Aleksandr Medvedkin

  • Aleksandr Medvedkin – Kinopoezd – Cinetrain (1933-35)

    1931-1940Aleksandr MedvedkinDocumentarySilentUSSR

    As Chris Marker’s fans already know, Kinopoezd was a project by Alexandr Medvedkin, Soviet filmmaker and though he isn’t mentioned in the titles, he was a main locomotive in this crazy journey.
    Train was full of with film prints, editing tables, actors and it traveled through Soviet Union, films were made in one day, edited at night and very next day shown to the people, who participated in it, as Marker says.Read More »

  • Aleksandr Medvedkin – Noch Nad Kitaem AKA Night Over China (1971)

    1971-1980Aleksandr MedvedkinDocumentaryPoliticsUSSR

    Description: Soviet documentary “defending the Chinese people from their enemies, the Maoists”. NB: The film clearly documents the activities of the Red Guards although it never mentions them by name. This has been reflected in the cataloguing. Also, ‘Peking’ has been used instead of ‘Beijing’, again to reflect the content of the film.Read More »

  • Aleksandr Medvedkin – Schastye aka Happiness (1932)

    1931-1940Aleksandr MedvedkinComedySilentUSSR

    Aleksandr Medvedkin’s Happiness, as rowdy as any Soviet silent movie, is a comic parable composed of equal parts of Tex Avery and Luis Buñuel. It satirizes the plight of a Soviet farmer who finds himself providing for the state, the church, and his peers at the expense of his personal satisfaction. A hapless young prole, Khmyr, is tasked by his wife with the goal of going out in the world and finding happiness, lest he end up dead and dissatisfied after a lifetime of toil, like his father. Through stylistic exaggeration and a systematic attack on pre- and post-Revolutionary Russia’s dearest institutions, the movie achieves a wide-ranging, and deeply wounding, attack on the limitations placed on personal freedom in Russian societyRead More »

Back to top button