Thread: NonRussian films (work in progress)

Originally Posted by CoffeeCup

There were many posts by rockzmom about the movie "Twilight". [s:1no5ltbc]The last[/s:1no5ltbc] This past Sunday, just before the sequel is released, the first movie was aired in Russia. It has become a sort of tradition in Russia before a sequel is to be released to air on TV the preceding movie. It is assumed that seeing the [s:1no5ltbc]first[/s:1no5ltbc] previous movie [s:1no5ltbc]the[/s:1no5ltbc] people [s:1no5ltbc]would[/s:1no5ltbc] will come to theaters to see the sequel or next installment. So was the reason for "Twilight" [s:1no5ltbc]for the[/s:1no5ltbc]being aired last Sunday.

I found [s:1no5ltbc]out[/s:1no5ltbc] this movie to be a very cute romantic story. I adored the forest and the landscape scenes. And, of course, the baseball scene. Actually I knew nothing about this movie and story before, and what a funny thing, when I saw the announcement for the "Twilight" on the TV channel during the week before airing I thought that the boy [s:1no5ltbc]is[/s:1no5ltbc] was a werewolf not [s:1no5ltbc]the[/s:1no5ltbc] a vampire. One more thing that I found to be clever is the fact that there are no scenes with the vampire's teeth (if I did not miss some) and it makes the movie to be more romantic. Only one point I would improve (and this point I see in many US movies): the bad characters, villains. The villains are showed as fools. Frightful, savage, and terrible, but fools. I believe that if the villains were not made out to be [s:1no5ltbc]the[/s:1no5ltbc] fools they would be essentially more frightful, savage and terrible and the viewers would get more realistic scar[s:1no5ltbc]ing[/s:1no5ltbc]y impressions.

coffeecup... I find it very interesting that Russia shows the previous movie on air for FREE!! That is really a great marketing tool. I mentioned it to my daughters and they also agreed. In the story, there will be some werewolves as well!

As for the first movie, it is interesting to note that many people did not like the director, Catherine Hardwicke. She was really in a very hard situation. A female director, small budget and a blockbuster novel to make into a movie. She was "fired" from the franchise and yet.. Twilight was the biggest opening ever for a female director AND Twilight was the highest-grossing movie by a female director.

Catherine's next big movie is also going to be from a series of Young Adult books and ones both of my daughters REALLY love...Maximum Ride by James Patterson. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximum...ilm_adaptation

An intersting article from Monday's Wall Street Journal about the business of movies, "angels" and the film Precious

Originally Posted by http://dictionary.zdnet.com/definition/angel+investor.html

angel = An individual who invests his or her own money in a private company, which is typically a startup. An angel investor is not an employee or member of a bank, venture capital firm or other financial institution that normally makes such investments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx-3jYJkUWQ Trailer for the movie

Novice Film 'Angels' Took Leap of Faith With 'Precious'
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 68260.html
By LAUREN A. E. SCHUKER

"Precious," a raw movie about an obese black teen growing up in an abusive Harlem household, got off the ground with some unlikely angels: A wealthy Denver couple new to the film business.

The surprise success of the movie marks a vindication for Sarah Siegel-Magness and her husband, Gary Magness, a pair of novice film investors who put up roughly $12 million to finance a project that wouldn't appeal to Hollywood studios.

"No way, no studio would make a film about an overweight black girl," says "Precious" director Lee Daniels, who produced "Monster's Ball," which won Halle Berry an Oscar.

The 36-year-old Ms. Siegel-Magness runs her own clothing company called So Low, which began with an underwear line for low-rise jeans. Her parents started the tea company Celestial Seasonings, where she worked growing up. Mr. Magness, 55, whose parents began the cable company Tele-Communications Inc. that later merged with AT&T, is a cattle rancher and oversees an investment group.

Their foray into film financing and producing wasn't part of a carefully planned strategy. "When I began to get outside counseling from Hollywood about what we had done, people were mortified," remembers Ms. Siegel-Magness. "They told us we should have instead invested in this or that fund to make 11 different movies, that we were crazy for financing an African-American movie about incest," she says.

In today's cash-starved Hollywood, where the billions Wall Street poured into Hollywood between 2004 and 2008 have dried up, individual "angel" investors like the Magnesses are more crucial than ever—and one of the only ways that gritty, independent films like "Precious" ever live to see the silver screen.

"Liquidity has dried up in a big way, and those big financing deals are gone for the moment, says Premila Hoon, who previously ran film financing at Société Générale and now has her own boutique film investment advisory firm, Entertainment Capital Advisors. "I think we will see more angel investors, and they will be a little smarter about risk."

"Precious" has already grossed nearly $9 million on just a handful of screens since opening last weekend, and Lionsgate, which bought rights to the film for $5.5 million, is preparing to release the movie on as many as 1,000 screens by Thanksgiving, initially focusing on art-house and African-American audiences before expanding it to 2,000 screens in the coming months.

"The film is not, on paper, the obvious home-run," says Joe Drake, president of Lionsgate's motion picture group. "But it offers a lot of life and humor and a real emotional journey."

Industry experts say its tough to project how "Precious" will perform over the long-haul because it hasn't yet opened in the mass market. Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood.com's box-office division, says that with the promotional push the movie is getting from Oprah and Tyler Perry it could go far at the box office. "It wouldn't surprise me if it made $25 million and $50 million would not shock me."

The Magnesses connected first with Mr. Daniels when one of his producers, Tom Heller, cold-called Ms. Siegel-Magness after reading about her clothing line. "She seemed like a passionate entrepreneur," he says. "I had a gut feeling she might like what we were doing." They set a meeting with Mr. Daniels in 2006, which was later canceled. "I assumed he found his funding," says Ms. Siegel-Magness. "I thought, 'Fine. We don't want to spend that money anyway."

But then they got another call from Mr. Heller about financing a film called "Tennessee." The Magnesses flew down to Albuquerque, N.M., the next day to meet Mr. Daniels.

"We were totally captivated by Lee from the moment he sat down," says Ms. Siegel-Magness." At one point while they were talking Mariah Carey walked by, and Mr. Daniels pulled her into the conversation. "It was the best little trick," says Ms. Siegel-Magness.

The next day, they agreed to foot the bill for 80% of the $5 million budget for "Tennessee." The movie, released earlier this year, was a flop. The Magnesses will endure a loss in the millions.

"We knew going into this that it would be nearly impossible to strike a gold mine the first time out," says Ms. Siegel-Magness. "We planned on a possible loss, but we also believed in Lee."

The couple decided they wanted to dig deeper into the movie business—and produce Mr. Daniels' next project.

Earlier, Mr. Daniels had secured the rights to the novel "Push," the story that would be turned into "Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire," which stars newcomer Gabourey Sidibe. He was interested in making the movie but worried about its appeal. "The script is written directly from the book, and the book is X-rated. It's bleak, man."

The Magnesses pressed him to make the film as soon as "Tennessee" wrapped. Even when the movie hit a snag that caused its budget to balloon, the couple didn't pull out. "I don't know if other investors would have hung in there through that," says Mr. Daniels.

The couple, meanwhile, is ready to make more films. Ms. Siegel-Magness, who spent nearly every day on the set of "Precious," says she and her husband have secured the rights to the "Judy Moody" children's book series and are preparing to shoot a larger-budget movie based on it next summer. They are also wrapping a documentary they made about philanthropy in Brazil, which they hope to enter in the Tribeca film festival.

"We know 'Precious' is an anomaly, that it won't be a consistent thing for us in this business," says Ms. Siegel-Magness. But, she adds, "We never just wanted to write a check.. We always said to Lee, 'we want to produce 'Precious' with you.'... This was our shot at being part of the film industry."

Originally Posted by rockzmom

..."We were totally captivated by Lee from the moment he sat down," says Ms. Siegel-Magness." At one point while they were talking Mariah Carey walked by, and Mr. Daniels pulled her into the conversation. "It was the best little trick," says Ms. Siegel-Magness. ..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/magaz ... wanted=all
The Audacity of ‘Precious’

By LYNN HIRSCHBERG
Published: October 21, 2009


Lee Daniels, left, is the director of "Precious." At right, Mo' Nique, generally known for stand-up, takes on a tough role in the movie.

I.

At the Cannes International Film Festival in May, in the loud, chaotic bar at the Martinez Hotel, Lee Daniels seemed, as he often does, both ecstatic and nervous. He jumped, he slumped, his mood changing from giddy to anxious. He was the only black man in the crowded bar, a fact that he mentioned and then brushed away. He was dressed unremarkably in a loose, untucked shirt and slouchy khaki pants, but his hair, an electric corona of six-inch fusilli-like spirals, demanded notice. Although Daniels will be 50 this year, he has the bouncy, mercurial energy of a child. The previous night, at the gala screening of his movie “Precious,” which he directed and helped produce, he greeted the audience by saying, “I’m a little homo, I’m a little Euro and I’m a little ghetto.” The crowd cheered.

Daniels knows what he’s selling: his films combine street-smart bravado with an art-house sensibility. “Precious,” the harrowing story of a 350-pound illiterate teenage girl who is pregnant for the second time by her father and horribly abused by her mother, is shot in an almost-documentary style interspersed with fantasy sequences. (It opens Nov. 6.) Like most independent films, it is character-driven, and at its heart is a spirit of understanding. When Precious’s plight lands her in a special school, she blossoms: the audience’s initial rejection of Precious, even repulsion at the sight of her, slowly gives way to a kind of identification.

At Cannes, the film received a 15-minute standing ovation. “They wouldn’t stop clapping,” Daniels told me as he gulped a vodka. “I’m a director — after six minutes, I’m saying, please sit down. But I’m also a producer, so I’m thinking, what’s the record? Can we break the record for the longest standing ovation at the festival?”

Just a few months before its premiere at Cannes, “Precious” won three awards at the Sundance Film Festival, including a special jury prize for Mo’Nique, who plays Precious’s monstrous mother. Graphic as the film is, it is less so than “Push,” the 1996 novel on which it is based. Written by an African-American poet and writer known as Sapphire, “Push” relied on intentionally misspelled, broken and slangy English to convey Precious’s sense of despair and rage. The novel mixes poems by Precious with sexually extreme scenes, like those in which she is forced to perform oral sex on her mother. It is almost relentlessly bleak: when Precious discovers she is H.I.V.-positive, she is certain of her imminent death. Daniels’s movie, by contrast, offers a greater sense of possibility. He doesn’t ignore her disease, hardships or struggles, but he also liberates her from them. Precious is a stand-in for anyone — black, white, male, female — who has ever been devalued or underestimated.

