Wait...so...the bad guys are vampires?

As we delve more and more into the contemporary side of Russian cinema, one begins to notice more and more similarity between what we are used to today as film. The interesting world of the Night watch seemed to be a combination of a few different popular themes that we, as Americans, are used to: vampires, mystical epic movies, things of that sort. At first I was a little tentative about how the movie was going to play out, given that the first scene looked like the costumes could have been made using cardboard and super glue. Also, it seems that this was probably one of the first films in which Russians had CGI (computer generated image) technology, as it seems to be heavily used throughout the entire film. My initial feelings aside, I genuinely enjoyed the film, although this genre tends not be one of my particular favorites. The vampire plot, along with the initial battle with the two different teams, or guards, watching one another, seemed like it was trying a little too hard to incorporate EVERYTHING into one film, but overall the film was a classic epic film, utilizing new technology as well as new filming techniques, such as slow motion, and "screen magic".

Im Blue...

A striking portrayal of a newer version of art film, The Return chronicles two boys, as there father returns to spend time with them, at the behest of their mother. His awkward social graces and inability to connect with the boys automatically, as he wishes he would because of his long absence, is what causes his stern, inappropriate and confusing disciplinary actions towards his children distance one even farther away from him, but cause one son to take all the abuse in an attempt to connect with the father figure he so obviously yearns for. The odd characterization of the father is one that leads the audience to be confused as to how they should feel about him, whether to hate him for treating the children oddly, or to pity him, for not knowing what he is doing, and attempting to reconnect with them any way he knows how. the most striking cinematic characteristic in the film was that, as I whispered to Jake a few minutes in, "Everything is blue....". Uncertain of the particular reason for the color choice, needless to say everything in the film was tinted with it somehow. Perhaps it is meant to show a sort of melancholia, or to draw images of water into one's head. either way, it is a striking aspect of the film itself.

And, to quote the movie Se7en..."Whats in the box?"

Oh Brother...how awesome...

An interesting, and much more contemporary film, brother served to be quite nthe entertaining piece of gangster cinema, one set with Russian mobsters, as opposed to the Italian ones we here in America are used to. The beginning of the film, his detention after walking into the shot of a film, is an odd start to an otherwise straight forward movie. The film chronicles Danilia in his travel to see his brother, after his mother has become fed up with him. Dan soon finds that his brother has become a mobster, and is more than willing to help in his violent lifestyle. The filming style is one that is radically different from what we have seen before this point. as time passes, I suppose, the camera resolution becomes clearer and cleaner, moving away from they "home camera" look that the last film seemed to have. The use of music is also an interesting one. Rather than use a traditional score, a soundtrack of what sounds like contemporary Russian rock music, the kind enjoyed by Dan so much, is played in the background of almost every scene.

Not so little Vera...

Ever come across a movie that just tries too hard? That was myopinion of Little Vera. Steeped in the "sex, drugs, and rock and roll" lifestyle, the movie seemed as if it was trying to add in every bit of dramatic plot as it could to keep young viewers interested. From the sex to the painkillers, everything seemed a little overdone. The stabbing and the alcoholism, once again, seemed to be things that were added in with the sole intent on making the film more "edgy". What put me off the most from the film was the actually filming style itself. The coarse, grainy picture quality, along with the block letter style of subtitles, and the cramped, enclosed setting of the house didn't make it any better. This film lacked the finesse and artistic quality of the previous films.

NO TEARS IN MOSCOW!!!!!...OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT...PRETTY MUCH JUST ANOTHER LOVE STORY....

A film extremely similar to Irony of Fate, Moscow Does Not believe In Tears is a film that, not surprisingly, is a popular film with Russians, one that is still held dear to their hearts today, I am starting to see a trend in what Russians see as "classic" films. Both of them had to do with love. Where did this affinity for love stories come from? especially ones that include an exceedingly long story. Not that I was bothered by this, I love longer films, but both Irony and Tears were very long films, dealing with much exposition and quite a bit of character development. I suppose one could argue that their affinity for this comes from the fact that earlier films were forced to be very anti personal with the characters, allowing people to see them only as heroic and brave, never actually being able to know them inter personally. either way, the films are stories that allow you to escape and become lost in the characters and their problems.

