Cool Russian films?

I recommend "Russian Ark", you can find an English subtitled version for free on youtube.

It has 2000 actors, a single continuous shot, and was made in one take. And all within Russia's mighty Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

It's a fun movie.
 
Gaby said:
"Dersu Uzala is a 1961 Soviet film, adapted from the books of Vladimir Arsenyev, about his travels in Russian Far East with a native trapper, Dersu Uzala."

One of my favourite movies! Both the Russian version, as well as Kurosawa's remake. Just watched it recently - very moving story.
 
Miss.K said:
I think I'll watch them all, though I'm not much into war movies, -I watch documentaries about wars out of duty to witness it, and for knowledge, but generally prefer clever films, or something that makes me cry because it is beautiful and romantic, instead of crying for murdered children and such.

Admiral?


https://youtu.be/hlQ5rFJjNsY

Turkish Gambit?


https://youtu.be/9FCYuNRm8YY

Both films are historical: one about the Russian Revolution, the other is about the Russian-Turkish war. Both are clever and romantic and not focused on the horrors of war.
 
I will recommend all movies by Andrei Tarkovsky.

Specially SOLARIS:

The film is a meditative psychological drama occurring mostly aboard a space station orbiting the fictional planet Solaris. The scientific mission has stalled because the skeleton crew of three scientists have fallen into separate emotional crises. Psychologist Kris Kelvin travels to the Solaris space station to evaluate the situation only to encounter the same mysterious phenomena as the others.

Non typical SF movie at all ... fantastic! And also quite good example of strong Russian and Eastern European artistic tendencies and strength.

also "Stalker", "Andrei Rublev" ... here is a list of his films:
_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Tarkovsky_filmography

All of his movies are just excellent. And through him you can get a good feeling of the Russian creative and philosophical and cultural force and beauty.

_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Tarkovsky

Ingmar Bergman said of Tarkovsky:

"Tarkovsky for me is the greatest (director), the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream."

And yes subtitles are much better than dubbing, as sound of a language is a part of acting and film atmosphere, I can't imagine to watch a movie daubed, I always prefere subtitles.
 
In Youtube you have a section of many Russian films, 69, with English subtitles. Marvelous!


_https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIQBIIhOnK1sZrP3zTdNdVdGpWVV-xgvd
 
Thanks to everybody for the links and suggestions, there are probably many Russian or Soviet movies that have no English subtitles, I have found a few at least, and when I watch some of them, I think it is regrettable, deeply regrettable, that they are not more known to more neighbours in Western Europe. Maybe this restriction in access was part of the policy.
 
I watched "Stalingrad" (2013) (_http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1966566/?ref_=nv_sr_1) several months ago.

I like the Russian perspective of this movie as compared to Western movies dealing with the same topic.

The acting was good and I particularly liked the rich colors. It reminded me of the color palette that Guillermo Del Toro likes to use.
It is a movie about war so there's quite a few brutal moments but there's also a lot of tenderness between the characters on the Russian side.
 
Miss.K said:
Wow, thank you so much guys :)

I think I'll watch them all, though I'm not much into war movies, -I watch documentaries about wars out of duty to witness it, and for knowledge, but generally prefer clever films, or something that makes me cry because it is beautiful and romantic, instead of crying for murdered children and such.

(Music is also good for getting to know a language, but it don't have subtitles)

Never read Fyodor Dostoyevsky, but have felt terribly un-cultural for not doing so, so thank you for that.

:flowers: :flowers: :flowers:
It's not a clever film but if you're interested, I saw a documentary about Russia a few years ago called "Russia: A Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby" http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/russia-journey-with-jonathan-dimbleby/
 
I would like to recommend The Island film by Pavel Lungin, the story tells about the situation where in WWII two Russians was transporting the coal when came across on Nazis...Russians have hid in a coal but cough one of them spitted them out. Then Nazis demanded one kill another or both would be killed. One have shot in his comrade...He had been left, the shotted guy fell in a water...

The main line of the film is suffering of the guy who killed his comrade and his trying to pay kain. He became a hermit monk on an island and heal the folks....



https://youtu.be/u8bcGrQf7XM
 
SAO said:
I think this is the highest budget Russian film ever made, it's a sci-fi film called "The Inhabited Island".

Here it is with English subtitles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci1IYy2UWvA

Inhabited Island 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljT88o2QZI4

[...]

Thank you SAO for this "suggestion". :flowers:

The subtitles are a bit strange and their timings are a bit off though in these videos, but all in all understandable.



