Working off of very old memories - no. This one was a misfire, IIRC. I usually like Blake Edwards movies, too. But obviously JohnT and I conspired with others to totally sink the film and Julie Andrews’ movie career for over a decade as part of our Capitalist Plot to somehow make sure nobody ever sees or cares about Russian cinema.
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I’ve heard of it, but never seen it. The Wikipedia entry on the film indicates that studio executives interfered with the production, and then edited it without director Blake Edwards’ input, which might have been contributing factors to a film which may have been justified in receiving poor reviews.
It also looks like Edwards was allowed to re-cut the film in the early '90s, though I don’t know how much his version has been shown.
Although the screenplay for The Americanization of Emily was written by Paddy Chayefsky, whose parents emigrated from Russia (before the revolution). So does that count as a win in the Russian-movies-are-better column?
Not a win, but maybe partial credit. 
Now I want to do a Darling Lili watch party with fellow Dopers. Can we do this via Zoom?
God no. Zoom is one sure way to ruin a movie experience, what with the lag and freezing and low quality video/audio. Maybe in 20 years when Facebook/Oculus/Meta lives up to its promises, but for now I prefer looking at the screen in person. (Even if it is sometimes a tiny screen)
~Max
Unfortunately, the present Wikipedian article isn’t a liable source, for the methodological and gnoseological aspects of Wikipedia are sure to be extremely poor. I’ve working in Wikipedia, so the Soviet Encyclopedia of Cinema is likely to be the most liable source in our discussion.
By the way, I was very taken aback that you don’t speak, and even read Russian, the easiest language in Europe. I thought that all the enlightened public of Western countries have an opportunity to speak several languages. How did you manage to read Pisarev, Sofia Kovalevskaya, Chernyshevsky, German Lopatin, and Pomyalovsky in your schooldays, in your boyhood?
lol, feel free to suggest an alternative. We could even set a date/time to start the watch party thread. Or not.
Honestly, I think “Darling Lili” is only known for somehow getting a G Rating with a striptease scene. It is like the movie was so boring that even the Board of review didn’t bother watching it through.
I’m pretty sure nothing was shown, but it probably was a movie that should have got a PG rating.
It was extremely forgettable.
OK, let us be real now. It is pretty well known most US born citizens don’t know a second language at all, never mind one in an alien alphabet. .
This cite puts Russian into the second-to-most difficult language to learn category for an English speaker:
Boyhood? Most Americans are done with this stuff by toddlerhood, if not earlier. We just no longer remember it due to the sheer quality of American products. Like when the Muppets premiered The Nutcracker to the world. Quality stuff, that!
Want some more American goodness, listen to Burl Ives narrate his original short story, Peter and The Wolf, while in front of George Szell conducting the Cleveland Symphony (1954).
First of all, its difficulty is very disputable, for cultivated Russian speech is very slow in terms of tempo, and, after all, I didn’t know that the most of Americans lack secondary education. I cannot imagine secondary education without Anne Korvin-Krukovskaya-Jacquelard, or even Sofia Vasilievna Kovalevskaya.
You’re just showing that you don’t have an opportunity to speak English, without using your miserable patois, to say nothing of your secondary education.
US culture is very different from Russian Culture. The whole Cold War thing really added to that. I’m amazed you could be without knowledge of that. In the US we only really care about the US. Sad but true. I mean we like the UK culture and all but that is about it.
Our younger generation loves a lot of Japanese and South Korean stuff now. But Russia is just a minor backwater.
And always has been.
For the likes of yourself.
But of course. I can only speak for myself because I’ve never been anybody else.
I’m explaining the US-centric point of view. Russian culture has almost no impact on the US.
I am on track to graduate from a public university (in the U.S.) without ever formally learning calculus, chemistry, or physics. Different priorities over here.
~Max
You’re likely to graduate from a fake university. If the American system of education is very non-Soviet, you must go through algebra, and geometry in French, and Latin, Greek in your youth. I suspect that you didn’t go though these exams. Right?