Yet the movie is not neutral on the subject of race and the prejudices that swirl around it, even in the supposedly postracial age of Obama. “ ‘Precious’ is so not Obama,” Daniels said. “ ‘Precious’ is so not P.C. What I learned from doing the film is that even though I am black, I’m prejudiced. I’m prejudiced against people who are darker than me. When I was young, I went to a church where the lighter-skinned you were, the closer you sat to the altar. Anybody that’s heavy like Precious — I thought they were dirty and not very smart. Making this movie changed my heart. I’ll never look at a fat girl walking down the street the same way again.”

For some audiences, that may not be reason enough to make a movie that risks reinforcing old stereotypes. It’s a criticism Daniels has heard before. “As African-Americans, we are in an interesting place,” Daniels said. “Obama’s the president, and we want to aspire to that. But part of aspiring is disassociating from the face of Precious. To be honest, I was embarrassed to show this movie at Cannes. I didn’t want to exploit black people. And I wasn’t sure I wanted white French people to see our world.” He paused. “But because of Obama, it’s now O.K. to be black. I can share that voice. I don’t have to lie. I’m proud of where I come from. And I wear it like a shield. ‘Precious’ is part of that.”

Before he could untangle this thought, Daniels was interrupted by Thierry Frémaux, the director of the Cannes Film Festival, who had been sitting in a corner booth. “I love your movie,” he said. “It’s a beautiful movie.” Frémaux put out his hand to shake. “C’est incroyable!”

As Frémaux darted away, Daniels looked stunned, then gleeful, then serious. “I am so used to having two faces,” he said, as if to explain his theatrical shifts in mood. “A face that I had for black America and a face for white America. When Obama became president, I lost both faces. Now I only have one face. But old habits die hard, and sometimes I can’t remember who I’m supposed to be.”

II.

AS A PRODUCER, Daniels had been to Cannes before. In 2004, he took “The Woodsman,” starring Kevin Bacon as a convicted sex offender, to the festival and received a respectful if guarded reception. He came to Cannes with a track record for controversial material: in 2001, he produced “Monster’s Ball,” a melodrama about bigotry and interracial love in the South. Halle Berry won an Oscar for her portrayal of a waitress who falls for a white prison guard, not knowing he helped execute her husband. Initially, Berry was considered too glamorous for the role, but Daniels fought for her. He’s known for his inventive casting: in “Monster’s Ball,” Sean Combs plays a murderer on death row; in “The Woodsman,” the hip-hop artist Mos Def is a parole officer; and in “Precious,” Mariah Carey is unrecognizable as a welfare caseworker, while Lenny Kravitz convincingly portrays a nurse. Perhaps his most inspired idea was casting Mo’Nique, known for her bawdy stand-up comedy, as Precious’s mother.

Daniels not only dreamed up casting, developed scripts and attached directors for the films he produced but, lacking backing from a major studio, also had to find financing. Because of the kind of subject matter he’s attracted to, that wasn’t easy. “In my early days, I loved the challenge,” he said as we sat in the Martinez bar in Cannes. “Even now, I don’t think twice about raising money. It’s no different than a drug deal. People have trouble getting movies made, but how many people could go out and steal for their families? You go in, you go gangster, you get what you’ve got to get and go on to the next. It’s just another hustle.”

Like the Jewish immigrants who created the movie business in Hollywood, Daniels has the will and the perspective of an outsider. “All the barriers were in Lee’s way,” explains Bob Berney, now the C.E.O. of Apparition, who bought and distributed “The Woodsman” for Newmarket. “No one was helping him. And whatever he’s seen or has happened to him in his life, it has motivated him. He’s not afraid to say, You’re not listening to me because of what I look like and who I am and you’re wrong.”

After producing two films, Daniels quickly became frustrated with not having complete control of his movies. “I kind of co-directed ‘Monster’s Ball,’ ” Daniels told me as he ordered another drink (the actual director was Marc Forster). “I gave Halle her line readings. I knew how to do that: you tap into people’s souls.” Daniels leaned forward. “I was tired of producing because, at the end of the day, I was tired of creating monster movie-star directors. I was stuck with, How am I going to find my next $2 million to make my next movie and they’re walking away to jobs that pay them $2 million. I thought, How do I get my voice across? I wanted to direct.”

Daniels, who grew up in a rough southwest Philadelphia neighborhood, wanted to make a movie that melded his history with the lush, operatic intensity of Pedro Almodóvar or Wong Kar-wai. The first film he directed, “Shadowboxer,” which he also produced, has a loony premise: a hit man (played by Cuba Gooding Jr.) is having an affair with his dying stepmother (Helen Mirren, pre-“The Queen” ), and together they are raising a child. It’s violent, sexually explicit and very strange. “ ‘Shadowboxer’ is purple, and I love purple,” Mirren told me when I called her in Los Angeles to speak about Daniels. “But that’s Lee. We met in the most unusual way. One day, I was walking on Houston Street in Manhattan and because there were a lot of holes in the road, I was looking down at my feet. I got a tap on the shoulder, and I jumped. This mad-looking man with wild dreadlocks says, ‘I love you and I have a movie I want you to do.’ I thought, this is a complete madman, I’ll never hear from this person again. Ninety-nine percent of the people who approach you this way are living in a fantasy world. But Lee, due to his charm and belief, makes his fantasies real. He doesn’t hear ‘no.’ ”

“ ‘Shadowboxer’ was based on my life,” Daniels told me, as a man began playing show tunes on the piano. “I knew killers. My uncle, who took care of me, murdered people, and yet he took care of me too. People who have gone to jail for murder are also human. Black people are not all saints.”

III.

A MONTH AFTER Cannes, Daniels was back in Manhattan in his 11th-floor loftlike apartment near Madison Square Garden. “This is where I raised money for ‘Precious,’ ” he said. Daniels, dressed in black, lay sprawled on a plum-colored sectional sofa; on a low, white table in front of him were piles of scripts and stacks of photographs from “Precious.” A Roller Disco pinball machine stood next to a baby grand piano, and a large TV screen dominated one side of the room. Although he had a separate office in the same building, Daniels’s apartment seemed more like a lavish hotel suite than a home.

“These are my girls!” he said, picking up a photo showing Gabourey Sidibe, who plays Precious, with Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, who plays the teacher who changes Precious’s life, and Mariah Carey. “Mariah is everything we’re not supposed to love and yet, we absolutely love her,” Daniels said, staring at the photo. “She’s crazy — look at her! She would throw herself under the train for you, as long as her hair was perfect.” Daniels laughed. “I made this movie for my girls. People read so much into ‘Precious.’ But at the end, it’s just this girl, and she’s trying to live. I know this chick. You know her. But we just choose not to know her.”

Daniels read “Push” when it was first published. “I slept with the book under my pillow for three months,” he said now. “At first, Sapphire wouldn’t sell me the rights. She said she had many suitors after her for the material. Then, she saw ‘Shadowboxer,’ and she cried in my arms. Critics didn’t like ‘Shadowboxer,’ but a lot of African-Americans understood it. And Sapphire saw it and trusted me with her baby.”

As the script was being written, Daniels began to figure out the financing of the movie. “Getting Sapphire’s permission was only half the challenge,” Daniels explained. “ ‘Shadowboxer’ hadn’t done so well, so I found myself back at Square 1. It was very, very hard to get financing for ‘Precious.’ All the studios said no. They didn’t want to make a film about a 350-pound black girl who is abused. Everybody kept saying no. My whole life was no. It was just a bunch of nos.”

Eventually, Daniels found independent financing. “Lee is brilliant at finding investors,” Mirren said. “On ‘Shadowboxer,’ he found this rich man in Philadelphia who paid for the movie, God bless him.” For “Precious,” Daniels raised the initial $8 million (the budget eventually grew to about $10 million) from Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, who live in Denver. Both are successful entrepreneurs and have family money — her parents founded Celestial Seasonings, and his father started the cable giant TCI — and had worked with Daniels before. They agreed that “Precious” was worth the risk. “At the end of the day, I’m a promoter,” Daniels said now. “But I also let the work speak for itself.”

Once he had the money, he needed the girl. “I couldn’t call Hollywood and say, ‘Send over all your 300-pound black girls,’ ” Daniels explained. “They’d laugh.” To find Precious, Daniels and Billy Hopkins, a casting director (and Daniels’s ex-boyfriend and the co-parent of their 13-year-old twins, Clara and Liam), held open casting calls. They went to McDonald’s and Macy’s; they visited cities like Detroit and Chicago; and they advertised in college and high-school newspapers. Daniels saw 500 girls, including one of his nieces. Ten finalists, none of whom had ever acted before, were put through an aspiring-thespian “boot camp.” “It was kind of like ‘American Idol,’ ” Daniels said. “But I still wasn’t happy. We were weeks away from filming, and I still hadn’t found Precious.”

Gabourey Sidibe (pronounced SIH-deh-bay), who is 26, knew about the movie from her mother, Alice Tan Ridley, an R&B singer who often performs in the Times Square subway station (near the entrance to the R train). Ridley had been approached about auditioning for the role of Mary, Precious’s monster of a mother. “She didn’t think she could play Mary,” Sidibe told me. “But she thought I should audition. She always thinks I can do anything. I did fit the physical requirements, and I finally decided to go read for Billy Hopkins. Afterward, he didn’t speak for 30 seconds. Later, I met with Lee, and he said, ‘I want you to be in my movie.’ The first audition was Monday, and on Wednesday, my life changed.”

Unlike Precious, Sidibe is well spoken and cheerful. “I’m not her,” Sidibe said emphatically. “But, when I was 14 or 15, I saw myself in a different way. Back then, I envied a life that I’d made up in my mind. I broke free of that unhappiness and I decided to change — I was going to be happy with myself. No matter what I look like, no matter what people think.” Daniels realized that Sidibe’s attitude was crucial to playing Precious. “My sister was an obese crack addict,” Daniels said. “She had a chicken wing in one hand and a crack pipe in the other, and yet she had a line of white men waiting for her. People make assumptions about fat people that are wrong, and like my sister, Gabby is comfortable in her body. She may be in a state of denial or on a higher plane than the rest of us, but either way, she breaks your heart in the movie.”

