The cinema thread

[Faust]

faust, merz and any other russian folks, calling on you guys here

any good recommendations from the Mosfilm library up on youtube?

http://www.youtube.com/user/Mosfilm

HOLY SHIT!!! Amazing find. I will try my best. Keep in mind that things get lost in translation, cultural differences, nostalgia, etc. I will skip some very famous films simply because I don't want nostalgia to overpower my recommendations, but if you want more, I will be happy to oblige. Unfortunately some of the best films are without the English subtitles.

COMEDY (I am omitting the famous comedies of the slapstick variety).

1. "Irony of Fate" part 1 and part 2. This film is an icon, shown on Russian TV every New Year's. A mix up with keys leads a protagonist to the wrong address and ends up in a love triangle and questioning of each character's circumstances and fate. A brilliant, heart-felt picture.

2. "Office Romance" part 1 and part 2. Another heart-felt comedy about a man pining away because he is incapable of showing his love for an office coworker.

3. "12 Chairs." part 1 and part 2. Based on the most brilliant book of satire of the 20th Century Russian literature and arguably Russian literature of all time. The protagonist, Ostap Bender, is a swindler that takes advantage of idiots from all walks of life, from greedy speculators to Soviet bureaucrats. Unfortunately, the equally brilliant sequel, The Golden Calf, is without English subtitles.

4. "Kin-Dza-Dza" part 1 and part 2. One of my favorite comedies of all time. Two strangers that meet by chance on a Moscow street get transported onto another planet. As they navigate their way home they come to terms with their uneasy partnership. Extremely hilarious in its simplification of power relations between humans, especially vis-a-vis capitalism. Totally lo-fi with fantastic cinematography, shot mostly in the desert.

DRAMA

1. "Dersu Uzala" part 1 and part 2. A rare Russian-Japanese production shot by Akira Kurosawa. One of his best films about a clash of civilizations as an officer of a Russian czarist army relies on an old Mongolian guide to navigate the Siberian taiga.

2. "Solaris" part 1 and part 2. Not much introduction needed - second best film of Tarkovsky after Stalker, based on a science fiction novel by Stansilvaw Lem.

3. "Alexander Nevskiy" The epic story of prince Nevskiy repelling a German knight invasion in 13th Century. In my opinion Eisenstein's crown achievement, quiet a feat of cinematography considering time and place.

4. "The Mirror" More Tarkovsky :-)

ACTION

1. "The Mysterious Avengers" (stupid translation). Story of a friendship of several teenagers as they fight the White Army during the Russian Civil War.

WAR FILMS

1. "Come and See" part 1 and part 2. This is by far one of the best WWII films ever made, concentrating on the fate of one Belorussian village that was razed to the ground by Nazis as thousands of others throughout the war. The unflinching way in which the Nazi atrocities were depicted here are in my opinion unrivaled in any Western film. Also, unlike most Soviet war films, the propaganda is virtually nonexistent. Unfortunately the video is not available now, but I am sure you can find it on a DVD in the US.

2. "Liberation" An epic WWII film that follows much of the war starting with the famous Kursk tank battle in 1943. Historically accurate in terms of names, events, etc. (obviously there is a Soviet bent in terms of emotion). I am not sure I put these in the right order.

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6

There will be more when you are done :-) Unfortunately, my favorite film, Heart of a Dog is not on there. And I can never download it and get the English subtitles to watch.

[sam_tem]

awesome, thanks Faust.

stuck offshore right now so hope to have some time to go through some.

[Ahimsa]

Second on Dersu Uzala. SO good!

Any opinions on the Nightwatch/Daywatch series (from a Russian film perspective)? I might have watched all of them...

[Faust]

I tried watching the first one and gave up fairly quickly.

[Ahimsa]

Understandable. It's basically like an epic-action-supernatural-detective movie, so I couldn't not watch it.

[klangspiel]

you can't go mention mosfilm war films and not recommend larisa shepitko's masterpiece, the ascent / ascension. that's hands down, unequivocally, the greatest war film ever made, my opinion notwithstanding :). no slight towards come and see, which is an amazing film in its own right. but the ascent is just simply on another level of subtlety, measuredness, complexity, enigmatic-ness, etc.. by comparison come and see, for better or for worse, does tend to reek of a deliberate amount of histrionics and overdramatization. almost simplistic (as in not much shades of grey to work with) to a fault at times. i don't say that in a bad way of course, but just to point out what you might expect when you put these two brilliant films side by side.

the ascent is just that great of a film. and i swear on the cinematic gods that if you distill the ascent to its barest elements, you'd find the raw essence of cinema in its starkest and most sublime staring back at you. incidentally shepitko is / was klimov's other half, and the ascent, like come and see, was set in nazi-occupied belorussia.

the other mosfilm@youtube films i'd recommend are:

i) the onset of an unknown age - split into 2 sections. the second half is a rare film by shepitko. again, arresting stuff by her. based on an andrei platonov work. the first half, by andrey smirnov, is poetic and beautiful as well.