SPOILER ALERT!
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Underlying theme about this "A radiation" used to mind-control people was an interesting touch (together with the "usual" tools like radio and TV), for me, seeing the levels of propaganda machine brain-washing in our real world. At first it made me thing about HAARP :) (although it's speculated that HAARP doesn't exactly "directly" influence the brain, but "goes" through "emotional system") and later about possible infra-sound human manipulations.
 
I watched Leviathan a month or so ago. It was a family tragedy set in Russia with the background of local authority corruption. It's definitely compelling watch: _http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2802154/
 
Possibility of Being said:
I watched recently a TV series based on [Fyodor Dostoyevsky's] novel "The Idiot" made by Russian Television in 2003 and I loved it. It's available on YT in 10 parts with English subtitles (not the best ones possible IMO, but good enough to understand what's going on - I may be wrong, none of those two languages is my mother tongue, lol!). I tried to watch older/other adaptations (no eng. subs), but even though I'm not a big fan of TV shows in general, I found this one the best of all I checked.

Here is a Wiki entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Idiot

and the part 1 on YT:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG9WwIkIBD0

But be warned, some people find it too depressing!

I watched it earlier over a few days, and it's among the most deeply stirring things I've seen. I'll mention two striking impressions that come to mind.

Firstly, the complete senselessness of people (looking beyond the details, in essence the same around the world and throughout history), all the misery and varieties of mechanical destructiveness - and how everyone (myself included) is an idiot in one or more ways. Somehow, it was all brought home more clearly.

Secondly, perhaps because ponerized culture, and everything it has and does lead to - inwardly and outwardly - has been on my mind: I felt at once a little bit like Dostoyevsky's "idiot" and a little bit like everything that drove him insane.
 
I was really impressed with Sergei Eisenstein's "Alexander Nevsky". Although it's from the 1930's and depicts a historical re-telling of events from the 13th century, I think it's an epic film that continues to resonate today in regards to Russia's ongoing opposition from European powers.

Also interesting is a completely overlooked silent gem from the 1920's by Dimitri Kirsanoff, "Menilmontant". You can see this film as a major inspiration for Hitchcock, in terms of content, editing and themes. Like Eisenstein and Kuleshov, Kirsanoff utilized techniques decades ahead of their times that would eventually become common practice for editing and story structure by the 1970's in North America.
 
Psalehesost said:
Possibility of Being said:
I watched recently a TV series based on [Fyodor Dostoyevsky's] novel "The Idiot" made by Russian Television in 2003 and I loved it. It's available on YT in 10 parts with English subtitles (not the best ones possible IMO, but good enough to understand what's going on - I may be wrong, none of those two languages is my mother tongue, lol!). I tried to watch older/other adaptations (no eng. subs), but even though I'm not a big fan of TV shows in general, I found this one the best of all I checked.

Here is a Wiki entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Idiot

and the part 1 on YT:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG9WwIkIBD0

But be warned, some people find it too depressing!

I watched it earlier over a few days, and it's among the most deeply stirring things I've seen. I'll mention two striking impressions that come to mind.

Firstly, the complete senselessness of people (looking beyond the details, in essence the same around the world and throughout history), all the misery and varieties of mechanical destructiveness - and how everyone (myself included) is an idiot in one or more ways. Somehow, it was all brought home more clearly.

Secondly, perhaps because ponerized culture, and everything it has and does lead to - inwardly and outwardly - has been on my mind: I felt at once a little bit like Dostoyevsky's "idiot" and a little bit like everything that drove him insane.

Speaking of Dostojevski, a while ago I was pleasantly surprised with BBC adaptation of Crime and Punishment which I mentioned on this thread along with youtube link:
http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,32267.msg438205.html#msg438205

Indeed, the world of Dostojevski is particularly grim, meaninglessness of existence in the world of mechanical humanity being his main focus. I would say he is the master of what some people call "Slavic angst" which can be described as "general proclivity of Slavs to focus on dark aspects of our reality and glorify (or revel in) deep emotions connected to it". Some people would call it "the dark aspect of Slavic soul".

Whatever you call it, this phenomenon is often incomprehensible to other nations so it was very surprising to see the "Anglo-saxon" adaptation painting the atmosphere of this "Slavic angst" so superbly. Well at least this was my impression.
 
Russian insider published an article with the titles of movies base don famous russian novels - A Selection of the Best Film and TV Adaptations of Russian Novels - http://russia-insider.com/en/culture/selection-best-film-and-tv-adaptations-russian-novels/ri7746

And Quiet Flows The Don (1957)
The Lady With The Little Dog (1960)
War and Peace (1967)
Anna Karenina (1967)
Uncle Vanya (1970)
Crime and Punishment (1970)
Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano (1977)
Oblomov (1979)
Heart of a Dog (1988)
The Idiot (2003)
The Master and Margarita (2005)
The Brothers Karamazov (2009)
 
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