Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Samson Samsonov - Poprygunya (1955)

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From Mosfilm.com:
A screen version of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov's short story of the same name (Poprygunya). The film won a Silver Lion of St. Mark and the Pasinetti Prize ( a prize awarded by Italian film critics) for best international film at the 1955 Venice International Film Festival.

Elisabeta Bostan - Ma-ma AKA Rock'n Roll Wolf (1976)



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IMDB:
An enchanting film combining beautiful costumes, fun music and excellent ballet performance
5 March 2005 | by (natalivogue@yahoo.com) (United Kingdom)

I saw this film as a child in a small town cinema in Soviet Union, was completely mesmerised by it and since then was looking for it everywhere. Finally, we managed to get a video from Romania. I was so happy. It's an enchanting, original, musical fairy-tale with a bit of rock'n'roll. The costumes and the music are Romanian indeed, but there are also wonderful Russian actors in main roles. I especially love Mihail Boyarski as the bad guy - the Wolf. There's also a ballet performance from Bolshoi, and beautiful ballet on ice from Moscow. The film just has so much beauty and energy in it. I recommend it to all children and their parents. Unforgettable experience!

Grigori Kokhan - Yaroslav Mudry aka Yaroslav the Wise (1982)



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From Imdb:
In the XIth century Kievan Rus' reached its zenith under the reign of Yaroslav. He established enduring ties with many of the ruling European dynasties, strengthened the borders of Rus' and tried to free it from the influence of the Byzantine Empire. Since 988 the church of Rus' had been autonomous, apart from the right of Constantinople to appoint the Metropolitan

Aleksandr Borisov - Krotkaya aka The Meek One (1960)



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Based on the short story "A Gentle Being" by Dostoievski.

Yakov Bazelyan & Sergei Parajanov - Andriesh (1954)

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A major foreshadowing of Paradjanov’s later work, the visually prodigious Andriesh is an entertaining tale about a young shepherd who is given a magic shawm (a flutelike instrument) to help him conquer his foes. With its flying sheep, evil wizards, and storm demons—all captured in the gloriously artifical palette of fifties Soviet color stock—Andriesh has the kind of eye-popping, whirlwind weirdness of Paradjanov’s last films, Suram Fortress and Ashik Kerib.

Lev Kuleshov - Velikiy uteshitel aka The Great Consoler (1933)



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The Great Consoler is Lev Kuleshov’s most personal film reflecting both the facts of his life and his thoughts about the place of the artist in contemporary reality. It was the only film in the Soviet cinema of those years that raised the question of what role a creative person played in society.

The film takes place in America in 1899, and in its principal plot depicts Bill Porter, who is the great consoler of the title, in prison. His writing skills earn him privileges from the governor and he is spared the inhumane treatment meted out to other prisoners. Porter is very much aware of the brutality around him but, mindful of his better conditions, refuses to write about prison life. He prefers to console his less-well-treated friends, and indeed all his readers, with excessively romantic fantasies in which good invariably triumphs.

Kira Muratova - Dolgie provody AKA A Long Goodbye (1971)



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It is a great film by a great director.Kira Muratova has never been given her due in the Soviet and post-Soviet Russia.In the "Long Good Bye" she depicts a seemingly banal story of a jealous and possessive mother (brilliantly acted by Zinaida Sharko) and her poor aloof and lonely son (the only cinematic role by the talented O. Vladimirsky). The story - which is nothing extraordinary in itself - grows into the wonderful and frightening analysis of alienation between genders and generations on the background of the even more frighteningly bleak and dehumanized Soviet reality.Kira Muratova shows the tiny details of everyday Soviet life,and, again , banal as they are ,they are a hair-raising horror.The dialogue is deliberately laconic and void of any sense, showing the ever-growing people's inability to communicate and understand each other.The sound track ( by another under-estimated talent, Oleg Karavaichuk)adds to the atmosphere of hopeless and meaningless existence.Of course,Sasha (the name of the protagonist),will leave his despotic ( but loving!) mother sooner or later, but where for? (c) Author: drbagrov from Taiwan

Eldar Ryazanov - Sluzhebnyy roman aka Office Romance (1977)

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Anatoli Yefremovich Novoseltsev works in a statistics institution, whose director is an unattractive and bossy woman. An old friend of his, Yuri Grigorievich Samokhvalov, who gets appointed assistant director of the institution, wants to make Novoseltsev the head of the department but encounters objections from Ludmila Prokopievna Kalugina, the director. Samokhvalov then advises Novoseltsev to lightly hit on the boss. Ironically, Novoseltsev and Kalugina fall in love with each other...