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I'm not fond of the 5-10 "classic" movies your college cinema class recommended. Here are some of the movies an adult Russian (I'm going to use Russian / "A citizen of the former USSR, from Poland to China" interchangeably here, as per my cultural privelege) may watch for fun, quote from, and be immensely impressed when a foreigner recognizes the reference. The USSR had a lot of good comedies, adventure films and cartoons (I'll go into those in another post). If someone decides you should start and stop your familiarity with Russian cinema at Eisenstein and Tarkovsky, they are doing you a major disservice. As far as cinema history is concerned, the very first Russian films are Battleship Potemkin / Alexander Nevskiy. But (as you may have guessed) my introduction was in fact (shockingly) facetious, and the USSR had any number of (terrible/amazing) propaganda / melodramatic films before those two. Chapaev for instance, is an awesomely melodramatic film about a legendary (as of the moment the film came out) Civil War commander (the film doesn't exactly paint a balanced portrait of said war, but few people outside the former USSR know anything about it, so here's your starting point for the Soviet view). It's also all kinds of funny - check out the tabletop strategy session for instance. Sample Song: None, but you can listen to this for the appropriate atmosphere. If you're not into cool action melodramas, you can out-hipster everyone in the afore-mentioned cinema class by introducing them to The Man with the Movie Camera which is a plot free collection of shots from Russian urban life. Not only does it constantly make it into "the best movies of blah blah blah" lists, it's also a pretty interesting look at Russia in the 1920's. On the hipster note, here's a movie that aged so poorly, you can (and should) watch ironically: Earth. It's a family tragedy about the struggle for Collectivization in a small village. But thanks to the peculiar silent cinema acting style and the way the background flows in and out, it periodically turns into a horror film / particularly trippy music video. 'k, in retrospect there's really very little worthwhile in the black and white period. (This is the one strict timeline I'll keep to in this post, so you best appreciate it, as I'll be jumping around wildly in the following descriptions) Let's move on to some genuinely good movies. Here's a (moderately) interesting fact - the USSR wasn't big on musicals proper (or at least I can't remember any musicals offhand) but it was very fond of diegetic music. Regardless of genre, like 90% of the movies in this post have at least 3-4 notable musical interludes performed by the characters themselves. They're (mostly) quite good and/or memorable. Just thought that's worth mentioning at some point, and this seemed as good a point as any. The Twelve Chairs - pick a version, or better yet watch both. The Twelve Chairs is basically Russia's Confederacy of Dunces, except it's immensely popular, there's a superior sequel and (as you may have noticed from the previous sequence) a number of successful adaptations. If you can memorize the (immense) quote section (if only for the adaptations, the books have a few pearls that weren't quite cinematic enough) you pass for a Russian emigre's relative in some sort of wacky hijinks scenario inspired by the films, I'm sure. Please don't watch the Mel Brooks version, it's absolutely terrible. Sample songs - only one version has them, and I'm not to fond of Mironov's interpretation of the character, in part because of said songs. White Sun of the Desert. This was mentioned in the thread before, but who cares - it's one of my favorite Westerns (Easterns), pretty much up there with Leone's stuff. I occasionally go on rants about how action movies would be much better with "established power levels" (in nerd speak) - heroes whose fighting ability dictates the plot rather than the other way around (just to be absolutely clear - "the other way around" means that the hero can takes on as many baddies as the plot throws at him). This movie and The Seven Samurai are my main exhibits - most of the plots concerns the hero trying to implement a plan that would allow him to take down the bandits without attacking them head-on, and it is awesome. Sample song: Well, there's only one option here, isn't there? At Home Among The Strangers, a Stranger Among Friends: The other legendary Eastern - I actually prefer it The White Desert Sun, even though it's less thoughtful and plot logic often steps aside in favor of action sequence and convenient coincidences. Nikita Mikhalkov is a huge (HUGE) piece of poo poo, but man could he direct a I kinda tried to avoid stereotypical "man, Russian art is so bleak" choices in this post (you may notice it is entirely devoid of WWII films, even though there are a few I'm fond of) - but I have to include White Bim Black Ear. It's about a man and his dog, and it's just a tad manipulative (I'm reminded of Jerome K Jerome's / Heinlein's Christmas Kitten every time) but I'll be damned if I don't cry my eyes out right on cue. Everything made by Gaidai, 1965-1973 (1992). Operation Y, Кавказская пленница, Бриллиантовая рука, Ivan Vassilyevich Changes Occupation(s) and The Twelve Chairs (see above). All of these are absolutely bloody brilliant. Gaidai is the Russian comedy director to this very day (if that doesn't impress you, consider how many 60's comedies you're familiar with, much less still find gut-bustingly funny). Importantly, even though you can easily find subtitled versions of the above films, much of the humor is physical (if not necessarily slapstick) and you can watch them without being distracted by subtitles (if you're the sort of uneducated American savage who finds subtitles distracting, *sniff*) Samples songs: Operation Y, Кавказская пленница, Бриллиантовая рука, Ivan Vassilyevich Changes Occupation. Georgiy Daneliya is the second best comedy director ever (though to be fair, he was a master of the sentimental dramedy rather than outright comedies):Gentlemen of Fortune (a kindly kindergarten teacher happens to be the exact double of a dangerous criminal, and is asked to gain the trust of said criminals imprisoned comrades in other to locate a hidden art collection - hijinks