ii) two classic films by mikhail kalatozov - the cranes are flying and the unsent letter. some of you may be familiar with kalatozov's landmark work, i am cuba / soy cuba.

iii) alexander dovzhenko's arsenal - like all of dovzhenko's works, the veritable scaffolding, groundwork, soul, genius, lifeblood, and dawning of soviet cinema, auteurist and otherwise. essential.

iv) alexander medvekin's happiness - one of the unsung filmmakers of (early-ish) soviet cinema and a hero of chris marker's.

v) elem klimov's agony (with the 2nd part here). klimov is of course most famous for come and see, but in my opinion, agony is his best and most ambitious work.

vi) there are also a bunch of important films by karen shakhnazarov, aleksandr ptushko, and grigori aleksandrov (at one time an associate of eisenstein's) available for viewing. speaking of eisenstein, battleship potemkine - but i'm sure everyone has seen this, right? bow down in shame if you haven't :)

vii) ok so not mosfilm, but lenfilm is on youtube too. unfortunately many of the films aren't subbed. it's still worth having a look though.

[Atmosphere]

Now I know what to do this weekend....

I, too, recommend Come and See and Mirror. On the subject of Russian cinema - are there any Sokurov fans here? I've watched, and been amazed by, both Mother and Son and The Russian Ark. I've been meaning to watch The Second Circle as well. I've had it for quite some time, but the moment hasn't been right yet....

[klangspiel]

On the subject of Russian cinema - are there any Sokurov fans here? I've watched, and been amazed by, both Mother and Son and The Russian Ark. I've been meaning to watch The Second Circle as well. I've had it for quite some time, but the moment hasn't been right yet....

an old post on sokurov (and other related filmmakers of recent russian cinema with auteurist leanings). most of the youtube links are dead though, sadly.

this, however, is alive: elegy of a vovage. from the hfa:

"This work from Sokurov evokes the timelessness of a dream-state as it presents the voyage of an unnamed man (Sokurov’s own silhouette) across snow-covered landscapes through a journey that culminates in a deserted museum at night. In the nocturnal silence, surrounded by Dutch masterworks, the man discovers that he himself may have been present when the portrait of St. Mary’s Square was painted by Peter Saenredam in the seventeenth century."

[Faust]

you can't go mention mosfilm war films and not recommend larisa shepitko's masterpiece, the ascent / ascension. that's hands down, unequivocally, the greatest war film ever made, my opinion notwithstanding :). no slight towards come and see, which is an amazing film in its own right. but the ascent is just simply on another level of subtlety, measuredness, complexity, enigmatic-ness, etc.. by comparison come and see, for better or for worse, does tend to reek of a deliberate amount of histrionics and overdramatization. almost simplistic (as in not much shades of grey to work with) to a fault at times. i don't say that in a bad way of course, but just to point out what you might expect when you put these two brilliant films side by side.

the ascent is just that great of a film. and i swear on the cinematic gods that if you distill the ascent to its barest elements, you'd find the raw essence of cinema in its starkest and most sublime staring back at you. incidentally shepitko is / was klimov's other half, and the ascent, like come and see, was set in nazi-occupied belorussia.

I actually don't know if I have seen that one. It's been so long...

[Atmosphere]

elegy of a vovage

I've actually been looking for this particular movie for a long time.. Man, I'm so fucking happy you posted it here! THANKS!

[Tafkap]

Spring Breakers - okay, but Korine should never be considered a great filmmaker. The Place Beyond The Pines - excellent, Cianfrance should be considered a great filmmaker.

With that being said, I thought The Tree of Life was terrible. This is coming from someone who actually loved Malick's previous films. I'm thinking about giving To The Wonder a try....has anyone seen it or did anyone actually like The Tree of Life?

[sebastian]

An interesting talk:

[Faust]

Finally saw Django Unchained. What a wast of time. Tarantino's worst movie by far. Everything he's made after Pulp Fiction has been subpar, but every one of the films still had flashes of Tarantino's brilliance, whether in dialogue or in cinematography. This had absolutely nothing.

[the-orb]

Saw two very different but in both cases visually stunning movies recently, Filho's Neighboring Sounds (O Som Ao Redor) and Bartas' Three Days (Trys Dienos).

Neighboring Sounds is a very subtle social commentary that is shot in a way where everything seems so realistic and "normal". Up until the last minutes, it doesn't even seem to have an actual plot. It's rare to find good movies that do not feel like a movie but are still satisfying. On top of that, the background sounds were as impressive as the visuals here and perhaps that's what contributed to the realistic feel of it all. The whole soundtrack is just ambient sounds. Here's Sight and Sound's review of the movie:

http://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/g360/the-orb/882767_457968844275749_1408706063_o_zpsade9e671.jpg

Bartas' Three Days was amazing as well. Of Bartas' films, I had only seen The House before this one and even though that's one of my favorites, this one seems easier to watch because it's shorter and there are at least some traces of dialog. The murky, decaing street scenes are incredibly atmospheric and Golubeva's performance is spot on detached. If you like Tarr and Tarkovsky, this one's worth seeking out.

[profondo nero]