Full Thread: Soviet movies
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Old October 14th, 2020 #56
steven clark
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Join Date: Dec 2003
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Default Soviet movies

I just discovered this thread, and I find it informative on Soviet film. I lived in Boston for a few years, and was lucky enough to see a lot of Russian movies.

I especially liked one called The Kindergarten, written by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, and was a very thoughtful and human film about civilians in WWII Russia, and I thought it was a good view of Russian civilian life then, which we never see.
There was an odd bit when the movie stopped and a modern speech was given by Young Pioneers on peace and socialism. I assumed the authorities inserted it, but also you Russians have a much more sober view of war than we Americans.

As one Russian woman told me, where we American have one Memorial Day, Russia has a whole week of it.

I actually saw Yevtushenko in Boston, where he gave a poetry reading. It was quite an event, and, God, he was tall.

I also enjoyed a Russian film of King Lear by Grigori Kozintsev. There was also a film, Andrei Rublev, which I'm sure you heard of. Very beautiful.
Do you remember a film called Moscow doesn't believe in tears? A Russian comedy of sorts.

Also, I saw some old Russian silent films that had been locked up by the Bolsheviks, and were just unearthed in the 90's. They were made with silver, and were in excellent condition, and the films were really marvelous. Reminds us there was film in Russia before Eisenstein.

You say you don't like contemporary Russian film, although I like some. A film, Leviathan, came out a couple of years ago and could be seen as anti-society, but I thought it very stark, human, and tragic, set in Karelia.

I also liked a movie made in the 80's about Rasputin, and liked it. I understand in the USSR it was considered controversial because it showed the Czar as human, and did not do the usual communist line about him being ruthless.