Russian Movies

[guzelle.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all the suggestions about Russian singers and songs, many of them were great!

Another question is about Russian movies. What Russian movies would you recommend for the Russian language student who loves good films?

He liked Ironia sud'by and Obyknovennoe chudo. He was able to understand about third of the dialogs in Russian and the rest with the help of English and Russian subtitles.

Thanks!

Comments

[alek-morse.livejournal.com]

///The Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks
Battleship Potemkin///

Hmm... These films are great, no doubt. But they are silent ones, with subtitles in old fashion. Is it enough for the learning of Russian language?

///The Barber of Siberia///

As for me, I'm not sure that film is successful choice. I'd like to recommend the others films by director Nikita Mikhalkov. For example, his "Slave of Love" (Раба любви). There are the plot of the Civil War time, the love-story with movie star Olga Voznesenskaya (her prototype is Vera Holodnaya), the intrigue with contra-intelligence, old Odessa and many other interesting things. Very piercing film!

However, if I was asked what the Russian movie do you recommend first for a foreign viewer, I'd recommend "Formula of Love" (Формула любви) by Mark Zakharov. It's very witty film, a comedy and melodrama at the same time. In ending of 18 century, the famous Count Cagliostro has arrived in Russia. Of course, he arranges the seances of Magic... Some day one young landowner asks him to transform the stone statue of female into real alive girl.

Here are you may to read of the film and see the screencaps:
http://russart.com/?mid=108

Excellent and witty replies! The screenplay is written by famous playwright Grigory Gorin. The replies came off in people's quotes.
If you'd to find an analogy of that film among Western movie, I'd say that "Formula of Love" like a bit Terry Gilliam's films + Stopard's plays.

[wash-it-out.livejournal.com]

You know, you're right, the fact that they're subtitled makes them probably not the best options. I didn't think of that... maybe the list I made should be shortened to include ones that specifically have plenty of engaging dialogue to help with learning the language. Thanks for pointing that out.

I haven't seen Slave of Love or Formula of Love, they both sound wonderful! I don't think I know Zakharov, but it sounds really magical. :) I'll have to look into both of those.

I enjoyed the Barber of Siberia, but that might have been because my professor was funny and I associate it with a lot of little inside jokes he would make while we were watching it.

[alek-morse.livejournal.com]

However, many Russian viewers consider that 'Barber of Siberia' is "развеситая клюква" - this idioma means that film has many false and lubok touches on Russian eye. Though, this movie had a huge success in Russia too. May be, thank to huge budget, I don't know.

[wash-it-out.livejournal.com]

That's interesting to know, I'd like to watch it again with that in mind. I'm trying to remember plot specifics and I guess I can see why! It's interesting to see what Russian films foreign viewers like versus what films actually Russians find authentic and enjoyable.

[alek-morse.livejournal.com]

Honestly, the same thing with 'East-West' I don't say about that Kiev was filmed in Sophia. :(
Of course, Sergey Bodrov is very good.

[alek-morse.livejournal.com]

In another hand, you have hit in a target when you have called 'Burnt by the Sun' and 'Oblomov'. In my view, these films are very Russian ones :)

[arashi-opera.livejournal.com]

I say "craneberry tree" as a variant of развесистая клюква. %)