5 ms·

There are some good Russian movies that are somewhat unknown to the Western public. For example, I wonder if any of you have seen these: Georgiy Daneliya. "Kin

by pipy 13y ago

There are some good Russian movies that are somewhat unknown to the Western public. For example, I wonder if any of you have seen these: Georgiy Daneliya. "Kin-dza-dza!" (1986) [1] Larisa Shepitko. "The Ascent" (1977) [2] Leonid Maryagin. "Public enemy - Bukharin" (1990) [3] Aleksey German. "Twenty Days Without War" (1977) [4] Aleksey German. "Khrustalyov, My Car!" (1998) [5] Stanislav Rostotskiy. "A zori zdes tikhie" (1972) [6] Mikhail Kalatozov. "True Friends" (1954) [7] Mikhail Kozakov. "Pokrov Gates" (1982) [8] Georgiy Daneliya. "Osenniy marafon" (1979) [9] Elem Klimov. "Come and See" (1985) [10] Victor Ginzburg. "Generation П" (2011) [11] Sergei Gerasimov. "The Journalist" (1967) [12] (this one is Polish) Juliusz Machulski. "Sexmission" (1984) [13] (also Polish) Krzysztof Kieslowski. "The Decalogue" (1989) [14] [1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091341/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091341/ [2] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075404/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075404/ [3] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100891/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100891/ [4] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074447/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074447/ [5] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0156701/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0156701/ [6] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068161/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068161/ [7] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047650/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047650/ [8] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083465/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083465/ [9] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079679/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079679/ [10] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091251/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091251/ [11] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0459748/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0459748/ [12] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062524/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062524/ [13] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088083/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088083/ [14] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092337/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092337/