ensue), The Autumn Marathon (EN in a nutshell), Kin-dza-dza - (Soviet rust-punk sci-fi satire) and others, all fairly decent. The theme for Gentlemen of Fortune works, I guess, The Autumn Marathon has one of my favorite themes ever, Kin-dza-dza doesn't really have much in the way of music so I'll compensate with Mimino The third Russian director you should know (forget about Eisenstein for the purposes of this sentence) is Eldar Ryazanov (I actually gave several of his films full paragraphs of their own before deciding I should point out the director):Carnival Night is, like, the second most Christmasy (or rather New Yearsy) in Soviet cinema history. A group of young entertainer's struggles to make the New Years night ball at their club properly festive rather than propogandishly-boring. The movie is charmingly earnest , (some of) the musical numbers still work exceedingly well and the comedy is broad but memorable. The Hussar Ballad - An adventure comedy. A tomboy pretends to be a Hussar and runs off to the front lines of the Napoleonic wars. Based on a play which in turn was based on a story that was based on true events, it's a bit like an exceptionally good Errol Flynn film / Sabatini novel in a Russian setting. The Irony of Fate - Seriously, when I wrote Carnival Night's description, I completely forgot that THE (THE) Russian New Year's movie was made by the same director. After a wild farewell party for a different friend, dead drunk (yes yes, absolutely what you would expect from a Russian comedy) Zhenya ends up in an identical address to his own in an identical building and apartment - in a different city. Much to the surprise of the female owner of said apartment, currently engaged to etc etc etc, blah blah blah. I'm honestly not that fond of the movie (much like how I hate It's a Wonderful Life) but you pretty much need to see this - I can't overemphasize just how much this is THEEEEEEEE Christmas movie in Russia. (Maybe check out the Indian remake). For Carnival Night, Hussar Ballad, Irony of Fate. Correction - you need to be familiar with four directors. Mark Zakharov is probably my favorite (not that I don't adore the other three). Modern / political fairytales (please don't be discouraged by "political" here - with the possible exception of "To Kill a Dragon", they deal with timeless issues rather than anything communist/anti-soviet). An ordinary miracle, The very same Munchhausen , Formula of Love, ToKillaDragon. The dialogues here are absolutely spectacular - you can quote mine these films forever and a day (ok, some strive a bit too hard to be profound - but others are absolutely prophetic). To Kill a Dragon is not on youtube, but I really recommend you make the effort of tracking it down - and remember this was all written in the 1930's / 1980's, loooong before the collapse of the Soviet Union. A Commonplace Miracle, The very same Munchhausen, Formula of Love, The Story of the Voyages: A bleak (but uplifting) fairytale about... well, voyages. Good and Evil. Ignorance and Knowledge. The sort of stuff fairytales proper should be about. This probably Mironov's best role and the ending scene is just... somewhere between   and bitter tears.Sample Song: Wait, I kinda included my favorite song on the subject in the actual description. Oh well, have the finale, complete with the most rousing theme ever. Edit - Hell. Though this post is by no means comprehensive, now that I mentioned being a Mironov fan, I notice that I forgot to include two of his best roles: A Man from the Boulevard des Capucines - One man's quest to bring the magic of cinema to the Wild West, complete with an obvious moral. Watch if only to see where all the bar fight scenes were ripped from (Trinity. The answer is Trinity Sample song: here. Достояние республики - An art robbery in St Petersburg turns into a series of adventures / chases scenes across Civil-War torn Russia. Simple though it is,two of my favorite Mironov songs are in this movie though. The Heart of a Dog - Never mind The Master and Margarita - This is THE Bulgakov book and THE Bulgakov adaptation. The story of a dog who became a main without gaining much of anything by that transformation. It's a bit overtly political, but tolerably so Charley's Aunt I'm presuming we're all familiar with the classic play and film based upon it? That's right, absolutely no one cares (nor should, both really don't work anymore). What we have here is a classic 1920's comedy (complete with obligatory crossdressing disguises, Three's Company misunderstandings and mindless slapstick) ran through the filter of Russian (mis)understanding of proper English gentlemanly behavior, and turned up to 11. Thousand. It should in no way work, being way over the top of the top, yet the result is absolutely hilarious. Sample Song: This and only this. The Three Musketeers. There are a number of Russian adaptations of literary masterworks that I would argue are objectively better than the best known Western adaptations (Sherlock Holmes, The Jungle Book). This... is not one of them. Everyone are (obviously) 10-20 years older than they should be, the fighting choreography is theatrical (at best) and not exceptionally inventive, and overall I'd say that this version sticks to the novels a bit more than it should, even if other adaptations whirl off into a steampunk/kung-fu abyss (who gives a poo poo about the siege of La Rouchelle, seriously?). But... I dunno, I like it. It's well worth checking out (the sequels, a bit less so). Properly covered in a post below this one. I'm rather fond of this song though. The Guard De Marine trilogy is basically a follow up to the Musketeer thing (up to and including casting D'Artagnan's actor as the main antagonist in the first movie, which I thought was fairly cute), only in (17th century) Russia. Rapier duels, cloak and dagger adventures, forbidden love etc. When I was, like, 12, this was one of the most amazing movies ever. Otherwise, see above about the Musketeer trilogy. Sample songs: Oh, these are definitely the best thing about this particular series. The Meeting Place Cannot be Changed - THE Russian detective series. I often use this as an example when talking about how hard it is to adapt a literary work without any significant cuts - a 200 page novel turned into a a seven hour series. Both the book