggest that happiness just falls from the sky, no need to do anything, just wait and it will come? Okay, great, just wait like Assol. Do nothing, just stare at the sea.
Moreover, funnily enough, even our graduation celebration is called “Scarlet Sails.” Here we have a bunch of lazy, unfocused students graduating, why stir up childhood memories too?
Even her dad is strange. For seven years this healthy man was crafting little ships that were in steady demand until it disappeared completely (apparently, there wasn’t much demand at the start). I’m sure he hoped for the scarlet sails no less than his daughter did.
Well okay, Grey at least had seen her before his dazzling appearance! (but then, probably, it turned out she was a bit off, but that’s important for the sequel.) It seems to me, he’s the only character in the movie and the book who is resourceful and smart. The others are blockheads and lazybones.
P.S. “Assol was already five years old, and her father began to smile more and more gently, glancing at her nervous, kind little face…” – it seems to me, it all started in her childhood, didn’t it?
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 