Following Romm’s untimely death during the making of …And Still I Believe, his former students Khutsiev and Klimov completed this remarkable film montage, a personal journey across 20th-century history and the clash of civilizations told, in part, through Romm’s own diary entries and gripping historical footage.Read More »
A young schoolboy tries to help the girl he likes to pass a math test.
Elem Klimov’s student work.Read More »
Quote:
Ivan Got His Gun. Sam Fuller once declared that the only way for cinema to depict war authentically was to spray the audiences with real bullets, here’s the next best thing. The setting is the Nazi devastation of Belarus, the Exodus and the Apocalypse are the main poles: The 12-year-old protagonist (Alexei Kravchenko) digs up a rifle and eagerly runs to join the partisans in the woods, Elem Klimov proceeds to wipe the smile off the wannabe warrior’s face. Left behind, the boy spends an incongruous idyll with a forest nymph (Olga Mironova), complete with rainbows materializing out of morning rain; a squashed bird’s nest sets the stage for the inferno, which is first glimpsed — casually, mind-scarringly — by the side of a cabin. Bombs and bottles rain from the sky, Klimov’s Steadicam skims supernaturally pale meadows, a full menagerie (stork, cow, lemur, lobster) adds to the surrealism.Read More »
Quote:
Born in 1901, Mikhail Romm took part in the Bolshevik Revolution, the Civil War, and World War II. His landmark films Nine Days of One Year (1961) and Ordinary Fascism (1965) embodied the intellectual discourse and discontent of the 1960s, influencing an entire generation of Thaw filmmakers, including Andrei Tarkovsky, G. N. Chukhrai, Marlen Khutsiev, and Elem Klimov. Following Romm’s untimely death during the making of …And Still I Believe, his former students Khutsiev and Klimov completed this remarkable film montage, a personal journey across 20th-century history and the clash of civilizations told, in part, through Romm’s own diary entries and gripping historical footage.Read More »
Description:
A comedy about a young dentist, who becomes well-known in his town but suddenly loses faith in himself.
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(imdb review)
A masterful, pro-elitist, Tatiesque film from Elem Klimov, 22 April 2006
Author: Niffiwan from Toronto, Canada
This is story about a dentist with the talent of painlessly extracting teeth, and what happens to him as a result of being naturally good at his job. It is told with humour (much of it quite subtle, almost surreal, and in the background – imagine a street scene where everyone on the sidewalk on one side of the road walks in just one direction, and on the other side in the other), poignancy, and a frequent breaking of the 4th wall between the movie and the audience (think of what happens in Shakespeare’s plays, and you’ll be close). It also features some songs by Novella Matveyeva, a famous Russian singer-songwriter (her songs are sung by the leading actress).Read More »
Synopsis:
A wide-scope panoramic view of Russia in 1916. The country is in its third year of war which seems to never end, with police rule, hunger and devastation at their peak. All this plays out against a background of luxury and corruption at the court, where the agonizing power still entertains hopes of coping with “the rebels”. The courtiers have a presentiment of the collapse of the Russian autocracy. Fear, despair and blind belief in Providence make a fertile ground for the “great” starets, adventurist Rasputin, who is a friend of the royal family and has gained mastery over the Czar and his ministers. The filmmakers used newsreels of the 1917 Revolution… This controversial historic drama was released twice: in 1975 and, after a number of changes, in 1985. RUSCICO offers the film’s 1985 version.Read More »