and the series were extremely well researched. A lot of the movies / series I recommended in this post are good to great only in particular scenes. I'll skip certain scenes even in the best of them - but not in The Meeting Place, because each scene is so drat well done (and the cast just about rivals Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet). I love The Wire, but if I had to choose one or the other... well, Vysotsky has more charisma in his little finger than The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson - See above about adaptations. This is (absolutely objectively, naturally) the best adaptation thereof. When was the last time you saw a Watson who wasn't depicted as a blithering nincompoop? (Well, when was the last time presuming you stop around 2005) Or a Holmes who's intelligent without being a TV supergenius, tends to troll people without being an utter rear end about it, and can straighten out a bent fire poker without going all Neo about it? Sample Song: The main overture, obviously. The Elusive Avengers - The Hasamba-like (I'm not making any allegations, mind) adventures of a group of teenagers facing off against White bandits during the civil war. Sample songs: The main theme, the Gypsy Song, Russian Field Goodbye Mary Poppins. See above re: my feelings about Russian adaptations of various world literature. I'm saving my favorite movie songs for a separate post, but I seriously love the ending song here. Xander77 has a new favorite as of 02:34 on Oct 28, 2014 |
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Dec 3, 2013 18:06
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advokat posted:The musical numbers (and music in general) are what always sold me on it. I won't steal Xander's bread by expounding on them as it's likely he intends to cover this in his next post, but I really can't think about the Three Musketeers without hearing those songs and that music in my head. 
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Dec 3, 2013 21:43
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I threw some sample songs into my post above.
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Dec 4, 2013 08:19
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advokat posted:I think you forgot to link the duelist's song under Treasure of the Republic. (I mean, what else could it be? Samovar posted:Does somebody have aversion of that 'The Meeting Place Cannot be Changed' show? From the sounds of it, I would like it know more, but my Russian is non-existent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDlm84gSRv4
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Dec 4, 2013 18:09
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Next up: Russian cartoons. Unlike the usual 5 recommended movie classics, chances are that the only thing you've ever heard about cartoons between France and China is this. If so, remember that Matt Groening is an rear end in a top hat who never saw a single Second World cartoon, and prepare for this: Click here for the full 1844x1224 image (Except not really, because we know that Soviet cartoons were all about peace and love) (Ok, with certain exceptions, such as the following) The Tale of Malchish Kibalchish and Malchish Plokhish (Kibalish the Kid and the appropriately named Baddie the Kid). During the course of the Civil War the kids of a small village go off to fight the damned bourgeoisie invasion (the same invasion the already defeated their fathers and brothers). They need only stand for a day and hold on for the night before the glorious Red Army comes to their rescue. But Baddie the kid and his lust for the traitors reward - a barrel of jam and crate full of cookies - will not let them triumph so easily. I doubt this is anyone's favorite cartoon, but it's still a major part of the cultural lexicon. (Someone doing a survey of 20th century Russian lit can talk about Marshak, the author of the original children's book). Karlsson-on-the-Roof: Here's something you may or may not have ever thought about - the Iron Curtain separated the Second World from First World countries sympathetic to the United States - but that didn't mean every First World country, or even every such country in Europe. Russia always had a bit of a cultural connection with France, but that was mostly about imported films (Jean Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon are still household names in Russia) rather than cartoons (I think even the awesome Once Upon a Time series never made it to Russian television. Like, you can see how American television would have trouble with that [*contemptuous sniff*] but...). Anyways, the other odd cultural connection was with the Scandinavian area. There was quite a lot of cultural exchange - Mio My Mio, Pippi Longstockings, The Moomins, and this, the simple tale of a lonely boy and his new found seemingly imaginary egoistic flying friend. On another note, Russian star actors were considered proletarians like any others, and thus were expected to stick to productive schedules - making films, touring with their theater companies and voicing cartoons. This means the voicework quality was star-studded, well cast and highly professional. In this case, Karlsson is voiced by Vasiliy Livanov - Sherlock Holmes from my previous post, and he adds a lot of charm to a character who （as written) is fairly annoying. Vinni Pukh on the other hand was dubbed by Evgeniy Leonov, of whom I believe advokat has a few things to say. I cannot objectively evaluate this cartoon - that's my childhood right there. The Disney version may be more faithful to the original (for once), and the Russian version may lack Kenga and Tigger (which is a genuine shame) but I will contend that there was never a better Eeyore than the one voiced by Garin. Maugli / The Jungle Book (now subtitled) - Now this is unquestionably the superior adaptation. Where else are you going to see Kaa face off the Banderlogs? Or the battle against the Red Dogs? poo poo is downright metal. Also from the same series - Rikki Tikki Tavi. The Bremen Town Musicians - Anti-establishment / hippie talking (and singing) animals in a Soviet Cartoon? More likely than you'd think. The robber trio is drawn as (but not voiced by) the antagonist trio from most of Gaidai's films. My favorite songs would have to be