This is the same guy that made Mirror?? Really????

Well, that's what it says on my sheet at least. But this and Mirror were two radically different films. Of course the main difference was one beiong narrative and the other being non-narrative, but even placing that aside, it is still amazing to watch a late film and then an early film. The story in Ivan's childhood is a touching one. It essentially shows the tale of a boy forced to grow up too quickly, as his mother and sister (father?) are killed by Nazi soldiers during WWII. Seeking revenge, he joins to help the Soviet army as a reconnisance soldier, helpful becuase of his small size.
The film is shown through an interesting narrative style where the story progresses as normal, however the young boy has dreams that reveal more and more of his past to us, one of the dreams being the one where his mother and sister are killed, thus showing us the motivation behind hos hate for Nazi's, and quest for revenge. The saddest part, however, has to be the ending in which, after the Soviets take control of Berlin, they find paper work saying that the boy had been captured and executed during their last mission, or the last one we see at least. The reason this is so striking is becuase of how anti-climactic it all was. the boy could have gone to school and become a military officer, or back to the work home and been adopted. instead, he insists on fighting and is killed, anti climactically. He would never live to see, what he would consider, the avenging of his mother and sister: the fall of the Third Reich.

That poor soldier...

...all he wanted was to fix the roof and see his mom.

This film is an interesting example of a war film, even though by today's standards one would not really imagine a war film to concern something like this, namely, a boy, and I use the term boy on purpose, and his trip home to try to see his mother before being forced to return. However he is side tracked the entire time, not of his own fault, and only is able to see his mother for a short period of time. The striking aspect of this film is the fact that there is little war in it at all. It does not chronicle battles, or heroic fights, but merely a young boy who is unable to see someone he cares for deeply because of the war. It is no surprise to me that the film was made during the thaw, as opposed to the Stalinist era, because it seems that after Stalin's death, people sense a freedom from him under the new command. I am not saying that the Government was not still oppressive and communist, but that the new leader saught to undo some of the horrible humanitarian tragedies that had befallen the Soviet Union under Stalin's rule.

Ivan the...Interesting Film Character

Another interesting Socialist Realism piece, Ivan The Terrible, gives a new spin to what we in the class have come to know as social realism. The most interesting part of the film is the fact that in the Communist State of Russia, the Soviet Union, a popular and widely heralded film was about an individual who was in the position that the soviets had sought to overthrow. The interesting part is why the soviet audience could identify with someone like Ivan. Well,this seemed to be the case for a few reasons.the first, and most evident, was Ivan's struggle against the Bourgeois of his time, the Boyars. High class, in wealth only, noblemen, the disagree with Ivan's appointment from the very beginning because of his plan's to take away their wealth and power, and essentially give it back to the people. this is an obvious allusion to the Soviets goal of removing power from the wealthy and handing it over to the poor. The essential platform that made the soviets so powerful was their promise of liberation of the workers, which is what Ivan is essentially doing here in the film. The other, more moving scene, in my opinion, is when the riots in Moscow break out. The Tsar leaves, requesting that anyone who still wants his leadership and rule may follow him. Subsequently, what seems like everyone in Russia shows up on his door, asking for him back. As he signals to get the horses, we are left with this striking image of a powerful man ruling over his people, something Stalin must have drooled over the first time he saw it.