Daniels has said all this before — to journalists, to investors, to anyone he thinks needs convincing of Precious’s appeal. Like much of Daniels’s patter, it sounds both rehearsed and contradictory. But it’s also colorful and strangely persuasive — as long as you don’t listen too closely. Daniels is always convincing someone of something, and like any good salesman, he knows that selling is not just about the truth. “He’s not dishonest,” Bob Berney told me. “But Lee does what he thinks he has to do.”

Before Sidibe was cast, Daniels phoned Mo’Nique and told her he had a part for her that was “going to mess up your career. You are going to lose your world, your audience, your standing in the BET community.” Mo'nique was not fazed. “I did not hesitate!” she exclaimed on a warm day in September in New York City. “I said to Lee, if you want me to play this demon, I am there.” I met Mo’Nique and her ever-present entourage — bodyguard, assistant, full-time videographer who records her every move from the moment she leaves her house in Atlanta to when she returns at night — at the City Crab & Seafood Company on Park Avenue South. It was her choice. Mo’Nique, who was dressed in a tight black cocktail dress and high heels, entered the restaurant as if it were a premiere. Although she is deliberately elusive — since Sundance Mo’Nique has not attended a single festival showing of “Precious,” including Cannes, Toronto and the New York Film Festival — when she shows up (in this case, nearly an hour late) she has the radiance of the sun. “She’s got magic,” Helen Mirren told me. “During ‘Shadowboxer,’ Mo’Nique was a great inspiration to me. Casting her is classic Lee — he loves the true outsider. Not the fake Hollywood outsider, like Brad Pitt or someone. Mo’Nique is part of the world he came from, and in his movies, he manages to make that outsider world universal.”

Although Mo’Nique’s performance as Precious’s mother has generated talk of an Oscar, Daniels has heard complaints from the black community about the image her character pro­jects. “They see the film as negative to black women,” Daniels said. “Black women are the pillar of the family. Black men have left, and how dare I stab at the one thing that’s helped. So I told Mo’Nique, ‘They’re going to hate you for this movie.’ She said, ‘Let them hate me.’ ”

Mo’Nique wasn’t in town to talk about “Precious.” She recently signed a multimillion-dollar deal with BET (Black Entertainment Television) to do a nightly 11 p.m. talk show, and she had back-to-back interviews for five days to promote it. Although there have been published reports that she will not support “Precious” by going to film festivals unless she’s paid a steep fee, Mo’Nique seems unequivocally devoted to Daniels. They met at a Los Angeles party in 2002 after “Monster’s Ball,” and Daniels recalls hearing that Mo’Nique was among those who complained about the casting of Halle Berry, asking: “Why did you cast that skinny light-skinned girl in your movie?” (Mo’Nique denies having made that remark.) A year later, Daniels offered Mo’Nique a role in “Shadowboxer.” “My part was written as a size 0 white woman with big breasts,” Mo’Nique told me over lunch, after requesting three orders of jumbo buffalo shrimp to go. “And Lee gave that role to me, a 260-pound black woman with little breasts. What I dig about Lee Daniels is he’s fearless. He tells his truth. So when he called and asked me to play this demon, I said: ‘Sign me up, sugar. Sign me up.’ ”

In part, Mo’Nique was intrigued by the role of Mary Jones because, she says, she was abused by a brother when she was a young girl. The abuse supposedly began when Mo’Nique was 7 and continued for four years. “We wanted people to see the illness,” Mo’Nique explained. “Lee said, be a monster. And my brother was that monster to me. When Lee said, ‘Action,’ that’s who I became.”

Like Mo’Nique, Daniels, too, says that he was a victim of abuse, that he was beaten by his father, a policeman. “He wanted Lenny to be tough,” Daniels’s Aunt Dot, who is his father’s sister, told me. “Leonardo is Lee’s given name, and we all call him Lenny. I think Lenny was gay from the time he was a baby, and his father saw him walking and acting real feminine, and he wanted Lenny to be tough. He tried to get him into boxing. He was verbally cruel. He cracked the whip.”

According to Daniels, it didn’t stop there. “He regularly beat me,” Daniels said. “One time, I put on my mom’s red patent-leather high heels, and he beat me. I knew he loved me, but he thought I wouldn’t survive as a black gay guy.” When Daniels was 15, his father was shot and killed. “We were just starting to be friends,” Daniels said. “He died the way he lived — tragically.”

Daniels’s father was killed in 1975, when three armed men walked into a southwest Philadelphia bar where he had gone for a drink after work and started robbing the patrons. When they saw his father's badge, they shot him. “He was a hero in that moment,” Daniels told me. “But I knew a different man. It’s taken me a long time to forgive him. He wanted me to be a man who’s strong and could attack the world, so what does that say? That beating a kid is good? Being told you’re nothing makes you what you are? My father could have been sent to jail for what he did to me, but he also made me tough. I never give up. Never ever ever. I hope that doesn’t justify his behavior.”

IV.

BY THE TIME Daniels moved to Los Angeles in 1980, he had changed his name to Lee. “I should have been a casualty, honey,” he told me one afternoon this fall over rib-eye steak and lobster cocktail at his haunt, the Staghorn Steakhouse restaurant on the edge of the garment district, conveniently located on the ground floor of his apartment building. “How did I get out of where I was raised? When my father died, I started shoplifting and my brother became a drug dealer. The ghetto is a place of war. And where we have come with Obama being president is the complete opposite of where I’m from. One of my brothers — there are five of us, and I’m the oldest — has spent most of his adult life, off and on, in jail. And he now has a job. I had the gift for talk, but I could have been him. The story could have gone that way.” Daniels paused. “I came to L.A. with $7 to my name. I knew instinctively that the hustle was on.”

As always, Daniels is weaving a cinematic tale of his youth. According to Aunt Dot, he didn’t live in the ghetto, and his brother spent only about five years in jail. But things weren’t easy, and he definitely wanted out. After attending Lindenwood University in Missouri, Daniels dropped out before his junior year and moved West with the idea of becoming a screenwriter. To support himself, he took a job as a receptionist in a nursing agency. By 1980, he had opened his own home-health-care-services company. “The man he had a relationship with died,” Aunt Dot told me, filling in the blanks that Daniels intentionally kept in his life story. “And he left Lenny money. He used that money to start his business. But even then, Lenny was reaching for the stars. He was always wanting to get into movies.” Daniels maintains that he inherited only a small amount of money and that his business was already thriving. In 1983, he sold it and went to work as a casting agent and then a manager. “An early client was Nastassja Kinski,” Daniels said. “I was always good: If you sign with me, baby, I’ll get you a paycheck. But I got tired of holding purses on the red carpet. I was creating actors, but I was stifling myself.” He had read a script for one of his clients, a white actor named Wes Bentley, called “Monster’s Ball,” and he decided to raise the money and produce it. “Just like that,” Daniels recalled. “I had a 90-day option to raise the money for ‘Monster’s Ball,’ and on the 90th day, I had the money.”

This mix of fearlessness, determination and salesmanship has fueled Daniels’s career. “Lee is right in your face,” explains Bob Berney, with admiration. “And to some people, he’s scary. Not to me, but I still felt I had to say yes to him. Look at who he got to pay for ‘Precious’ — you can’t imagine a more improbable, impossible thing. They’re a lovely suburban couple. I’m sure they’d never have reached this level of success in the film business so quickly without Lee.”

When I first met Daniels in 2004, we had lunch in the meeting hall of the United House of Prayer for All People, near his former office in Harlem. He moved to New York nine years earlier, and he was living half in Harlem, half on the Upper West Side, with Billy Hopkins and their two kids. Daniels’s children were born to a brother and his girlfriend. “The babies were left on Lenny’s mother’s doorstep,” Aunt Dot recalled. “And she called social services to come get them. But Lenny stepped in. Those babies are now his and Billy’s.” This year, Daniels and Hopkins broke up and now share custody — the kids now spend four days a week on the Upper West Side with Hopkins and three days with Daniels and his boyfriend, Andy Sforzini, an actuary at Prudential Life Insurance. “They’ve been to more bar mitzvahs than they’ve been to church,” Daniels told me. “They’re these black kids living around these Upper West Side Jews. They’ve read ‘Anne Frank’ a hundred times, and they’ve never read ‘Roots.’ ” When I asked if the kids see their biological father, Daniels said: “No. My brother hates that I’m raising his kids. He’s so humiliated by the fact that I’m gay that he won’t look me in the eye.”

About his sexuality, Daniels is both defiant and deliberately provocative. “I’d prefer to be bisexual,” he told me at the Staghorn. “But I don’t think any woman is going to accept me being with a man. I had to choose. And I did. But there’s a deep connection with me and women. They listen to me. I understand them better than I understand men.”

“Shadowboxer,” released in 2006, was an attempt to fuse Daniels’s past with his present — the film tried to combine the machismo of his upbringing with a gay sensibility. “It was an anarchic shoot,” Mirren recalled enthusiastically. “Lee was learning on the set. He loved the designer Vivienne Westwood, and he told me, ‘You’re going to wear Vivienne Westwood!’ I said, ‘Why would a contract killer living in Philly wear Vivienne Westwood?’ But the why was irrelevant.”

While he was editing “Shadowboxer,” Daniels, who was living on 17th Street at the time, went for a run by the piers on the West Side. He felt a little ping in his chest. The pain increased, and by the time he arrived at his office in Harlem, he had to lie down. His assistant persuaded him to go to the doctor, who immediately realized Daniels was having a heart attack. “I’d been using a lot of cocaine. I’m embarrassed to say this, but I had to learn to bring down my bravado. When you’re finding yourself in the world, you start blinging and dinging and dingdingdang dang, and next thing you know, you’re in the hospital.”