the rock group parody and this which I find genuinely touching and one of my favorite songs in general. Someone noted that heroes have a bit of an anime bishonen aesthetic - was that a thing in 1970? Nu Pogodi! Mentioned in the thread before, this is often billed as the Russian Tom and Jerry. It's not quite as well animated or quite as inventive in terms of violence (Russian cartoons being kinder and gentler and all that rot - though to be honest, though the Rabbit never torments the Wolf for the sheer fun of it, he's quite capable of harsh self defense). One notable difference is that, being anthropomorphized, the Rabbit is a pioneer role-model, while the Wolf quite the anti-social element (and occasionally very charming because of that very fact) Hedgehog in the Fog - To be honest, I neither get nor particularly like this cartoon. But it always get brought up during discussions of Russian animation, particularly now that it won some "best film EVAR" award at a Japanese film festival, which obviously means that the Japanese have acknowledged the inferiority of their own cartoons etc etc, see below:  Click here for the full 659x950 image ( The book is better anyways.) The Light Blue Pup - The adventures of a lonely pup ostracized due to being a horrifying Charlie Chaplin / Dog mix abomination against nature. Notable due to the absolutely excellent Cat and Pirate duet (Mironov was born to voice cartoon cats) and... because "Goluboy / Light blue" is the current Russian slang term for homosexual. So pretty much all current discussions of the cartoon devolve into Cracked style "omg, can you believe they called that character 'The Gay Blade'? Gay, get it? Gay! Holy poo poo, what were they thinking?" (I'll admit that "You're light blue, so light blue, we don't want to play with you" and the likes is... strangely apropos.) Leopold the Cat - The go-to example as far as pacifism and kindness in Soviet cartoons are concerned. The intelligent and peace-loving vegetarian (nancy boy) Leopold is constantly bothered by two functionally-retarded and vindictive rats - but he just wants everyone to get along. To be honest, this cartoon is (more than) a bit rubbish, but it's (apparently) a good argument for the obvious moral superiority of USSR culture etc. 38 Parrots - That fukken voice-work  This is entirely character banter-based, with the plot being nothing more than an excuse. The first cartoon deals with ideas re: measuring the pythons length (in parrots, monkeys and elephants) and the other plots are just as inconsequential. Prostokvashino (Distracting subtitles version): Are you tired of me fanboying the voice acting in these? Uncle Fedyor is like the one cartoon child character I can listen to without wincing, and I still have a crush on Dad, just due to his voice acting. The plot is about a pet loving kid running away in order to start a household in the country with his new cat and dog. It is awesome. I'll call this post part one - part 2 will be coming tomorrow (with any luck) Xander77 has a new favorite as of 18:05 on Dec 6, 2013 |
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Dec 4, 2013 21:50
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In between posts proper, a ray of hatred at the Lenfilm youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/LenfilmVideo/videos The most garrishly painted yet generic "faces on a background" posters for films that really deserve better. You have to actively work towards making your product as unappealing as possible.
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Dec 4, 2013 22:30
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Grand Prize Winner posted:I think I mentioned this in jest a little while back, but what was happening in the Soviet arts as the whole USSR crumbled in the early '90s? In the literary world, the floodgates were opened and the market was drown in tons of Akunin etc have shown that you can still write decent detective stories in modern day Russia, and organized crime isn't quite as enticing a theme as it used to be, but the flood of poo poo sci-fi and fantasy continues unabated:  Click here for the full 804x1942 image And will carry on for the foreseeable future. (Accidental time traveler stories form a peculiar sub-genre of Russian sci-fi. For some reason the notion of changing Russian history and averting the terrible disaster that is the collapse of the Russian Empire / USSR / Mongolian Igo by an ordinary time-traveling martial arts student / special forces agent / Codename WOTYOULOOKINGATMATEILLCUTYOUSWEARONMEMUM seems inexplicably popular).
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Dec 5, 2013 06:58
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Part 2 of the essential Russian cartoons compilation - miscellaneous. First of all, I'll quote a post wholesale because  (also because it's a good post):Present posted:You want more Soviet cultural highlights? Have some more mind-blowing and awesome subtitled cartoons! There Once Was a Dog: Based on a Ukranian folk tale. An old dog is kicked out into the forest due to his lackluster guard-dog abilities, and must team up with his old enemy, the wolf. The wolf is voiced by Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, an extremely prolific and charismatic actor, which gives the wolf his own unique brand of charm. The Adventures of Mother for Little Mammoth: An unfrozen mammoth goes searching for his mum. A bit overtly kiddy (those saccharine voices...) but the song is absolutely excellent (and the cartoon is built around it). Contact: Another simple cartoon based around a song. Interplanetary communication through song (or rather, the Godfather theme). Cheburashka and Crocodile Gena: You've seen Cheburashka before:  . This huge-eared critter is one of the better known Russian cartoon characters (ridiculously cute by design as he was). Sample song: Gotta be this - I had the words memorized (as did every other Russian child) long before I ever saw the cartoon. The Other Side of the Moon: The spectrum between loneliness and too much company, as portrayed by Georgian Goal! Goal!: The humble and hardworking hometown hockey team faces off against the elitist and spoiled rivals. Any references to real events are fully intentional. There are also sequels that deal with football and boxing. Part 3 to follow.
