USSR

  • Aleksandr Alov & Vladimir Naumov – Legenda o Tile AKA Legend About Thiel (1977)

    Aleksandr Alov1971-1980AdventureDramaUSSRVladimir Naumov
    Legenda o Tile (1977)
    Legenda o Tile (1977)

    This TV miniseries is based on the book “La légende et les aventures héroïques, joyeuses et glorieuses d’Ulenspiegel et de Lamme Goedzak au pays de Flandres et ailleurs”, by belgian XIX century author Charles de Coaster, which, in turn is based on the popular German renaissance text “Ein kurzweiliges Buch von Till Eulenspiegel aus dem Lande Braunschweig”, by Hermann Bote. The story is set at the time of religious wars and turmoils following the protestant reformation and the hero fights for the freedom of his country from Spanish occupation and from the holy inquisition. The fist parts of the film are devoted to showing the atmosphere of oppression in the Netherlands at the time, with people being reported to the inquisition by envious neighbors and burned at the stake on flimsy excuses, when the real goal is for the king to get hold of their riches.Read More »

  • Vladimir Erofeev – Pamir, krisha mira AKA Roof of the world (1928)

    1921-1930DocumentarySilentSoviet silent cinemaUSSRVladimir Erofeev
    Pamir, krisha mira (1928)
    Pamir, krisha mira (1928)

    Film-maker Vladimir Yerofeyev (1898-1940) was a pioneer of expedition cinema in the Soviet Union, advocating for increased attention and investment in edifying non-fiction films made to win the interest of broad audiences. Pamir. Roof of the World, 1927, is his second feature film, and the first resulting from an expedition (his debut that same year, Za poliarnym krugom [Beyond the Arctic Circle] was a co-edited compilation film). In summer 1927, a trek to the mountainous Pamir region, known as the “Roof of the World”, in present-day Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, was organized by the Sovkino studio in co-operation with the Geological Committee. Yerofeyev worked with prominent geologist Dmitrii Nalivkin and ethnographer Mikhail Andreyev; both scholars had extensively researched the area and contributed to the planning for the crew’s journey.Read More »

  • Andrei Tarkovsky – Solaris [Potemkine Version] (1972) (HD)

    Andrei Tarkovsky1971-1980DramaSci-FiUSSR
    Solaris [Potemkine Version] (1972)
    Solaris [Potemkine Version] (1972)

    Ground control has been receiving mysterious transmissions from the three remaining residents of the Solaris space station. When cosmonaut and psychologist Kris Kelvin is dispatched to investigate, he experiences the same strange phenomena that afflict the Solaris crew, sending him on a voyage into the darkest recesses of his consciousness. With Solaris, the legendary Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky created a brilliantly original science-fiction epic, adapted from the famous novel by Stanislas Lem. Much more than a sci-fi film, Solaris is a meditation that challenges our conceptions about love, truth, and humanity itself.Read More »

  • Larisa Shepitko – Krylya (Крылья) AKA Wings (1966)

    Larisa Shepitko1961-1970DramaThe Female GazeUSSR
    Krylya (1966)
    Krylya (1966)

    A fascinating and human portrayal of a once-famous fighter pilot and loyal Stalinist named Nadezhda Petrovna. Now a 41-year-old provincial schoolmistress, she has so internalized the military ideas of service and obedience that she cannot adjust to life in peacetime.Read More »

  • Marika Beiku & Aleksandr Gordon & Andrei Tarkovsky – Ubiytsy AKA The Killers (1956) (HD)

    Andrei Tarkovsky1951-1960Aleksandr GordonDramaMarika BeikuShort FilmUSSR
    Ubiytsy (1956) (HD)
    Ubiytsy (1956) (HD)

    Quote:
    The Killers is a 1956 student film by the Soviet and Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky and his fellow students Marika Beiku and Aleksandr Gordon. The film is based on the short story “The Killers” by Ernest Hemingway, written in 1927. It was Tarkovsky’s first film, produced when he was a student at the State Institute of Cinematography.Read More »

  • Andrei Tarkovsky – Nostalghia AKA Nostalgia (1983) (HD)

    Andrei Tarkovsky1981-1990ArthouseDramaUSSR
    Nostalghia (1983) (HD)
    Nostalghia (1983) (HD)

    Exiled from the USSR, consummate film poet Tarkovsky poured his stirrings of homesickness into this spectrally beautiful, metaphysical exploration of spiritual isolation and Russian identity. While researching the turbulent life of a 17th-century composer in the perpetually mist-shrouded Tuscan countryside, a soul-sick Russian poet (Yankvosky) forms an unusual kinship with an apocalypse-obsessed local madman (Josephson). Tarkovsky evokes the textures of dreams and memories through ravishing monochrome and sepia-toned reveries and flashbacks, while conjuring the hushed and haunted tone of a trance in this late-career masterwork.Read More »

  • Andrei Tarkovsky – Zerkalo AKA Mirror (1975) (HD)

    1971-1980Andrei TarkovskyArthouseDramaUSSR
    Zerkalo (1975) (HD)
    Zerkalo (1975) (HD)

    A dying man in his forties remembers his past. His childhood, his mother, the war, personal moments and things that tell of the recent history of all the Russian nation.Read More »

  • Andrei Tarkovsky – Stalker [Lumière Publishing] (1979)

    Andrei Tarkovsky1971-1980DramaSci-FiUSSR
    Stalker [Lumière Publishing] (1979)
    Stalker [Lumière Publishing] (1979)

    A guide leads two men through an area known as the Zone to find a room that grants wishes.Read More »

  • Victor A. Turin – Turksib (1929)

    Victor A. Turin1921-1930DocumentaryUSSR
    Turksib (1929)
    Turksib (1929)

    SYNOPSIS
    Turksib itself, a silent film presented here with a newly commissioned score by Guy Bartell focuses on the problems faced by regional farmers in Turkestan and the creation of the Turkestan-Siberian railway. It is filled with impressionistic images of the land and its people juxtaposed with the inevitable juggernaut of Soviet industrial expansion. I’m not so certain that the new score is always in harmony, no pun intended, with the subject matter here. The electronic instrumentation and trance music seems rather anachronistic and jarring, really a bit out of place, if I may be redundant.Read More »

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