He said that the heart attack changed him, that it was part of the reason he felt he had to make “Precious.” Unlike “Shadowboxer,” “Precious” is a world without glitz, glamour — or, for the most part, men. Daniels convinced his actresses to leave their vanity behind. “I asked Mo’Nique to grow a couple of pimples,” Daniels recalled. “And I asked her not to shave under her arms, and she went there for me.” Mariah Carey’s role was originally offered to Helen Mirren, who had scheduling conflicts. Carey and Daniels are close friends — he calls her Kitten, and she calls him Cotton — and he offered her the part on the condition that she show up at the set alone (no entourage) in a taxi (no limo) and freshly scrubbed (no makeup). “People say to me, ‘You are so ugly in this movie,’ and I take that as a compliment,” Carey told me. “During the filming, I tried to sneak some blush, but Lee caught me. He rubbed my cheek and said, ‘Take that off.’ I said, ‘But Precious is wearing makeup!’ ”

When Daniels wanted a fantasy sequence to be a Vogue photo shoot starring Precious and the magazine's editor at large, André Leon Talley, Talley looked at a clip of Sidibe from the movie and declined. Daniels fired some crew members halfway through production (“They weren’t listening to me, and I said, don’t let this hair fool you, give me what I want”), and the production ran out of money twice. Carey helped out by singing at Daniels’s house to dazzle potential investors. “I would do anything for Lee,” she said. “He can strip you down, homely you out, and you trust him, because he’s after the truth. He can drive you crazy, but what interesting person doesn’t drive you crazy?”

V.

WHEN DANIELS WAS getting up to accept the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in January, his cellphone rang, and it was Oprah Winfrey. She was calling to tell him that she had seen “Precious,” that the movie “split her open” and that she wanted to put her might behind the film. “I said, ‘I’m accepting an award right now,’ ” Daniels recalled. “She said, ‘Then why are you answering your phone?’ ”

After winning three awards, “Precious” was finally bought by a distributor. “I had shown the movie in L.A. to my manager, and he didn’t respond positively,” Daniels said. “My manager, who is white, said, ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t think anybody is going to see this movie.’ That man is no longer my manager.”

Daniels paused. It was late September, we were back at the Staghorn and he had just returned from the Toronto Film Festival, where “Precious” won the audience prize, traditionally an indicator of awards and box-office glory (last year, the winner was “Slumdog Millionaire”). In a week, “Precious” would be the centerpiece selection at the New York Film Festival.

“I decided I should cut my hair,” Daniels said, running his hand over his closely cropped head. The dreadlocks were gone. Daniels no longer looks like a wild child, but older, more sober. “I’m in another place right now,” he said. “I realize I don’t have to sing a song or dance a dance just to make my dream come true. I’ve got Oprah!”

Winfrey’s involvement with “Precious” was encouraged by Tyler Perry, perhaps the most successful African-American in the movie business, who joined her as an executive producer. The subject matter of the film resonated with both of them: Winfrey has spoken often about the sexual abuse she suffered as a young girl, and earlier this month, Perry described being mercilessly beaten by his father. With two of the biggest forces in black entertainment involved, Lionsgate bought “Precious” for $5.5 million. They might have wanted to keep Perry happy: in the last four years, Lionsgate, which distributes Tyler Perry’s films, has sold more than $400 million in tickets. Perry’s movies, which are rooted in comedy but have dramatic elements, are mostly about successful, largely middle-class black women with the same issues as their white counterparts: wayward men, complex marriages, difficult children.

“My mom loves Tyler Perry’s movies,” Daniels said. “She prefers his films to mine. Tyler is the polar opposite from me as a filmmaker. His work speaks to people who want to live in that Huxtable/Cosby world. We’ve had such a difficult time as a race of people, why not live in Tyler Perry’s world?” Daniels ordered his usual steak. “Whether you’re white, black or anything else, it’s hard to look truth in the face,” Daniels continued. “And, thank God, Tyler Perry was man enough to acknowledge the truth of ‘Precious’ and embrace it. There’s only one African-American success story in movies, and that’s Tyler Perry. I want to bring my DNA into that machine so I can make some money.”

Daniels seemed to be joking, but he did not laugh. “You know,” he said finally, “I didn’t think Obama was going to win. My kids called me a racist. They said, ‘You’re out of touch.’ ” And then I met Obama at an event in Santa Barbara. He was with Michelle. And Michelle! She is sexy. When I met Obama, I realized I’d been prejudiced by years of feeling unworthy. And that’s the message of ‘Precious.’ My world is dark, but the light is coming on.”

VI.

AT THE NEW YORK Film Festival, Daniels was nervous. With the exception of Mo’Nique, who decided to stay in Atlanta, his entire cast was there. Sidibe was resplendent in a long purple gown with a plunging neckline, and Lenny Kravitz, who was living in Paris at the time, headed to New York on the Queen Mary and attended the Saturday-night screening at Alice Tully Hall. Daniels’s next film is likely to be “Iced,” the story of a crack-addicted, Harvard-educated lawyer, starring Kravitz. “Lee has made himself a part of my life,” Kravitz told me. “After we met a few years ago, he visited me on tour. He rode the bus. And then, when I was back in New York, he started coming over for dinner all the time. This summer, he was staying with my cousins in the Bahamas, finishing a script. He has become part of my family.”

Around his cast, Daniels was ebullient. But earlier in the day, at a news conference following a screening of the movie, he was restrained and self-conscious. The questions were not particularly compelling, but Daniels, dressed in a three-piece suit, answered as if he were on a diplomatic mission. It was as if he had been coached to treat “Precious” as an Important Film With Major Intentions. His answers were polite, careful and flat. Finally, one journalist asked him if he was trying to cast an overly harsh light on inner-city life. “I always look for that gray area,” Daniels said, sounding like his old dreadlocked self. “Even the most evil person was somebody’s baby at one time. And that’s where life is lived. I’ve never been that comfortable with black and white.”


Lynn Hirschberg is editor at large for the magazine.

I also located the script for Precious if anyone is interested... This is when it was still called "Push" as it was adapted from the book of the same name by Sapphire.

http://www.lionsgateawards.com/docs/script_precious.pdf

The article Lampada posted is interesting to read. It really does shed light on the movie business and the racisim within the business and within the "races" themselves. Maybe it is why movies like these, the ones that are painful to watch, the ones that cost the least to make, the shortest to time to make, the main characters are not known to us...are sometimes the best for us to watch.

The last movie I watched was a Swedish film 'Låt den rätte komma in' (200. It's "Впусти меня" ('Let me in') in Russian and 'Let the Right One In' in English.

I won't be retelling the plot as it appears to be a rather acclaimed and famous movie (I stumbled on it by pure chance, though), and you can read everything in details here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_the_Right_One_In_(film)

I'll just mention that this is a story of friendship/love between two lonely 12 yrs olds, one of whom is harbouring a dark secret, and another has serious problems with the classmates (..or serious problems. Period). Even though the movie is vampire related, it feels suprisingly real.

I was amazed at first how similar Sweden is to the USSR. The clothes, cars, all the tiny little details, even people and yards to some extent - everything reminded me of the old Soviet films from 25-35 yrs ago. Wow... But after watching half a movie I checked wikipedia and found out (somewhat to my disappointment ) that the story takes place in the early 80's. So kudos to directors for recreating this time so well!

Just a few snapshots to show you what I meant:


The way everything seemed so familiar (winter yard in the twilight, weird metal contruptions that are supposedly remains of the playground, etc.) added to the feeling that it's strange, but possible. That it can be happening in the nearby house/yard, in fact.

Despite of all the gore and bulling it's a quiet, melancholic movie. It put me into philosophical mood. Is everything that is done in the name of love can be justified? If the answer is "No" (as it seems to be), does it mean that the "real love" is not necessarily a good thing? What is better: to love a monster or to be alone? Is Oscar one little sick boy, or maybe to the contrary he's a better person than many, more compassionate and forgiving?

I can't say that I loooved this movie, but I really enjoyed it and I recommend it to anyone, who's not too squirmish and who doesn't mind slow-paced stories.

An official trailer is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICp4g9p_rgo
I think that it gives a slightly wrong impression and looks more like a "Boo!" kind of horror movie than the film is. Probably because they packed all the 'exciting' moments into less than 2 minutes.. It does become more brutal and dark toward the end, but still..

Has anyone else seen it (or has read a book)? What do you think?

Oh I haven't seen or heard of the film, despite being Swedish... But I live in England right now, I guess I missed it. I'll check it out, it seems very good. Thanks for the review! In England you hardly ever hear of films that are not in English - people aren't interested.

But you are right that there are some similarities between Sweden and Russia. The climate is a big similarity and the way people look. Plus after 90 years of Social Democracy (more or less) there is a lot of things that you'd probably recognise from USSR era (I mean good things).

I know the area that the film was made in - a suburb South of Stockholm which was built as part of an old programme that the government had to build one million flats in 10 years. Would be fun to watch a film from there.

Okay, you may have noticed I have not been posting as much (and then again you may not have). My headaches of late have just been a bit much for me and trying to write in proper English on top of that, well...

Anyway... I thought for a second that I might have taken too much medication when I heard the plot for this movie from the Syfy channel, "Beyond Sherwood Forest." When I checked it out, I found a review online which is much better than anything I could write right now!

Of course, I do plan on watching this once I feel up to it. I mean come on... Dragons and Vampires with Robin Hood... can't miss that! You can find the DVD version of this out on the Web already.

BTW, if anyone did watch it (cough, Alex, cough)... please let us know your thoughts!

So here is the trailer... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIgsSRvI5fc

And here is the very good review...

ENJOY!

Beyond Sherwood Forest: The Fantasy of Robin Hood?

http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=...=blog&id=58380

Syfy’s weekly original movies are generally good for two things:

1) Mansquito.
2) Saying, “Sure, this is bad, but it’s no Mansquito.”

However, even SyFy’s single-minded quest to make the worst movies ever hit a snag this weekend, when they presented Beyond Sherwood Forest. It’s Robin Hood, with a dragon, and it should have been awful.

Shockingly, it wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong, it was no great shakes either, but it was just as entertaining as any episode of the recent BBC series. Better, it felt like there was a certain amount of tongue-in-cheek self-awareness of the trappings of the legend. (The blatant Prince of Thieves moment above is followed by the slow-motion path of the arrow...which bounces harmlessly off the dragon as Robin looks on, dismayed. Reader, I cracked up.)