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Dec 5, 2013 15:08
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The Play-Dough Crow: As the narrator starts the old Krylov fairytale of the Crow and the Fox, things get a bit improvisational. What if instead of the regular fable, a cow climbs up a palm tree and decides to contend with the street cleaner? Another song people generally know by heart. Wings, Feet and Tails: A buzzard decides to teach an ostrich how to fly. The results are unexpected. The Lion Cub and the Turtle: A lion cub hangs out with a particularly chill turtle. [The adventures of:] Captain Vrungel: In the style of Treasure Island (see my previous post for details) (I think that all five of these are from the same creators and voice actors?), based on book. Captain Vrungel decides to participate in a round-the-world yacht race. Smugglers get involved, hijinks ensue. Sample song: We're banditos, obviously. Funtik the Piglet: The talking piglet Funtik escapes from the circus with the help of a kindly magician. The crooked circus owner, crooked police and crooked crooks give chase. Baron Munchausen: (Sadly I couldn't find a find a single compilation, never mind subtitles): The Baron Munchausen swears by his tricorne that riding a cannonball, pulling yourself out of a swamp by your hair and defeating a stereotypical genie is entirely possible as long as you never give up. Doctor Aibolit: Animal doctor Sample song: Never go to Africa, kids. (Or you'll get eaten) [/The adventures of] The Investigation is Held by the Kolobki: An absurdist take on the detective genre (The title itself is a parody of the long-running "The investigation is led by experts"). A pair of Private Investigators / odd brothers investigate the theft of a zoo elephant that happened to land on their roof. Pif Paf Oy Oy Oy: Supposing you were to put a simple children's poem on the stage? Five different genre variants are suggested. (Jesus Christ Superstar is my favorite) Polygon / The Firing Range: You've seen this mentioned in the thread before. The simple tale of a boy and his mind reading tank. Wow, a Talking Fish: About how you Deep Blue Sea, Light White Foam: (A sequel to the above) Dealing with genies the old fashioned way - but with a musical interlude by Angelina Jolie!Fish. How the Cossacks: Did all kinds of poo poo. The cossacks play football, meet the musketeers, save the original Olympic games from the wrath of Ares etc. (Living in an abstracted cartoon time period has its advantages) At the back desk: One of the better "educational" cartoons as it basically let loose with a barrage of random facts in order to play around with perspective, effects and plain slapstick, as the drawn caricature of the class near-do-well races across the pages of the valedictorians notepad. The Adventures of House Elf Kuzya: Ivashka of Pioneer's Hall: Baba Yaga learns that modern pioneers are far more prepared and harder to consume than medieval peasants. Baba Yaga Versus: (the 1980's Olympics mascot). I'm particularly fond of the electronic soundtrack for this one. Xander77 has a new favorite as of 02:48 on Oct 28, 2014 |
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Dec 5, 2013 18:36
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I wanted to do another post about perestroika cinema, contrasting it with Soviet movies from the previous details, but apparently I almost killed the thread with my last few posts, so maybe not. Should I change formats a bit, abbreviate things, or did the topic just reach the end of its natural lifespan regardless?
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Dec 8, 2013 15:51
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An anecdote stolen from... somewhere or another: "Once upon a time, there was an old tyrant. He wanted to immortalize himself in portrait form, and called for well known painters to come from around the kingdom. The first to come painted the tyrant as he truly was - a hunchbacked, one-eyed deformed man. "This may be true, but it is not beautiful", said the tyrant, and ordered the painter executed. That was the death of realism. The second painter composed a portrait of the tyrant as he was in his youth - a slender straight backed youth with a faced unmarred by battle scars. "Beautiful, yet false", decreed the tyrant, and soon another talented head dropped into a basket. That was the death of romanticism. The third (brave) painter came to an original solution: He painted the tyrant riding a horse, with a cape that covered his back and a waving flag obscuring the less flattering bits of his face. The tyrant was pleased enough to make said painter the Minister of Arts, and thus was born Social Realism. " And up until the mid/late 80's that was the prevailing form of art in the Soviet Union. Yes, there are (still) certain issues, but we must, will and shall overcome each and every one of them, and build communism by [30 years from now]. "Life is getting better, life is growing more joyful" (a certain Joe Steel). Emphasize the positive, minimize the negative, few if any unhappy endings (with the exception of WWII films, where reality was just too harsh for happy endings proper) etc etc. All that changed once the Perestroika came along. Perestroika, as I understand it, was Gorbachev's attempt to I'm not as big a fan of Perestroika movies (which is a bit of a overtly broad term in general, in that tends to encompass everything between 1985 and 1995) as I am of Soviet cinema in general, so feel free to mention / review any outstanding films I never heard about. A game [in which the prize is] of millions: A rather lovely (and unjustly forgotten) comedy of errors - a naive veterinarian gets involved in a turf war between two criminal gangs who labor under the mistaken impression that our hero is in fact a master criminal. Both gangs are sponsored by corrupt officials / up and coming businessmen with absolutely obvious criminal connections. (One gang is composed of former professional [classical] musicians, which is... more or less true to life.) A maximum security comedy: In the 1970's, the inmates of a maximum security prison get to put on a theater production in honor of Lenin's centennial. They get so into their roles that they organize a genuine revolution / great escape. Weather Is Good on Deribasovskaya, It Rains Again on Brighton Beach: The CIA and KGB combine their efforts to eradicate the Shirli-Myrli. For once, wikipedia has a decent summary: "While digging in the mine Unperspective in Yakutia an unprecedentedly large diamond is found. It is christened as the Savior of Russia. Officials proclaim that the sale of the diamond could pay for every Russian citizen to take a three-year-long vacation at the Canary Islands. When the diamond is being transported to Moscow (by Antonov An-124 Ruslan) it is stolen by the crime boss Kozulskiy (Armen Dzhigarkhanyan), who is then robbed by professional thief Vasiliy Krolikov (Valeri Garkalin). For the remainder of the film, the plot revolves around Krolikov and his two [hitherto unknown] identical Multiple birth brothers [of different ethnicities, specifically a Jew and a Gypsy rights advocate] being pursued by the police and Kozulskiy's mafia." This is one of the few Post-Soviet comedies that are absolutely hilarious. The one fault I can find with the film is that there is just... too much. Both objectively (2 hours and 15 minutes is a bit long for a comedy) and subjectively (it does drag a bit). This is a movie basically made for youtube - when you watch it in 5 minute sketch bits, it seems like the best comedy of the decade. City Zero: An absurdist allegory about the collapse of the USSR taking place in a certain city which you can enter, but never leave. Can a fan put up a better summary here? I realize this movie is one of the better known perestroika films, but I never got it. A window into Paris: A mild and intelligent (a description I try not to overuse, as that's an extremely common hero type in USSR comedies) music teacher discovers that a window in his newly appointed communal apartment room leads into Paris. A take on the experiences of a new immigrant / people stuck between the new world and the old follows. Not necessarily the best of films, but it does feature an incredible episode re: nostalgia and Russian expatriates babbling about the rude materialism of Western countries. The Black Rose - An Emblem of Sorrow, The Red Rose - An Emblem of Love: One of my favorite perestroika films, and one of the few that actually features popular rock musicians (Boris Grebenshchikov <3 ) and a popular rock soundtrack in an organic manner. It's a dialog heavy melodrama that plays out almost entirely within the boundaries of a single communal apartment (with dream sequences taking place in Stalin's private quarters and on board a battleship). The dialogs are good, the soundtrack is great, the absurd touches seems appropriate rather than mindless rebellion against Social Realism standards. It works as a whole, which I can't say about a lot of perestroika films. The Needle with Victor Tsoi (one of Russia's original Rock Gods - I think there's a proper post on the last page). This is an example of a slightly less appropriate use of rock stars and rock soundtracks (Victor Tsoi as a karate avenger... eh). Tsoi plays a young rebel who starts a conflict with a group of local drug dealers who turned his girl into a junky. The soundtrack is fantastic, and the ending is... the ending is something. Sample Song: spoiler warning Cold Summer of 1953: After Stalin's death, Beria announces an amnesty for (non-political!) criminals - and a gang of newly freed gangsters decides to terrorize the nearest village. Two political prisoners - the (formerly) sullen officer and (formerly) resigned elderly intellectual decide to oppose them. A number of reviews go into something like "if you remove the political undertones and the identity of the protagonists, this is just an ordinary action movie", which to me is basically the equivalent of "once you remove the melody, this song turns into a rather indifferent poem". This is the last movie Anatoliy Papanov (another prolific actor, and the voice of the wolf in Nu Pogodi) made before his untimely death. It also has an amazing theme. I was about to write something about "Brother", but apparently that was made in 1997 and is outside the preview of this post. I also decided to leave various terrible early 90's action movies alone - there were many, they were bad, and few of them left an imprint on the cultural landscape. Xander77 has a new favorite as of 20:57 on Dec 8, 2013 |
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Dec 8, 2013 20:00
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In lighter news, re: revanchist and alternate history sci-fi poo poo:  Also, a collection of Soviet political cartoons I compiled in the Political Cartoons thread: 
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Dec 8, 2013 20:43
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Kheldragar posted:If you haven't watched Cheburashka, you have no soul. ... (Took me forever to finally figure out which song that reminded me of. Possibly because I repressed the poo poo out that particular traumatic memory.)
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Dec 9, 2013 15:50
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Kopijeger posted:Parody, not sure if it is actually Soviet or merely "post": 1. That's definitely "post" and off topic. 2. I used to think their albums were the funniest thing ever. I wonder what happened? (I stopped being 12)
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Dec 9, 2013 19:27
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Pick posted:What's your point? Disney did this with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, too. The same technique was used in Titan AE, Anastasia, and other Bluth films. Rotoscoping was even used in the French/Czech animated masterpiece Fantasic Planet.