Burnt By The Sun

A return to color to illustrate the time period of the films we just departed from. Burt by the Sun is an excellent representation and portarait of the beginning of stalin's Great Purge, brought on not only by his onw paranoia, but by his distrust of himself and thos surounding him. The Great Purge was a time when Stalin began to order the, often unjustified, execurtion of not only political dissenters but also of those who had helped Lennin and subsequently, himself succeed. The subject of the purge in this film is the man who strangely reminds us of Chapaev, heroic in his nature and a piqturesque version of the Soviet ideal. However, Stalin wanted to rid himself of those who were around him when he rose to power, and has the Lt. killed, along with his wife. The conflict comes, however, from the member of the NKVD that does the secret arresting. This is the man who was once engaged to the Lt.'s now wife, so the conflict comesin wondering whetehr this is a personal vendetta against him, or really a direct order from Stalin, which we later find it was. It seems as though this film was made, not only to show russians what tyranny that had emerged from under, but also to show people of the Western World the injustices and fear the russian's had been forced to live under.

Circus

Another beautifully made talking picture, Circus is a fine example of not only socialist realism in russian film, but also the ability for the film to cause even people far removed from Soviet Russia, to feel compassion and be able to see how, through theatrical fabrication, one could convince the masses of a happiness they had not had previously, nor a happiness they had when they returned outside to find their brothers and sisters being black bagged into Siberia. Marx once said "Religion is the opiate of the masses". Replace religion with cinema, and you have Stalinist Russia.
The film itself was wonderfully made and even included a story line that made, I'm sure, more than just a few people take a look at american race relations in the pre civil rights era. The American, believing his big foil to be his knowledge of the acrobats secret, that she is the mother of a black child, a crime most disgusting in the U.S., is met with disbelief and compassion, not towards himself, but towards the child. As each person in the stand's takes turns passing the child around, lullying the child to sleep, one cannot help but feel a sense of compassion and connectedness with the audience. Reminded of the rascism in our country, no longer hyper prevelant but still somehwta, we look at Russian understanding of multiple races as a sign of what should have been in our own country long before it was. One can attribute it to different histroies, different cultural upbringings, and just a different place different time idea, however one looks at Communism accepting as an ideology of all people, something that actually drew in many American Blacks during pre and post civil rights era times. However, the question remains...is that how russia really was?

A General and SOUND!

Let there be...sound. Sighs and cheers erupted from the class as the no longer taken for granted medium of sound was finally reintroduced into cinema, after taunting us with "Irony of fate" and then quickly snatching it away again with the silent films. However, the development of sound in cinema was a massive achievement on the part of cine-technology, adding a completely new dimension to the films being viewed, and even how they were viewed, in the sense of what the audience member was actively participating in, as well as what the inclusion of extra senses did for the film viewing experience. Unfortunately for movies such as “The Man with the Movie camera” it seems that with the inclusion of the ability of film makers to make constant, inter title free dialogue a reality, as well as adding appropriate sound effects to things happening on the screen, focus would then shift from the artsy, experimental film, to a more narrative oriented film, as that is still the case today.

When it comes to the doctrine of Social Realism, a doctrine that stated all material related to the arts must pertain to the Soviet Ideals, we can see such an example in our first film with sound. The name of the game is glorification. It is about telling grand stories of heroes past, while inspiring those viewing the film to reach and hold these ideals, regardless of what they may be. We see more and more of this as a sort of tactic by Stalin to pacify the masses into believing in a Realism that never really existed.

The Man With The Camera

Avant Guarde by an standards, the film we viewed on firday was a perfect representation of man's experimentation with a new medium. Although the film really had no dicernable satory line, it was still interesting to try to make out some sort of pattern whithin the madness that was this film. It seemed as though the film went from man's awakening in the morning to his working throughout the day, moving then into liesure (the scenes at the beach) and then a somewhat abrupt ending. However, the film is obviously not mean to be appreciated for its story line, or lack thereof, but more for the ability of the director to experiment with a new medium in ways that had never been done before. A few of the things one can notice is the directors use of slow motion, reverse, and also melding two different pieces of film together to create an illusion of things being on top of one another. One of the things that I found exceedingly interesting was the score underneath the film. Although the score was not originally run with the film, the score that was played during our screening was written based on notes left by the director. My personal favorite part was near the end of the film, the cameraman begins to show different government buildings and pictures of Lenin, and the score changes from un-melodic noise to the ever famous "Internationale", playing two verses before returining to the mopre undertone style of score. An appropriate place to play it, the Internationale was then, and still is a song repersentative of socialist, communists, anarchists, and political dissenters all of the world.