wahnfrieden 13y ago
I just watched German's MY FRIEND, IVAN LAPSHIN a few days ago, it was excellent. Highly anticipating his final one, HARD TO BE A GOD..! I'll have to watch MY CAR soon. Sokurov (mentored by Tarkovsky) can be good, though he's quite mainstream as well. There's actually a STALKER parody by some other Russian, I forget the name.
- pipy 13y ago
  Thanks for a reply! Aleksey German is a true genius. IMO, one of the greatest directors ever lived. I've watched all of his works. "Khrustalyov, My Car!" is a true masterpiece, a film that is of great depth. But, unlike his other works, with "Khrustalyov, My Car!" you need to know quite a bit about Stalin era to feel it's completeness and integrity. There is nothing random in it. I recommend you to watch "Public enemy - Bukharin" by Leonid Maryagin. It is an amazing film, about the rise of the Stalin's terror. Sadly, it is not widely known. You might want to check out the list of historical personalities mentioned there before watching. There are some truly kafkaesque moments in it. Larisa Shepitko is also a genius. One of my greatest passions is the trilogy by Sergei Gerasimov ("The Journalist"[1], "U ozera"[2], "To Love a Person"[3] ), the ones that he has not only directed, but wrote scripts for. However, I feel that these films might appear cryptic for people that haven't lived in Soviet Union. [1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062524/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062524/ [2] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065140/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065140/ [3] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0171498/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0171498/
  - wahnfrieden 13y ago
    Anything in particular I can read / read up on to familiarize myself before watching MY CAR? Let's see, I have THE ASCENT but haven't watched it yet. Another promising director is Mikhail Kalatozov, I've been meaning to watch SOY CUBA for ages... Even though I already have an original screenprint poster of it :V Can't find anything available by Maryagin unfortunately. Wonder if there's a different spelling I should use maybe.
    - pipy 13y ago
      Tomorrow I'll write you a reply, now I'm going to bed. : - )
    - pipy 13y ago
      Well, I have thought about it and I'm really sorry that I'm unable to recommend you good English sources! As about the ones in Russian, I'd read "Russia: What Happened to it During XX Century" [1] by Yuri Semenov, which is a theoretical text about the structure of the Soviet society. Sadly, it is not available in English. Someday I will probably translate it myself. I've heard that is was translated to Chinese, but I don't know Chinese, so I can't really tell. From fiction I'd read "The Gospel of an Executioner" (Russian: "Евангелие от палача") [2] by Georgi and Arkadi Vainers [0] (Russian: Георгий Вайнер и Аркадий Вайнер). I'm not sure if it was translated, but I would certainly search for German and English translations. Before watching the movie you surely must know something about the Doctors' plot [3], the fact that the rooms and the atmosphere of the main hero's apartment was made after the apartment of Alexey German's father and, probably, that an episode when an old family friend from a foreign country get's punched in a face has had a basis in Alexey German's life. (The idea is that half of his family has fought in the Civil War on one side, and another half on the other. Delivering news from the other half living outside of the Soviet Union could have meant a death sentence for Alexey German's father and misery for all of his family. Even though an Alexey German's pro-monarchism uncle living in exile has urged his old pro-communist Western friend not to visit his brother (and, consequently, an Alexey German's father) during his stay in Moscow, he got drunk and visited him). I could make some more comments, but I'm not sure if they would do you any good and not spoil anything. To better understand the Stalin's era overall, I'd read Varlam Shalamov [4], just everything that you can lay your hands on. Tons of his books are translated to German and one to English. I don't usually read Western literature about the Stalin era because even better books are so full of bullshit. Not that I don't think that Stalin was an evil person, or that the Stalin era and Soviet Union are so mysterious that they are unfathomable to the people in the Western world. It's just that the ideological differences are still huge and the Cold War propaganda in the West IS a form of reality through which, as if it was some sort of glasses, Western people view the stuff that was going on here in USSR. The Soviet lies died when the Union fell, but the Western ones are living and well. Haha, didn't mean to make a rhyme... Just as a side note: there are some truly great and deep fiction writers that wrote about Stalin's atrocities, such as Varlam Shalamov [4], Yury Dombrovsky [5], Georgy Demidov [6], Yevgenia Ginzburg [7], etc. etc. But the most famous in the West is a mediocre, albeit convenient Alexander Solzhenitsyn that has suited the propaganda needs, hated the Soviet Union and was willing to pull various "facts" out of his ass. As a famous exiled Russian writer and a fierce anti-communist, Sergei Dovlatov [8] once said: "Communists I hate the most, but the ones that I hate even more are the anti-communists". [0] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgi_Alexandrowitsch_Wainer https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgi_Alexandrowitsch_Wainer [1] https://scepsis.net/library/id_128.html https://scepsis.net/library/id_128.html [2] http://flibusta.net/b/201844/read http://flibusta.net/b/201844/read [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctors%27_plot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctors%27_plot [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varlam_Shalamov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varlam_Shalamov [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yury_Dombrovsky https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yury_Dombrovsky [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgy_Demidov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgy_Demidov [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgenia_Ginzburg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgenia_Ginzburg [8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Dovlatov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Dovlatov
rdtsc 13y ago
Good list. Yeah, I really like Shepitko's "The Ascent". Kalatozov is really good. The Cranes Are Flying (Russian: Летят журавли) has really beautiful cinematography. Also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Cuba https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Cuba is outstanding for cinematography. You will probably not enjoy its propaganda message, and Cubans didn't like, but cinematography wise it is a beautiful film.
- pipy 13y ago
  Thanks for suggesting to watch "I Am Cuba", I definitely will. "The Cranes Are Flying" is an amazing movie, I totally agree. I think it is a great illustration of an idea that morally-strong and courageous people are the first ones to die in hard times. If you like "The Ascent", I wonder if you'd also be fond of her other movies, first of all, "Ty i ya" (1971) [1] (The film has it's fair share of problems but I find the main idea behind it really powerful). I'd also recommend you to watch movies made by her husband, Elem Klimov, at least, "Come and See" [2] and "Rasputin" [3]. As about "Come and See", for me it has a somewhat personal theme: when Nazis were exterminating the people of his village near Ula, the grandfather of my ex has survived only by chance. His mother, while holding him, has jumped into the ravine before the bullets hit them. [1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067894/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067894/ [2] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091251/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091251/ [3] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081991/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081991/
RuCrazy 13y ago
thank's for the list
- pipy 13y ago
  These were just the first that came to mind... : - ) Thanks!

by pipy 13y ago

wahnfrieden 13y ago

I just watched German's MY FRIEND, IVAN LAPSHIN a few days ago, it was excellent. Highly anticipating his final one, HARD TO BE A GOD..! I'll have to watch MY CAR soon. Sokurov (mentored by Tarkovsky) can be good, though he's quite mainstream as well. There's actually a STALKER parody by some other Russian, I forget the name.