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Dec 9, 2013 20:51
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Post N# whatever - USSR videogames. You might be surprised to learn that the USSR had videogames. You probably won't be surprised to learn they were not exactly of top quality. The most popular (possibly only?) Soviet made games were the various Nintendo Game & Watch clones made by "Electronica: Nu Pogodi Secrets of the Ocean, The Happy Cook (like half of all Electronica games had the happy/joyful prefix, including the math edutainment games and chess). A popular urban myth - when you get X points in Nu Pogodi, the game will show a previously unknown episode of the cartoon. I know next to nothing about various arcade games - As a kid living in Moscow, I had to travel far and wide as a birthday gift to get my rear end kicked in a Karate Champ clone, so I doubt they were quite as common as the second link claims, but I guess they weren't all as primitive as the first link shows. I've learned about the Russian gaming scene in the 90's mostly by watching the following youtube series: Curse of the Little Grey Elephant and Dendy Chronicles (subtitled and fairly interesting): Pirated consoles and pirated games, nulti-game hint books and 999:1 cartridges. But what I find seriously interesting (and relevant to the previous discussion of USSR media) is the infamous Russian quest. The lovely unlicensed quest is pretty much the Russian equivalent of the lovely licensed platformer. Pick any movie from my previous posts, and chances are there's a terrible adventure game (or two, or a dozen) based around nostalgic kitch, reference humor, (PG-13) drawn erotica and *faaaaarts*. Does a civil war general seem like an inappropriate subject for an adventure game? Hah. at least, five sequels, about Chapaev (not counting spin-offs specifically about Pet'ka. (To be fair, Chapev and co have been the heroes of various anecdotes from the moment the movie came out, and the games are based more that popularity than on the actual historical character) Seventeen Moments of Spring (at least two sequels, see above re: Chapaev) The Adventures of lieutenant Rzhevsky (from the Hussar Ballad) (ditto above) The Twelve Chairs (at least two sequels, nothing for the Golden Calf [thankfully] ) Sherlock Holmes: This one makes sense at least - There are a bunch of (equally terrible) Western adventure games about Holmes on Steam right now. (Suddenly) Nine Princes in Amber (12 year old Xander would have been SO disappointed) The Pilot Brothers (k, this one is not entirely terrible. The sequels, on the other hand) How the Cossacks searched for the Mona Lisa: Yeah, I think you get it. The point I'm trying to make is that nostalgic reference kitsch a-la "Stalin vs the Martians" isn't an exception, it's the rule Xander77 has a new favorite as of 11:55 on Dec 10, 2013 |
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Dec 10, 2013 11:53
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Speaking of terrible Russian sci-fi, imagine my surprise at discovering the rear end in a top hat kid from  Quite the common practice, apparently. (I really should do a survey of Soviet literature, genre or otherwise, but that would require )
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Dec 11, 2013 20:09
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Fascinating preamble - how I came up with the idea for the monumental work that is this post: At first I thought "Hell, I guess I might as well do a collection of WWII / Red Army songs". But then again, everyone knows those, so what kind of interesting twist can I come up with? I happened to run into a totally irrelevant Vladimir Fridman song, and recalled working as a waiter at one of his events, where he did a bit about waking up on his first day in the Holy Land to the sounds of the Red Army choir beneath his window - presumably having staged an invasion specifically to bring him back. His friends quickly assured him that what he thinks of as traditional Red Army songs were traditional settler / Palmach / folk songs in Israel. (Israel was, after all, built by Russians I hit a slight snag due to the fact that the Hebrew portion of the world wide web is unfortunately tiny and filled with huge gaping assholes. You wouldn't (you probably would) believe how often I encountered "this song (full and utterly irrelevant details about the song itself follow) was probably based on some Russian song. What Russian song? Like we give a gently caress." Thankfully, I encountered this useful blog: http://onegshabbat.blogspot.co.il And moved on from there in a haphazard fashion. The Blue Kerchief is one of the seminal sentimental songs of WWII. Soldiers have actually charged into battle with the cry of "For the Motherland! For Stalin! For the Handkerchief!" Or at least, that's the sort of stupid story I'm happy to repeat. אריק איינשטיין - תכול המטפחת - the Hebrew version is sung by Arik Einstein, RIP - a singer from a different sort of Israel. Bonus track - the Polish Original First and foremost - Wait for Me - Read by Sir Laurence Olivier (apparently this is still moderately popular for educated US people off to Afghanistan / Iraq etc, believe it or not). In fact, I've encountered a number of adaptations, and most just recite the poem. Arik Lavi's take is one of the few to use a tune that's specific to the song: אריק לביא - את חכי לי ואחזור. The original: Константин Михайлович Симонов -- Жди меня и я вернусь A lost and recently rediscovered 70's song: שוקולד מנטה מסטיק - שלום עירי נוחמה . Muslim Magomaev's version: Вечер на рейде - Муслим Магомаев Certain popular pop songs (is that redundant?) were "smuggled" into Israel and positioned as containing dissident subtext: שונרא- תמי ספיבק- הלוך הלכה החבריא . I'm not sure if this swing band would agree: Чёрный кот. The klezmer version works surprisingly well: Klezmania: Di Shvartse Kats A song may count itself lucky to be intentionally misrepresented. Some may fall into the hands of people