USSR

  • Andrei Tarkovsky – Segodnya uvolneniya ne budet (Сегодня увольнения не будет) AKA There Will Be No Leave Today (1958)

    Drama1951-1960Andrei TarkovskyThrillerUSSR

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    From wikipedia

    There Will be No Leave Today (Russian: Сегодня увольнения не будет, Sevodnya uvolnyeniya nye budyet) is a 1959 student film by the Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky and his fellow student Aleksandr Gordon. The film is about members of the Soviet army during a time of peace. It was Tarkovsky’s second film, produced while being a student at the State Institute of Cinematography.Read More »

  • Sergei M. Eisenstein – Bronenosets Potyomkin AKA Battleship Potemkin [2005 Restored Version] (1925)

    1921-1930PoliticsSergei M. EisensteinSilentUSSR

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    The Battleship Potemkin (1925), accompanied by a new arrangement of Edmund Meisel’s orchestral score, which Eisenstein himself authorized for the film’s Berlin premiere in 1926. The Battleship Potemkin was recognized from the start as a landmark work both for its innovative use of montage and for its sheer power as propaganda. In particular, the “Odessa steps” sequence is arguably the single most famous and widely quoted passage in the history of film. But in a sense The Battleship Potemkin has been the victim of its own effectiveness. Reissued over the years in various censored and reedited versions, Eisenstein’s great vision has not been seen for several decades in anything like what the director likely intended. This new version, overseen by the film archivist and historian Enno Patalas, attempts to reconstruct, as closely as possible, the film as it was presented in Moscow during its initial release.Read More »

  • Sergei Parajanov – Tini zabutykh predkiv aka Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965)

    1961-1970ArthouseGeorgiaSergei ParajanovUSSR

    A timeless Carpathian story – the young Ivan falls in love with the daughter of his father’s killer among the Hutsul people of Ukraine.Read More »

  • Sergei Parajanov – Kiev Frescos (1966)

    1961-1970ArthouseGeorgiaSergei ParajanovUkraineUSSR

    LINK

    A lyrical portrait of life in a contemporary Armenian village following the devastation of an earthquake and the fall of communism.

    Quote:

    Kievski Freski Dir Sergei Paradjanov (Kiev Frescos) 1966. 35mm. 13 mins
    Paradjanov assembled this “film collage” from the rushes and tests that remained unscathed after the Soviet authorities halted the production of Kiev Frescos and ordered the negative to be destroyed.

    ——

    When the Soviet authorities were imposing on a multi-national country the artificial conception of a “homogeneous Soviet people”, Paradjanov was defending those nations’ very diversity and uniqueness. Through films and documentaries (both by Paradjanov and others), this programme attempts to trace Paradjanov’s creative journeys through Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia.

    Soon after the Soviet authorities stopped the shooting of Kiev Frescos (Kievski Freski) in 1966, Sergei Paradjanov left Dovchenko film studios in Kiev for Armenfilm in Yerevan. There he started work on a feature length homage to Sayat Nova, the pseudonym of the Haroutine Sayadian (Tblissi, 1712 – 1795), an Armenian poet and bard, who wrote in Armenian, Georgian and Azerbaijani.Read More »

  • Andrei Tarkovsky – Sculpting in Time (1989)

    1981-1990Andrei TarkovskyBooksUSSR

    Quote:

    This extraordinary book is not just about filmmaking, it’s about all art…about life, faith, inner exploration and the Russian soul. It contains exquisite poetry, mostly written by his father, Arseniy Tarkovsky, and detailed descriptions of the making of several of his films as well as photos of them that are eerie, mystical, and incredibly beautiful. Tarkovsky is the master of making us see the wonder of creation in the most mundane subjects. He brings us one step closer in our journey towards the light. From page 43: “The allotted function of art is not, as is often assumed, to put across ideas, to propagate thoughts, to serve as an example. The aim of art is to prepare a person for death, to plough and harrow his soul, rendering it capable of turning to good”.Read More »

  • Sergei Yutkevich – Lenin v Polshe AKA Lenin in Poland (1966)

    Drama1961-1970Sergei YutkevichUSSR

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    From wikipedia:
    Lenin in Poland (Russian: Ленин в Польше, translit. Lenin v Polshe) is a 1966 Soviet drama film directed by Sergei Yutkevich. Yutkevich won the award for Best Director at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival.

    From Moscow international FIlm Festival:
    Historical war movie about the events of the first world war in August 1914, when Lenin was in POLAND(at a place called Poronino, the Polish Carpathian mountains). It was there, on the former Austro-Hungarian territory, that the future leader was thrown in prison as a subject of the enemy state. The authors of the movie give the viewer a chance to follow the main character’s train of thought, to compare the foresight and the reality.Read More »

  • Ideya Garanina – Koshka, kotoraya gulyala sama po sebe AKA The Cat Who Walked by Herself (1988)

    1981-1990AnimationIdeya GaraninaUSSR


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    Quote:
    Virtually unknown nowadays, even in its home country of Russia, The Cat Who Walked by Herself is an endearing children’s film directed by Ideya Garanina and produced at the Soyuzmultfilm studio. It is based upon Rudyard Kipling’s short story “The Cat that Walked by Himself,” which was first published in 1902. As far as I’ve been able to tell, the film uses a variety of animation techniques, including puppetry, stop motion and traditional animation, blending it all into an interesting tale of the origin of the civilised human and his millenia-long partnership with several species of domesticated animal. The story is narrated by a seemingly omniscient cat, who reminds a young child of an agreement struck long ago by the Cat and the Woman. The voice of the feline (whom, having absolutely no knowledge of Russian, I have been unable to identify) is a brilliant narrator, her voice at once carrying a sense of quiet arrogance, pride, dignity and everlasting knowledge.Read More »

  • Aleksandr Andriyevsky – Gibel sensatsii aka Loss of Feeling (1935)

    1931-1940Aleksandr AndriyevskySci-FiUSSR

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    Quote:
    This Russian sci-fi film, an adaptation of the Czech classic novel that gave the world the term “robot,” tells the tale of an idealistic inventor who designs strong and intelligent robots to do human work. Unfortunately, the machines are utterly soulless. When factory bosses begin attempting to replace all people with the new robots, the displaced workers revolt. allmovie.comRead More »

  • Boris Stepantsev – Vovka v Tridevyatom tsarstve AKA Vovka in Far Far Away Kingdom (1965)

    1961-1970AnimationBoris StepantsevUSSR

    http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/6840/vovkavtridevyatomtsarst.jpg

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    19 min. 48 sec.
    SOYUZMULTFILM, 1965

    directed by Boris Stepantsev
    written by Vadim Korostylev
    art directors Anatoly Savchenko, Petr Repkin
    artists O. Ghemmerling, Lev Arkadyev
    animators Anatoly Abarenov, Galina Barinova, Antonina Alyoshina, V. Dolgikh, Youry Butyrin, Leonid Kayukov, Tatiana Taranovich, Victor Arsentiev, Olga Orlova, Anatoly Petrov, S. Zhutovskaya
    cameraman Michael Druyan
    music I. Yakushenko
    sound Boris Filchikov
    script editor Raisa Frichinskaya
    voice artists Emma Treivas, Michael Yanshin (Tsar) , Clara Rumyanova (Vassilissa) , Elena Ponsova (The Old lady and the Librarian) , Rina Zelenaya (Vovka)Read More »

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