pipy 13y ago
Thanks for a reply! Aleksey German is a true genius. IMO, one of the greatest directors ever lived. I've watched all of his works. "Khrustalyov, My Car!" is a true masterpiece, a film that is of great depth. But, unlike his other works, with "Khrustalyov, My Car!" you need to know quite a bit about Stalin era to feel it's completeness and integrity. There is nothing random in it. I recommend you to watch "Public enemy - Bukharin" by Leonid Maryagin. It is an amazing film, about the rise of the Stalin's terror. Sadly, it is not widely known. You might want to check out the list of historical personalities mentioned there before watching. There are some truly kafkaesque moments in it. Larisa Shepitko is also a genius. One of my greatest passions is the trilogy by Sergei Gerasimov ("The Journalist"[1], "U ozera"[2], "To Love a Person"[3] ), the ones that he has not only directed, but wrote scripts for. However, I feel that these films might appear cryptic for people that haven't lived in Soviet Union. [1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062524/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062524/ [2] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065140/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065140/ [3] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0171498/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0171498/
- wahnfrieden 13y ago
  Anything in particular I can read / read up on to familiarize myself before watching MY CAR? Let's see, I have THE ASCENT but haven't watched it yet. Another promising director is Mikhail Kalatozov, I've been meaning to watch SOY CUBA for ages... Even though I already have an original screenprint poster of it :V Can't find anything available by Maryagin unfortunately. Wonder if there's a different spelling I should use maybe.
  - pipy 13y ago
    Tomorrow I'll write you a reply, now I'm going to bed. : - )
  - pipy 13y ago
    Well, I have thought about it and I'm really sorry that I'm unable to recommend you good English sources! As about the ones in Russian, I'd read "Russia: What Happened to it During XX Century" [1] by Yuri Semenov, which is a theoretical text about the structure of the Soviet society. Sadly, it is not available in English. Someday I will probably translate it myself. I've heard that is was translated to Chinese, but I don't know Chinese, so I can't really tell. From fiction I'd read "The Gospel of an Executioner" (Russian: "Евангелие от палача") [2] by Georgi and Arkadi Vainers [0] (Russian: Георгий Вайнер и Аркадий Вайнер). I'm not sure if it was translated, but I would certainly search for German and English translations. Before watching the movie you surely must know something about the Doctors' plot [3], the fact that the rooms and the atmosphere of the main hero's apartment was made after the apartment of Alexey German's father and, probably, that an episode when an old family friend from a foreign country get's punched in a face has had a basis in Alexey German's life. (The idea is that half of his family has fought in the Civil War on one side, and another half on the other. Delivering news from the other half living outside of the Soviet Union could have meant a death sentence for Alexey German's father and misery for all of his family. Even though an Alexey German's pro-monarchism uncle living in exile has urged his old pro-communist Western friend not to visit his brother (and, consequently, an Alexey German's father) during his stay in Moscow, he got drunk and visited him). I could make some more comments, but I'm not sure if they would do you any good and not spoil anything. To better understand the Stalin's era overall, I'd read Varlam Shalamov [4], just everything that you can lay your hands on. Tons of his books are translated to German and one to English. I don't usually read Western literature about the Stalin era because even better books are so full of bullshit. Not that I don't think that Stalin was an evil person, or that the Stalin era and Soviet Union are so mysterious that they are unfathomable to the people in the Western world. It's just that the ideological differences are still huge and the Cold War propaganda in the West IS a form of reality through which, as if it was some sort of glasses, Western people view the stuff that was going on here in USSR. The Soviet lies died when the Union fell, but the Western ones are living and well. Haha, didn't mean to make a rhyme... Just as a side note: there are some truly great and deep fiction writers that wrote about Stalin's atrocities, such as Varlam Shalamov [4], Yury Dombrovsky [5], Georgy Demidov [6], Yevgenia Ginzburg [7], etc. etc. But the most famous in the West is a mediocre, albeit convenient Alexander Solzhenitsyn that has suited the propaganda needs, hated the Soviet Union and was willing to pull various "facts" out of his ass. As a famous exiled Russian writer and a fierce anti-communist, Sergei Dovlatov [8] once said: "Communists I hate the most, but the ones that I hate even more are the anti-communists". [0] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgi_Alexandrowitsch_Wainer https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgi_Alexandrowitsch_Wainer [1] https://scepsis.net/library/id_128.html https://scepsis.net/library/id_128.html [2] http://flibusta.net/b/201844/read http://flibusta.net/b/201844/read [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctors%27_plot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctors%27_plot [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varlam_Shalamov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varlam_Shalamov [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yury_Dombrovsky https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yury_Dombrovsky [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgy_Demidov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgy_Demidov [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgenia_Ginzburg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgenia_Ginzburg [8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Dovlatov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Dovlatov

rdtsc 13y ago

Good list. Yeah, I really like Shepitko's "The Ascent". Kalatozov is really good. The Cranes Are Flying (Russian: Летят журавли) has really beautiful cinematography. Also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Cuba https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Cuba is outstanding for cinematography. You will probably not enjoy its propaganda message, and Cubans didn't like, but cinematography wise it is a beautiful film.

pipy 13y ago
Thanks for suggesting to watch "I Am Cuba", I definitely will. "The Cranes Are Flying" is an amazing movie, I totally agree. I think it is a great illustration of an idea that morally-strong and courageous people are the first ones to die in hard times. If you like "The Ascent", I wonder if you'd also be fond of her other movies, first of all, "Ty i ya" (1971) [1] (The film has it's fair share of problems but I find the main idea behind it really powerful). I'd also recommend you to watch movies made by her husband, Elem Klimov, at least, "Come and See" [2] and "Rasputin" [3]. As about "Come and See", for me it has a somewhat personal theme: when Nazis were exterminating the people of his village near Ula, the grandfather of my ex has survived only by chance. His mother, while holding him, has jumped into the ravine before the bullets hit them. [1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067894/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067894/ [2] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091251/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091251/ [3] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081991/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081991/

RuCrazy 13y ago

thank's for the list

pipy 13y ago
These were just the first that came to mind... : - ) Thanks!