well, i didn't write the list myself, my friend did--but i believe his intention was to make a list for his student who was a film student who wanted to learn more about russian cinema, less for the purpose of language-learning than film history-learning. but it seems as if this movie to which you are referring is one that i myself will check out to learn more proverbs :) but also when i lived in russia usually my friends would in conversation with me preface a proverb with "there is a russian proverb..." and explain it to me, as they recognize me not as native speaker with an inborn understanding of russian language and culture but as a foreigner :) but it sounds like watching this movie will be helpful to me:)

did you think that perhaps i meant the film you speak of does not reflect russian self-consciousness? that i do not doubt--i merely meant that the list itself was written from the point of view of a foreigner. that is my fault for not writing my response clearly enough.

also, if someone said "а вас, Штрилиц, я попрошу остаться!" i would understand the meaning even without understanding the cultural context. a learner of language is never "finished," i suppose, as once you have your language fluency there is still cultural fluency.