So, if even SyFy can make a decent Robin Hood flick, that begs the question: what makes a legend tamper-proof?

The easy answer to the first question is that no legend is tamper-proof; Prince of Thieves beat the Robin Hood legend to a bloody pulp fifteen years ago. However, unlike other legends that have been buried by bad movie adaptations (Dear Greek Myths: so sorry about Troy), Robin Hood seems to survive all the spoofs and TV series that can be thrown at it, and Beyond Sherwood Forest is no exception.

See, Julian Sands is creepy. (Well, also his character is, but that’s incidental.) He kills Robin’s father and chases Robin into the woods, where little Robin grows into a comely outlaw whose Sanctuary contract must have had a rider that begins, “Sooooo, we do these weekly movies...”

Meanwhile, the equally comely Maid Marian (Erica Durance, immune to awful scripts from all that Smallville) runs away from her arranged marriage, joins forces with the woodland outlaws, and gets caught up in backlash from a populace whose ties with Robin have made them a government target.

Also, there’s a young lady vampire Druid who turns into a dragon in the sunshine and works for Julian Sands because he tore her heart out and is holding it hostage in the basement of the castle. You know, the usual.

Partially, this movie skims above the rest of the SyFy muck because it doesn’t make the mistake of trying to be more than it is; it’s a B-movie and knows it, and even though people are constantly stabbing an invisible dragon, you get the idea that they were all in it for the free trip to Prague. (Except Julian, who looks like he really believes there’s a dragon, because that’s how he rolls.)

But in another smart move, the movie itself sidelines the dragon until it needs an excuse for CGI or a reason for vampire Druids to be hanging out in Sherwood Forest. (That’s how you know it’s a SyFy movie.) But the A-plot is largely what every Robin Hood movie is about: the struggle of a few good-hearted outlaws with superhuman fighting abilities going up against the tyranny of an illegitimate governor.

It’s an odd choice for a SyFy premise, except that Robin Hood already slides close to the edge of the fantasy line with his preternatural abilities and +10 charisma. (Peter S. Beagle nailed it with his ghostly Robin Hood procession in The Last Unicorn: too fantastic, even in a fantasy world.) Really, is it only strange that no one added dragons to this guy a little sooner?

Recent remakes of Robin Hood have focused on the gritty realism of the legend; the BBC series paints Robin has a traumatized war veteran, and Ridley Scott’s upcoming take handles the idea of a hero whose best days are behind him. But Robin Hood is, at heart, an escapist fantasy; his legend centers on unbelievable abilities, a supporting cast Joss Whedon would envy, and his success through chivalry (a code of behavior more often lauded than practiced). He was, like most folk heroes, more than human; and what better fantasy than that?

Also, this one time, he fought a dragon.

THE WOMEN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS 2009

I have actually managed to watch a few of these while lying around here...
I've seen: Julie & Julia, Precious, Grey Gardens, & Up.

Has anyone one else seen any of these films?


BEST MOVIE ABOUT WOMEN
*TIE
Coco Before Chanel
My One And Only

BEST MOVIE BY A WOMAN
Julie & Julia: Nora Ephron

BEST WOMAN STORYTELLER [Screenwriting Award]
Sunshine Cleaning: Megan Holley

BEST ACTRESS
Abbie Cornish: Bright Star

BEST ACTOR
Ben Foster: The Messenger

BEST YOUNG ACTRESS
Sidibe Gabourey: Precious

BEST COMEDIC ACTRESS
Meryl Streep: Julie & Julia

BEST FOREIGN FILM BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
Seraphine

BEST FEMALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
American Violet
Amreeka
The Baader Meinhof Complex
Inglourious Basterds
Lemon Tree
The Messenger
My Sister's Keeper
Sweet Crude

BEST THEATRICALLY UNRELEASED MOVIE BY OR ABOUT WOMEN [Includes films
released on DVD or TV, or screened at film festivals, in recognition of the
limited opportunities available for films by and about women on screen]
Grey Gardens

BEST EQUALITY OF THE SEXES
Julie & Julia

BEST ANIMATED FEMALE
Princess And The Frog: Anika Noni Rose as Tiana

BEST FAMILY FILM
Up

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Gertrude Berg [Posthumous]: Yoo-Hoo Mrs.
Goldberg: Aviva Kempner, director

ACTING AND ACTIVISM: Emma Thompson - For her work on and off screen against
sex trafficking

*ADRIENNE SHELLY AWARD: For a film that most passionately opposes violence
against women:
Precious

*JOSEPHINE BAKER AWARD: For best expressing the woman of color experience in
America
American Violet

*KAREN MORLEY AWARD: For best exemplifying a woman's place in history or
society, and a courageous search for identity
An Education

COURAGE IN ACTING [Taking on unconventional roles that radically redefine
the images of women on screen]
Isabella Rossellini: Green Porno

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN AWARD [Supporting performance by a woman whose
exceptional impact on the film dramatically, socially or historically, has
been ignored]
Olivia Williams: An Education

BEST DOCUMENTARIES BY WOMEN:

GROUNDBREAKER: The Beaches of Agnès, Agnès Varda

ABOVE AND BEYOND: American Casino, Leslie Cockburn

COURAGE IN FILMMAKING: Tattooed Under Fire, Nancy Schiesari

WARNING! Johanna, you will NOT approve of the ending!

However, this is a VERY clever little short. After you watch it the first time, go back and pause it at the :50 second mark so you can read the scrolling breaking news.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFK_XuVqsCQ

Originally Posted by rockzmom

WARNING! Johanna, you will NOT approve of the ending!

However, this is a VERY clever little short. After you watch it the first time, go back and pause it at the :50 second mark so you can read the scrolling breaking news.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFK_XuVqsCQ

Ha! This is brilliant.

Originally Posted by Waterlaz

Originally Posted by rockzmom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFK_XuVqsCQ

Ha! This is brilliant.

Yeah, I like it too!

Originally Posted by rockzmom

ACTING AND ACTIVISM: Emma Thompson - For her work on and off screen against
sex trafficking

I love Emma Thompson! I've recently read her "Diaries" about "Sense and Sensibility" -- she comes across as a very funny, witty, and intelligent person.

Haven't seen any of those movies, though. I think I'd like to watch "Coco before Chanel". If anyone has seen it, do share your impressions!

Shocking video Rockzmom!!! I am horrified!
So un-PC! Perhaps DDT and Dogboy made it...

That lamp could have been re-educated... It probably came from a bad factory and was not fully responsible for how things turned out...

======================================
About the female-centred films
100% interesting post.

Would you believe it - I haven't seen a SINGLE ON of those films. I have Grey Gardens on my hard drive but haven't watched it.

I will definitely watch out for those.

And I agree with Starrysky that Coco C. is a very interesting person. There was a time when I practically worshipped her, but no longer...
Also agree that Emma Thompson is an allround excellent person. I'm pretty sure she's got a degree in... English I think, from Oxford or Cambridge. She's much more than a pretty face (in fact, I think she's 45 or so by now). I admire her a lot. Another English actress who is cool is definitely Kate Winslet.

Are there any popular tv shows that are shown online with english subtitles? All of these older youtube vids have been taken down due to term violations.

Originally Posted by Zombie Acorn

Are there any popular tv shows that are shown online with english subtitles? All of these older youtube vids have been taken down due to term violations.

Zombie Acorn.. Welcome to MR!
I had not realized that some of the videos were no longer valid!
As for your question... hmmmm.. I am not the best person to answer that as English is my native language. HOWEVER, I think it might be best to download the TV show of choice and then the subtitles and match them up together. That is what we tend to do with the Russian films

As for what TV shows.. I have often recommended Gilmore Girls as a very good show as it uses "real" American English and it is how people really speak. One on top of the other in half spoken, run on sentences. They also have a number of references to pop culture with music, film and books. One can learn a great deal besides English from watching this series. Also, the scripts for these are available online so you can read everything.

I know that House, M.D. is another one that is very well acted and has a great script.

Anyone else have suggestions?

Wow!!! We are doing pretty well here on our "little" thread. The nominations are out for the Golden Globes and look at how many of them we HAVE been posting about over the last year!!

Please feel free to post comments about any of these nominations or ones that you thought should have been nominated but were not.

Best Motion Picture - Drama
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire
Up In The Air

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama
Emily Blunt – The Young Victoria
Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Helen Mirren – The Last Station
Carey Mulligan – An Education
Gabourey Sidibe – Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - DramaJ
Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
George Clooney – Up In The Air
Colin Firth – A Single Man
Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Tobey Maguire – Brothers

Best Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy
(500) Days Of Summer
The Hangover
It's Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Sandra Bullock – The Proposal
Marion Cotillard – Nine
Julia Roberts – Duplicity
Meryl Streep – It's Complicated
Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy
Matt Damon – The Informant!
Daniel Day-Lewis – Nine
Robert Downey Jr. – Sherlock Holmes
Joseph Gordon-Levitt – (500) Days Of Summer
Michael Stuhlbarg – A Serious Man

Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Penélope Cruz – Nine
Vera Farmiga – Up In The Air
Anna Kendrick – Up In The Air
Mo'nique – Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire
Julianne Moore – A Single Man

Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Matt Damon – Invictus
Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

Best Animated Feature Film
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess And The Frog
Up

Best Foreign Language Film
Baaria (Italy)
Broken Embraces (Spain)
The Maid (La Nana) (Chile)
A Prophet (Un Prophete) (France)
The White Ribbon (Das Weisse Band - Eine Deutsche Kindergeschichte) (Germany)

Best Director - Motion Picture
Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
James Cameron – Avatar
Clint Eastwood – Invictus
Jason Reitman – Up In The Air
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
It's Complicated
Up In The Air

Best Original Score - Motion Picture
Up
The Informant!
Avatar
A Single Man
Where The Wild Things Are

Best Original Song - Motion Picture
"Cinema Italiano" – Nine
"I See You" – Avatar
"I Want To Come Home" – Everybody's Fine
"The Weary Kind (Theme From Crazy Heart)" – Crazy Heart
"Winter" – Brothers

Best Television Series - Drama
Big Love
Dexter
House
Mad Men
True Blood

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Drama
Glenn Close – Damages
January Jones – Mad Men
Julianna Margulies – The Good Wife
Anna Paquin – True Blood
Kyra Sedgwick – The Closer