who don't actually speak Russian, and so a ballad of two comrades separated by space and time: Товарищ мой would turn into a melancholy description of cranes in flight: העגורים - הגבעטרון (Never mind that there's a lovely song about actual (metaphorical) cranes from the time: Марк Бернес. Журавли that no one bothered to adapt) Oh poo poo, I forgot to mention Volga Volga (among others) in my movie list. Shame, because it's pretty good: Волга-Волга Молодежная. Gevarton version: שמלתך השזורה - הגבעטרון (How does the Gevatron not have an English wiki page or something? They're kinda an important... relic). Someone decided that the drumming bits of Полюшко-поле are close enough to horses charging to make it into a cavalry song חיל פרשים אנו - חנה אהרוני (you all remember the fabled exploits of such ... Hmmmmm. Here's an interesting travel story of a song going backwards (and sideways and every which way): The traditional Jewish melody Kuma Echa made it into a USSR propaganda film Искатели счастья about a Jewish family finding a home in Birobidzhan. And THAT version was used to introduce the Russian antagonists in the latest (and, hopefully, last) (and definitely least) Indiana Jones movie. The world works in mysterious ways. The black and white version of The Children of Captain Grant has this little comic number. Eduard Hill (yes, the trololo guy) covered it, and it's iconic enough to feature in Russian action movies made in the 21st century. Shlomo Artzi made a serious cover, while Uri Zohar made a comic one (the man had a sense of humor back when he wasn't brainwashed) Смуглянка-молдаванка נעורי זהר=הגבעטרון Прощание славянки בין גבולות Another song with an interesting history - from a White army song to a Red Army song По долинам и по взгорьям to the (unofficial) Palmach anthem המנון הפלמ"ח המקורי A surprisingly Gaelic-influenced Hebrew take on a simple Russian song: Black Velvet - Rehov aroch קטיפה שחורה - רחוב ארוך . The original: Ах улица, улица широкая These aren't (as far as I can tell) songs that were adapted into Israeli folklore back in the day, but rather modern translations done just for kicks. Still, a song about three tank-driving friends dealing with a Japanese invasion works unexpectedly well in Hebrew: Три танкиста שלושת הטנקיסטים The Aurora Cruiser fired to signal the start of the (second) 1917 Revolution - and the USSR / Russian regime has made drat sure to guard it night and day every since to make sure it never has a chance to do so again (or so goes the common subversive joke). The Hebrew version doesn't change much: Крейсер "Аврора" / Cruiser 'Aurora' אברורה And of course, how can I leave this post without a Hebrew version of Murka: Murka מורקה Full list here: https://archive.org/details/Russian_Songs_Translated_to_Hebrew (This song and following one are only marginally connected to the "Israel" theme, but who cares) Soldiers in Budyonny's army Марш Будённого are suddenly converted into soldiers in the army of On the other hand, taking this Ilya Alekseevich Shatrov - "On The Hills Of Manchuria" lovely waltz to tell the story of an alleged general who bloody well freed Berlin only to realize that the common soldier in heaven's army is far superior to all his worldly glory, as well as smarter, more moral and more useful: הגנרל - אברהם פריד (who then proceeds to toss all his medals aside!)... well, I generally wish only the worst of ills to various scum, and my idle wish for the composer of this song to meet one such general in his prime is merely internally consistent. Xander77 has a new favorite as of 18:35 on Dec 18, 2013 |
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Dec 18, 2013 13:03
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Ensign Expendable posted:Two pretty sweet posters I came across the other day.
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Dec 18, 2013 18:52
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Oh hey, this is still around. I kinda want to do a big effort post, if only to keep postponing my seminar paper, but I have no idea what to write about (which is also a problem in a different area)
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Jun 3, 2014 22:20
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I kinda wanted to do and overview of Khrushchev's "faggots", but that would require far better knowledge of modern art than I possess. Instead... let's get some suggestions of Subtitle Free Entertainment up in this thread? A lot of the movies / cartoons / whatever suggested here require knowledge of Russian / the ability to read subtitles (two things no self-respecting Yankee will ever consent to). What about USSR films / stuff / whatever-you-get-my-point, that don't require you to speak the lingo? By all rights I should mention the silent films that opened my first post in this thread, but... seriously, I haven't watched them (because I'm a total hipster scumbag) and you probably won't either (unless you already have for film class or something). The last two parts of Operation Y (30 minutes and 1 hour in, respectively) work rather well as silent comedy bits (the intro of the last part does involve a bit a plot setup via dialog - a corrupt store manager tries to cover up his peculation by staging a burglary - but after that, the action starts and there's not much need to follow what's being said) Also... wow, I ran out of live action stuff really fast. Anything by Maski Show, I guess, but that's post-Soviet. Hope other contributors can suggest more. The other side of the moon The spectrum between loneliness and too much company, as portrayed by Caucasian stereotypes. Goal! Goal!: The humble and hardworking hometown hockey team faces off against the elitist and spoiled rivals. Any references to real events are fully intentional. There are also sequels that deal with football and boxing. Xander77 has a new favorite as of 18:59 on Jun 12, 2014 |
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Jun 12, 2014 18:56
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