Did anyone else think that it was unfair of Boris to expect Veronika to be at the sending away considering that he had only given her a few moments notice and was unclear that he was indeed leaving before her birthday?
Just wondering what any one else thinks about this.
Thanks.
Let me guess...are you female? From a male perspective, if Veronika intentionally stood him up before he left for war, then Boris would have been right. That is messed up...how petty it would have been of her! The two were in love. The scene is ever more tragic, though, because she was just too late. Man i cried three times watching that movie (in class!! but so was everyone else)
shareI think he gave her a days notice, and while he expected her to be their(who wouldn't hope that their love would come to send them off, he had a hope that she would come and that they could find each other through the crowd, but it didn't happen, but I don't think he ever held it against her, heck he even carried her picture around with him.
The only part I didn't understand is why Veronika married Mark. Did Mark rape her? Did she think that she would be pregnant so she married him, or did he take her innocence, and therefore she felt that she was tainted and Boris would no longer have her? Because its obvious that she never cared for him, she didn't even have a moment of weakness, I think she was raped. Only once did she get jealous of his philandering, which is understandable, because even if she didn't like him, he was still her husband.
This is all what my Russian friend has told me, but apparently if you've seen the play he definitely raped her, and she had no choice but to marry him... the culture of the times?
I liked it better when I watched it and assumed he didn't rape her though
Well I'm a Russian and I absolutely can't provide you with a definite explanation of the reasons of Belka's behavior. Perhaps premarital sex and adultery in 1941's Russia were less acceptable then they are now but I assure you that nobody saw them as a kind of deadly sins ought to be covered by marriage.
Seemingly film creators deliberately left the answer to imagination of the viewer (regardless of his nationality). It should be noted that in the original play the key subject scenes (the one with night bombardment and grand piano and presumable rape and the one with official announcement of the couple's decision to marry) are completely absent.
I guess the tragic decision is related somehow to the utter emotional frustration of a merry sensitive teenager suddenly transformed into a homeless unprotected orphan. Belka literally was on a verge of madness and under Mark's influence so her betrayal can't be judged harshly.