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Drama
Simon Baker – The Mentalist
Michael C. Hall – Dexter
Jon Hamm – Mad Men
Hugh Laurie – House
Bill Paxton – Big Love

Best Television Series - Musical Or Comedy
30 Rock
Entourage
Glee
Modern Family
The Office

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy
Toni Collette – United States Of Tara
Courteney Cox – Cougar Town
Edie Falco – Nurse Jackie
Tina Fey – 30 Rock
Lea Michele – Glee

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy
Alec Baldwin – 30 Rock
Steve Carell – The Office
David Duchovny – Californication
Thomas Jane – Hung
Matthew Morrison – Glee

Best Mini-Series Or Motion Picture Made for Television
Georgia O'Keeffe
Grey Gardens
Into The Storm
Little Dorrit
Taking Chance

Best Performance by an Actress In A Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Joan Allen – Georgia O'Keeffe
Drew Barrymore – Grey Gardens
Jessica Lange – Grey Gardens
Anna Paquin – The Courageous Heart Of Irena
Sigourney Weaver – Prayers For Bobby

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Kevin Bacon – Taking Chance
Kenneth Branagh – Wallander: One Step Behind
Chiwetel Ejiofor – Endgame
Brendan Gleeson – Into The Storm
Jeremy Irons – Georgia O'Keeffe

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Jane Adams – Hung
Rose Byrne – Damages
Jane Lynch – Glee
Janet McTeer – Into The Storm
Chlo Sevigny – Big Love

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Michael Emerson – Lost
Neil Patrick Harris – How I Met Your Mother
William Hurt – Damages
John Lithgow – Dexter
Jeremy Piven – Entourage

Originally Posted by rockzmom

Originally Posted by Zombie Acorn

Are there any popular tv shows that are shown online with english subtitles? All of these older youtube vids have been taken down due to term violations.

Zombie Acorn.. Welcome to MR!
I had not realized that some of the videos were no longer valid!
As for your question... hmmmm.. I am not the best person to answer that as English is my native language. HOWEVER, I think it might be best to download the TV show of choice and then the subtitles and match them up together. That is what we tend to do with the Russian films

As for what TV shows.. I have often recommended Gilmore Girls as a very good show as it uses "real" American English and it is how people really speak. One on top of the other in half spoken, run on sentences. They also have a number of references to pop culture with music, film and books. One can learn a great deal besides English from watching this series. Also, the scripts for these are available online so you can read everything.

I know that House, M.D. is another one that is very well acted and has a great script.

Anyone else have suggestions?

English is my native language also, which is why I am clueless about finding good Russian shows (I see now that I wasn't very clear in my initial posting).

I have just started learning Russian and am now just trying to build a basic Russian vocabulary, not sure what TV shows are popular in Russia or if TV in Russia is anything like what we have in the US.

Originally Posted by Zombie Acorn

English is my native language also, which is why I am clueless about finding good Russian shows (I see now that I wasn't very clear in my initial posting).

I have just started learning Russian and am now just trying to build a basic Russian vocabulary, not sure what TV shows are popular in Russia or if TV in Russia is anything like what we have in the US.

Ahhhhh. too funny, sorry about that. Let's try again shall we?
Way back on page 13, I had posted a listing of RUSSIAN movies and cartoons and such... most of which have ENGLISH subtitles. I just did a quick check of those and only one had a bad link and I fond a new link for that one. As it is WAY back on page 13, I guess I should repost it here for new comers to the thread like you!

The cartoons are not like the ones we have here in the US, the are VERY well done and you might want to start with those. If I remember correctly, there was a thread about subtitles not too long ago and most Russian shows do not have subtitles (if I am wrong, someone please jump in here and correct me). We also have a music thread and Playlist on YouTube which has a number of Russian songs. In the thread we have most of the lyrics. That might assist you in picking up a few words AND Lampada posts a great number of songs in Russian with their lyrics as well.

Now, back to watching things on YouTube, there is one user there who has a Channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/birubirFilms, there you can easily find many Russian films with English subtitles.


================================================== =

Master Russian Film List
UPDATED as of DECEMBER 16, 2009

Below is a list of RUSSIAN films & CARTOONS/ANIMATED FILMS! (at the bottom after the films) and current links! If you want me to add a film (or I missed one), please let me know and provide a link for me (one with English subtitles would of course be VERY nice). Unless otherwise noted, the links provided all have ENGLISH subtitles.

If you find any broken links, errors, or better links, please let me know!

Alphabetical order (English)*

"12" (razgnevannyh muzhchin), 2007
(Crime/Drama/Thriller)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_(film)
(This film is based off of an American play and the 1957 American film "12 Angry Men")

http://www.mininova.org/tor/1964056%...0DVD%20quality


“17 Moments of Spring”, (Семнадцать мгновений весны), 1973
( Adventure/Drama/War/Spy/History)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sevente...ents_of_Spring

Summary that might help if you have never read the book http://www.sovlit.com/spies/17moments.html

Theme song http://download.sovmusic.ru/m/mgnoven.mp3 (thanks starrysky)

You can download this video (avi-file with English subtitles, DivX or XViD, 25 fps) from Russian Yandex-server. It's very easy.
How to download a movie:
1. Enter the following links:
Part 1: http://narod.ru/disk/8573042000/17_M...rt_01.avi.html
Part 2: http://narod.ru/disk/8564013000/17_M...rt_02.avi.html
Part 3: http://narod.ru/disk/8565491000/17_M...rt_03.avi.html
Part 4: http://narod.ru/disk/8568356000/17_M...rt_04.avi.html
Part 5: http://narod.ru/disk/8570771000/17_M...rt_05.avi.html
Part 6: http://narod.ru/disk/8560804000/17_M...rt_06.avi.html
Part 7: http://narod.ru/disk/8654589000/17_M...rt_07.avi.html
Part 8: http://narod.ru/disk/8656399000/17_M...rt_08.avi.html
Part 9: http://narod.ru/disk/8659038000/17_M...rt_09.avi.html
Part 10: http://narod.ru/disk/8661156000/17_M...rt_10.avi.html
Part 11: http://narod.ru/disk/8664119000/17_M...rt_11.avi.html
Part 12: http://narod.ru/disk/8653012000/17_M...rt_12.avi.html

2. Enter the numbers placed in the window over the green button.
3. Press the green button "СКАЧАТЬ".
4. A page will open with the link starting with http//. Press the link.
Notes: If you don't want to install Yandex Bar, please remove the sign from the control box (into the yellow background). Yandex Bar performs a function for downloading without using control numbers, i.e. next time, if you want to download any file from Yandex-server, you’ll get the download link without entering control numbers.
5 A window will open. Choose "Save".
6. Download the movie.
7. Enjoy.
Part 1 file size 701 mb
Part 2 file size 677 mb
Part 3 file size 496 mb
Part 4 file size 700 mb
Part 5 file size 656 mb
Part 6 file size 486 mb
Part 7 file size 535 mb
Part 8 file size 466 mb
Part 9 file size 688 mb
Part 10 file size 468 mb
Part 11 file size 493 mb
Part 12 file size 522 mb

OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s43d3XGbbF4 (English Subtitles) Part 1/12 (1/7).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VL0mLBN4VU (English Subtitles) Part 2/12 (1/7).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPhl_28JbbY (English Subtitles) Part 3/12 (1/7).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EcC6tUJtNo (English Subtitles) Part 4/12 (1/.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK7A4EKkwcU (English Subtitles) Part 5/12 (1/7).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS67-nhX4xI (English Subtitles) Part 6/12 (1/.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpxh3JYzWhY (English Subtitles) Part 7/12 (1/7).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsuABKZC2fo (English Subtitles) Part 8/12 (1/7).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRLgcQBnv5I (English Subtitles) Part 9/12 (1/.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eihx_XPj9pM (English Subtitles) Part 10/12 (1/7).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiBAakG6qsg (English Subtitles) Part 11/12 (1/7).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKJPGC4h7tY (English Subtitles) Part 12/12 (1/7).


"An Usual Wonder" aka "An Ordinary Miracle", (Обыкновенное чудо, Obyknovennoye chudo), 1978 (Comedy/Fantasy/Musical/Romance)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Ordi...le_(1978_film)

You can download this video (avi-file with English subtitles, DivX or XViD, 25 fps) from Russian Yandex-server. It's very easy.
How to download a movie:
1. Enter the following links:
Part 1: http://narod.ru/disk/7490213000/Usua...art-1.avi.html
Part 2: http://narod.ru/disk/7495214000/Usua...art-2.avi.html
2. Enter the numbers placed in the window over the green button.
3. Press the green button "СКАЧАТЬ".
4. A page will open with the link starting with http//. Press the link.
Notes: If you don't want to install Yandex Bar, please remove the sign from the control box (into the yellow background). Yandex Bar performs a function for downloading without using control numbers, i.e. next time, if you want to download any file from Yandex-server, you’ll get the download link without entering control numbers.
5 A window will open. Choose "Save".
6. Download the movie.
7. Enjoy. Part 1 file size 545 mb, Part 2 file size 561 mb

OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV_wnsa86kg (English Subtitles) Part 1 of 2 (1/.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OFTCxTAbv4 (English Subtitles) Part 2 of 2 (1/7).


“Anna Karenina”, (Анна Каренина), 1967
(Drama/Romance)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Karenina_(1967_film)

You can download this video (avi-file with English subtitles, DivX or XViD, 25 fps) from Russian Yandex-server. It's very easy.
How to download a movie:
1. Enter the following links:
Part 1: http://narod.ru/disk/9399847000/Anna...art-1.avi.html
Part 2: http://narod.ru/disk/9402574000/Anna...art-2.avi.html
2. Enter the numbers placed in the window over the green button.
3. Press the green button "СКАЧАТЬ".
4. A page will open with the link starting with http//. Press the link.
Notes: If you don't want to install Yandex Bar, please remove the sign from the control box (into the yellow background). Yandex Bar performs a function for downloading without using control numbers, i.e. next time, if you want to download any file from Yandex-server, you’ll get the download link without entering control numbers.
5 A window will open. Choose "Save".
6. Download the movie.
7. Enjoy. Part 1 file size 780 mb, Part 2 file size 693 mb

OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlcgRFRbE_A (English subtitles). Part 1/2 (1/7).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlzzngOLudE (English subtitles) Part 2/2 (1/6).