Silent Films

Before today, I had never viewed a silent film in its entirety. I had seen bits of old Charlie Chaplain movies, and of course had seen shorter clips on documentary type programs, but never before had the chance to view a silent film all the way through. The three we viewed today were an interesting look into early cinema: how it was filmed, the story lines used, the acting, and even the types of movements the actor's made. Although today, because we are, in fact, in Russian cinema, the three films were three Russian silent films. The first was the story of a young peasant woman and the rich man who falls in love with her. As the movie progresses, the woman begins to change, not only her appearance but also her attitude and really her whole manner of acting. The wife slowly becomes disillusioned with the husband and becomes more and more addicted to her new lifestyle. The husband pleads with her to live a more moderate lifestyle with him, and she in turn rejects his proposal. The sad, dramatic tone of these silent films really shows us the style of cinema at the time. The long, sometimes almost drawn out, story lines, are always dramatic and usually end tragically. Such is the case with "The Dying Swan". The macabre, disturbing ending with the painter murdering the Ballerina in the pursuit of true death. This sad ending leaves the viewer with an empty feeling when the film ends, leading us to believe cinema, in Russia at this time at least, the focus was more on the creation of dramatic art than the creation of entertainment in the defintion we know it as now.

Irony of Fate Pt. 2

Divided into two almost equal length sections, the second half of "Irony of Fate" is a much more dramatic display of the love story encompassing most of the plot at this point in the film, the love story being between the the Doctor and Nadya. When compared to modern American comedies, it seems this film would barley register as one today. Although there are a few running jokes throughout the entire thing, such as finding humor in drunkenness, usually paired with the line "You really shouldn't drink so much", the "comedy of errors style of the entire work, and the doctor's constant repetition of the phrase "We have a tradition...", the jokes are few and far between, especially in the second half. The film takes a serious turn when we begin to see the budding of actual affection between the two main characters, with the plot revolving around their treatment of each other, as well as the constant intervention of Ippolit to further confuse the feelings of Nadya. However, one can examine the dramatic style of Zhenya's views towards Ippolits picture, as well as his rather violent refusal to leave on the appropriate forms of transportation. The comedic element is all but lost between Ippolit's last exit and Nadya's exit to purchase the train ticket. Besides a one liner here or there, the only, seeming, comedic relief comes from the friends at the very end. None of these aspects take away from the film as a wonderful piece of cinema, but are merely observations on the difference between what would be classified as a comedy by Russian standards vs. American standards.

Response for First Half of 'Irony of Fate'

My interest in Russian culture, as well as my love of film has lead me to this class with an open mind and readiness for exposure to films from this country full of similarities and differences from my own. In “Irony of Fate”, a New Year’s staple for Russian families, is essentially a “comedy of errors”, in which a man, engaged to be married, becomes drunk and is accidentally shoved onto a plane by his friends, sending him to Leningrad and waltzing into, what he believes to be, his own home. The misunderstandings continue from there in an almost half comedic, half serious film progression. The comedic side comes from the audience knowing things that the characters do not, such as the Doctor’s true address, why he is there, who actually is meant to get on the plane, with these scenarios being the definition of Irony, hence the title. However, the film has serious aspects to it as well, such as the boyfriend Ippolit leaving furiously, the doctor’s girlfriend not giving him time to explain, leading to a sort of tragedy for the two main characters. This style of comedy, the comedy of errors in which characters make actions based on false assumptions and pretenses while the audience knows the truth, being more a style of American Theater, as opposed to American comedic film, which usually focuses on the Romantic Comedy genre or the Suspended Adolescence style of comedy.