"Battleship Potemkin",( Броненосец «Потёмкин», Bronyenosyets Potyomkin), 1925
(Drama/History/War)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battleship_Potemkin
Two ways to watch online!
http://vodpod.com/watch/49049-battle...in-1hr-12-mins
OR
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPXAXP0Zl-s
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBz-5ltUbnM


"Beware of the Car", (Береги́сь автомоби́ля) 1966
(Comedy/Crime/Romance)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beware_of_the_Car

You can download this video (avi-file with English subtitles, DivX or XViD, 25 fps) from Russian Yandex-server. It's very easy.
How to download a movie:
1. Enter the following link:
http://narod.ru/disk/10590138000/Bew..._subs.avi.html
2. Enter the numbers placed in the window over the green button.
3. Press the green button "СКАЧАТЬ".
4. A page will open with the link starting with http//. Press the link.
Notes: If you don't want to install Yandex Bar, please remove the sign from the control box (into the yellow background). Yandex Bar performs a function for downloading without using control numbers, i.e. next time, if you want to download any file from Yandex-server, you’ll get the download link without entering control numbers.
5 A window will open. Choose "Save".
6. Download the movie.
7. Enjoy. The file size 622 mb

OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ShikJjPu6g Part 1/9


Burnt by the Sun, (Утомлённые солнцем), 1994
(Drama)
(A sequel has been announced and is due to be released in 2010)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnt_by_the_Sun

Awards
Winner, Oscar (Academy Award), Best Foreign Language Film 1994.
Winner, Grand Prize, Cannes Film Festival 1994

You can download this video (avi-file with English subtitles, DivX or XViD, 25 fps) from Russian Yandex-server. It's very easy.
How to download a movie:
1. Enter the following link:
http://narod.ru/disk/12909988000/Bur..._subs.avi.html
2. Enter the numbers placed in the window over the green button.
3. Press the green button "СКАЧАТЬ".
4. A page will open with the link starting with http//. Press the link.
Notes: If you don't want to install Yandex Bar, please remove the sign from the control box (into the yellow background). Yandex Bar performs a function for downloading without using control numbers, i.e. next time, if you want to download any file from Yandex-server, you’ll get the download link without entering control numbers.
5 A window will open. Choose "Save".
6. Download the movie.
7. Enjoy. The file size 1.66 gb:.

OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maiSAdCN1DQ Part 1/14


“Charodey" or "Sorcerers" or "Magicians”, (Чародеи), 1982
(Family)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charodey

http://torrents.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1288203
(could not find English subtitles though...)


"Day Watch", (Дневной дозор, Dnevnoi dozor), 2006
(Action/Fantasy/Horror/Thriller)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_Watch
(This film is the second of four, loosely based on the novels by Sergei Lukyanenko)

http://movie25.com/day-watch_669.html


“Formula of Love”, (Формула любви), 1984
(Romantic Comedy)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_of_Love_(film)

http://www.memocast.com/mediadetails.aspx?id=25932


“Gentlemen of Fortune”, (джентльмены удачи), 1972
(Comedy/Crime/Drama/Mystery/Romance)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentlemen_of_Fortune

You can download this video (avi-file with English subtitles, DivX or XViD, 25 fps) from Russian Yandex-server. It's very easy.
How to download a movie:
1. Enter the following link:
http://narod.ru/disk/7332007000/Gent..._subs.avi.html
2. Enter the numbers placed in the window over the green button.
3. Press the green button "СКАЧАТЬ".
4. A page will open with the link starting with http//. Press the link.
Notes: If you don't want to install Yandex Bar, please remove the sign from the control box (into the yellow background). Yandex Bar performs a function for downloading without using control numbers, i.e. next time, if you want to download any file from Yandex-server, you’ll get the download link without entering control numbers.
5 A window will open. Choose "Save".
6. Download the movie.
7. Enjoy. The file size 947 mb.

OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBaslOFO6Ow (English subtitles). Part 1 of 9


"Heart of a Dog", (Собачье сердце, Sobachye serdtse), 1988
(Drama/Sci-Fi)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_a_Dog

Awards
Winner, Prix Italia for Fiction, for the 1989 Prix Italia Awards (Italy)

THREE WAYS TO WATCH!!!
Part 1:
http://www.guba.com/watch/3000012924...78d56532c5010a
Part 2:
http://www.guba.com/watch/3000013241...d6e248a8bb11fe

English Subtitles:
http://www.divxtitles.com/subtitles/...Heart_of_a_dog
http://english.getsub.org/english-su...of-a-dog-18693

You can download this video (avi-file with English subtitles, DivX or XViD, 25 fps) from Russian Yandex-server. It's very easy.
How to download a movie:
1. Enter the following links:
Part 1: http://narod.ru/disk/8698665000/Hear...art_2.avi.html
Part 2: http://narod.ru/disk/8700504000/Hear...art_1.avi.html
2. Enter the numbers placed in the window over the green button.
3. Press the green button "СКАЧАТЬ".
4. A page will open with the link starting with http//. Press the link.
Notes: If you don't want to install Yandex Bar, please remove the sign from the control box (into the yellow background). Yandex Bar performs a function for downloading without using control numbers, i.e. next time, if you want to download any file from Yandex-server, you’ll get the download link without entering control numbers.
5 A window will open. Choose "Save".
6. Download the movie.
7. Enjoy. Part 1 file size 619 mb, Part 2 file size 619 mb

OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEuzB9zomn0 (English Subtitles) Part 1 of 2 (1/7).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toVkNXDDyQU (English Subtitles) Part 2 of 2 (1/7).


“Hello, I’m Your Aunt!”, (Здравствуйте, я ваша тётя!), 1975
(Musical Comedy)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello,_I'm_Your_Aunt!

You can download this video (avi-file with English subtitles, DivX or XViD, 25 fps) from Russian Yandex-server. It's very easy.
How to download a movie:
1. Enter the following link:
http://narod.ru/disk/4176019000/Hell..._subs.avi.html
2. Enter the numbers placed in the window over the green button.
3. Press the green button "СКАЧАТЬ".
4. A page will open with the link starting with http//. Press the link.
Notes: If you don't want to install Yandex Bar, please remove the sign from the control box (into the yellow background). Yandex Bar performs a function for downloading without using control numbers, i.e. next time, if you want to download any file from Yandex-server, you’ll get the download link without entering control numbers.
5 A window will open. Choose "Save".
6. Download the movie.
7. Enjoy.
The file size 617 mb.

OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkrF4swOnOU (English Subtitles). Part 1 of 10


"Irony of Fate", (Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром) 1975
(Romantic Comedy)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_of_Fate

(This film is traditionally broadcast in Russia and some other former Soviet republics every New Year's Eve)

You can download this video (avi-file with English subtitles, DivX or XViD, 25 fps) from Russian Yandex-server. It's very easy.
How to download a movie:
1. Enter the following link:
Part 1: http://narod.ru/disk/13720593000/The...art-1.avi.html
Part 2: http://narod.ru/disk/13717599000/The...art-2.avi.html
2. Enter the numbers placed in the window over the green button.
3. Press the green button "СКАЧАТЬ".
4. A page will open with the link starting with http//. Press the link.
Notes: If you don't want to install Yandex Bar, please remove the sign from the control box (into the yellow background). Yandex Bar performs a function for downloading without using control numbers, i.e. next time, if you want to download any file from Yandex-server, you’ll get the download link without entering control numbers.
5 A window will open. Choose "Save".
6. Download the movie.
7. Enjoy. Part 1 file size 1.35 gb, Part 2 file size 1.14 gb

OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rg3OC6XJY0 Part 1/2 (1/10)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRgLerlnjmo Part 2/2 (1/


"Ivan Vasilievich Changes Occupation", (Иван Васильевич меняет профессию) 1973
(Action/Adventure/Comedy/Sci-Fi)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Va..._to_the_Future

You can download this video (avi-file with English subtitles, DivX or XViD, 25 fps) from Russian Yandex-server. It's very easy.
How to download a movie:
1. Enter the following link:
http://narod.ru/disk/12231502000/Iva..._subs.avi.html
2. Enter the numbers placed in the window over the green button.
3. Press the green button "СКАЧАТЬ".
4. A page will open with the link starting with http//. Press the link.
Notes: If you don't want to install Yandex Bar, please remove the sign from the control box (into the yellow background). Yandex Bar performs a function for downloading without using control numbers, i.e. next time, if you want to download any file from Yandex-server, you’ll get the download link without entering control numbers.
5 A window will open. Choose "Save".
6. Download the movie.
7. Enjoy. The file size 1.11 gb.

OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQnwOVo7xes Part 1/9


"Kidnapping, Caucasian Style" or "Prisoner of the Caucasus", or "Shurik's New Adventures", (Кавказская пленница, или Новые приключения Шурика, Kavkazskaya plennitsa, ili Novie priklucheniya Shurika), 1967
(Action/Adventure/Comedy/Music/Romance)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapp...aucasian_Style

You can download this video (avi-file with English subtitles, DivX or XViD, 25 fps) from Russian Yandex-server. It's very easy.
How to download a movie:
1. Enter the following link:
http://narod.ru/disk/7333230000/Kavk..._subs.avi.html
2. Enter the numbers placed in the window over the green button.
3. Press the green button "СКАЧАТЬ".
4. A page will open with the link starting with http//. Press the link.
Notes: If you don't want to install Yandex Bar, please remove the sign from the control box (into the yellow background). Yandex Bar performs a function for downloading without using control numbers, i.e. next time, if you want to download any file from Yandex-server, you’ll get the download link without entering control numbers.
5 A window will open. Choose "Save".
6. Download the movie.
7. Enjoy. The file size 532 mb.

OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC9zASOCUI0 (English subtitles). Part 1 of 8


"Kin-dza-dza!", (Кин-дза-дза!), 1986
(Sci-Fi/Comedy/Drama)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin-dza-dza!

http://rapidlinks.ru/link/?lnk=13024
And watch it with these subtitles http://www.divxsubtitles.net/page_su...n.php?ID=99972


"Night Watch", (Ночной дозор, Nochnoy dozor), 2004
(Action/Fantasy/Horror/Thriller)
(This film is the first of four, loosely based on the novels by Sergei Lukyanenko)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_W...s.avi.html</a>
2. Enter the numbers placed in the window over the green button.
3. Press the green button "СКАЧАТЬ".
4. A page will open with the link starting with http//. Press the link.
Notes: If you don't want to install Yandex Bar, please remove the sign from the control box (into the yellow background). Yandex Bar performs a function for downloading without using control numbers, i.e. next time, if you want to download any file from Yandex-server, you’ll get the download link without entering control numbers.
5 A window will open. Choose "Save".
6. Download the movie.
7. Enjoy. The file size 803 mb

OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6MWS0Xqokk (English Subtitles) Part 1 of 10.


"The Diamond Arm", (Бриллиантовая рука), 1968:
(Action/Adventure/Comedy)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamond_Arm

You can download this video (avi-file with English subtitles, DivX or XViD, 25 fps) from Russian Yandex-server. It's very easy.
How to download a movie:
1. Enter the following link:
http://narod.ru/disk/7326997000/Bril..._subs.avi.html
2. Enter the numbers placed in the window over the green button.
3. Press the green button "СКАЧАТЬ".
4. A page will open with the link starting with http//. Press the link.
Notes: If you don't want to install Yandex Bar, please remove the sign from the control box (into the yellow background). Yandex Bar performs a function for downloading without using control numbers, i.e. next time, if you want to download any file from Yandex-server, you’ll get the download link without entering control numbers.
5 A window will open. Choose "Save".
6. Download the movie.
7. Enjoy. The file size 650 mb

OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjxjkYTcqRw (English subtitles). Part 1 of 10.
(please note, when I first watched online, it had a very bad Russian soundtrack, not certain if it has been fixed)


"The Hounds of the Baskervilles", (Приключения Шерлока Холмса и доктора Ватсона: Собака Баскервилей), 1981
(Crime/Mystery)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hou...es_(1981_film)

You can download this video (avi-file with English subtitles, DivX or XViD, 25 fps) from Russian Yandex-server. It's very easy.
How to download a movie:
1. Enter the following links:

Part 1: http://narod.ru/disk/4358781000/Houn...art_1.avi.html
Part 2: http://narod.ru/disk/4358782000/Houn...art_2.avi.html

2. Enter the numbers placed in the window over the green button.
3. Press the green button "СКАЧАТЬ".
4. A page will open with the link starting with http//. Press the link.
Notes: If you don't want to install Yandex Bar, please remove the sign from the control box (into the yellow background). Yandex Bar performs a function for downloading without using control numbers, i.e. next time, if you want to download any file from Yandex-server, you’ll get the download link without entering control numbers.
5 A window will open. Choose "Save".
6. Download the movie.
7. Enjoy. Part 1 file size 408 mb, Part 2 file size 393 mb

OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwR-sW2sN5w(English Subtitles) Part 1/2 (1/7).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV0oUI-Ytv0 (English Subtitles) Part 2/2 (1/7).


"The Lady with the Little Dog", (Дама с собачкой, Dama s sobachkoy), 1960
(Drama/Romance)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lad...the_Dog_(film)

Awards
Winner Diploma of Merit, Foreign Actor (Aleksey Batalov) at the 1962 Jussi Awards (Finland)

You can download this video (avi-file with English subtitles, DivX or XViD, 25 fps) from Russian Yandex-server. It's very easy.
How to download a movie:
1. Enter the following link:
http://narod.ru/disk/8820502000/Lady..._subs.avi.html
2. Enter the numbers placed in the window over the green button.
3. Press the green button "СКАЧАТЬ".
4. A page will open with the link starting with http//. Press the link.
Notes: If you don't want to install Yandex Bar, please remove the sign from the control box (into the yellow background). Yandex Bar performs a function for downloading without using control numbers, i.e. next time, if you want to download any file from Yandex-server, you’ll get the download link without entering control numbers.
5 A window will open. Choose "Save".
6. Download the movie.
7. Enjoy. The file size 969 mb


OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EtFg4yJVJc (English Subtitles) Part 1/8


"The Master and Margarita", (Мастер и Маргарита), 2005
(NOTE: This is the 10 part mini-series from 2005, below there is the information and link for Yuri Kara's Version )
(Drama/Mystery/Romance/Thriller)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mas...05_miniseries)

Music from this 2005 series:
http://www.tfile.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?t=158401 (this link has 8 songs including the main introduction song)
http://mp3forum.com.ua/showtopic81183.html (this link has the full 2 disk CD from the series)

THIS IS THE MINI SERIES (Bortko's version) Below is the link for Yuri Kara's Version
You can download this video (avi-file with English subtitles, DivX or XViD, 25 fps) from Russian Yandex-server. It's very easy.
How to download a movie:
1. Enter the following links:
Part 1: http://narod.ru/disk/3892370000/Mast..._subs.avi.html
Part 2: http://narod.ru/disk/3892715000/Mast..._subs.avi.html
Part 3: http://narod.ru/disk/3893441000/Mast..._subs.avi.html
Part 4: http://narod.ru/disk/3893631000/Mast..._subs.avi.html
Part 5: http://narod.ru/disk/3900056000/Mast..._subs.avi.html
Part 6: http://narod.ru/disk/3918570000/Mast..._subs.avi.html
Part 7: http://narod.ru/disk/3934994000/Mast..._subs.avi.html
Part 8: http://narod.ru/disk/3935347000/Mast..._subs.avi.html
Part 9: http://narod.ru/disk/3935673000/Mast..._subs.avi.html
Part 10: http://narod.ru/disk/3935860000/Mast..._subs.avi.html

2. Enter the numbers placed in the window over the green button.
3. Press the green button "СКАЧАТЬ".
4. A page will open with the link starting with http//. Press the link.
Notes: If you don't want to install Yandex Bar, please remove the sign from the control box (into the yellow background). Yandex Bar performs a function for downloading without using control numbers, i.e. next time, if you want to download any file from Yandex-server, you’ll get the download link without entering control numbers.
5 A window will open. Choose "Save".
6. Download the movie.
7. Enjoy.
Part 1 file size 267 mb.
Part 2 file size 297 mb.
Part 3 file size 299 mb
Part 4 file size 214 mb
Part 5 file size 214 mb
Part 6 file size 255 mb
Part 7 file size 269 mb
Part 8 file size 243 mb
Part 9 file size 346 mb
Part 10 file size 202 mb

OR WATCH ONLINE AT:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_lis...6621C6BE790253 Playlist 50 parts

"The Master and Margarita", (Мастер и Маргарита) (NOTE: THIS IS FOR Yuri Kara' VERSION)
(Drama/Mystery/Romance/Thriller)
http://www.masterandmargarita.eu/en/...karagered.html

You can download this video at:
http://www.tfile.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23399 (In Russian ONLY ...have not found English subtitles for this yet)


"The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed" (Место встречи изменить нельзя, Mesto vstrechi izmenit nelzya), 1979
(Adventure, Crime, Mystery, Action)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mee...not_Be_Changed

You can download this video (avi-file with English subtitles, DivX or XViD, 25 fps) from Russian Yandex-server. It's very easy.

How to download a movie:
1. Enter the following links:
Part 1: http://narod.ru/disk/8035702000/Meet...art-1.avi.html
Part 2: http://narod.ru/disk/8036856000/Meet...art-2.avi.html
Part 3: http://narod.ru/disk/8037731000/Meet...art-3.avi.html
Part 4: http://narod.ru/disk/8038736000/Meet...art-4.avi.html
Part 5: http://narod.ru/disk/8034737000/Meet...art-5.avi.html

2. Enter the numbers placed in the window over the green button.
3. Press the green button "СКАЧАТЬ".
4. A page will open with the link starting with http//. Press the link.
Notes: If you don't want to install Yandex Bar, please remove the sign from the control box (into the yellow background). Yandex Bar performs a function for downloading without using control numbers, i.e. next time, if you want to download any file from Yandex-server, you’ll get the download link without entering control numbers.
5 A window will open. Choose "Save".
6. Download the movie.
7. Enjoy.
Part 1 file size 577 mb
Part 2 file size 661 mb
Part 3 file size 555 mb
Part 4 file size 572 mb
Part 5 file size 681 mb

OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImeK_EUu314 (English Subtitles) Part 1 of 5


“The Return”, (Возвращение), 2003
(Drama)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_(2003_film)

Awards
Nominated, Best Foreign Language Film, at the 2004 Golden Globes (Hollywood Foreign Press Association)
Winner, 'CinemAvvenire' Award (Best Film), Golden Lion, Luigi De Laurentiis Award, SIGNIS Award, and Sergio Trasatti Award, at the 2003 Venice Film Festival

You can download this video (avi-file with English subtitles, DivX or XViD, 25 fps) from Russian Yandex-server. It's very easy.
How to download a movie:
1. Enter the following link:
http://narod.ru/disk/5475378000/The_..._subs.avi.html
2. Enter the numbers placed in the window over the green button.
3. Press the green button "СКАЧАТЬ".
4. A page will open with the link starting with http//. Press the link.
Notes: If you don't want to install Yandex Bar, please remove the sign from the control box (into the yellow background). Yandex Bar performs a function for downloading without using control numbers, i.e. next time, if you want to download any file from Yandex-server, you’ll get the download link without entering control numbers.
5 A window will open. Choose "Save".
6. Download the movie.
7. Enjoy. The file size 897 mb


OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faK4pLJxx4k (English Subtitles) Part 1 of 10


“The Stroll”, (Прогулка Progulka), 2003
(Drama/Romance)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372478/

Found a poor copy of it online in Russian and then found English subtitles for it:
movie: http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...69710602626284
English subtitles: http://www.allsubs.org//search-subtitle/progulka+/10

Here is a review from someone in Moscow that was posted on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/The-Stroll-Pro...dp/B0002FCJQ6:


"The Thief" (Вор, Vor), 1997
(Drama)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thief_(1997_film)

Awards
Nominated, Best Foreign Language Film, at the 1998 Oscars (Academy Awards, USA)
Nominated, Best Foreign Language Film, at the 1998 Golden Globes (Hollywood Foreign Press Association)
Winner, Best Actor (Vladimir Mashkov), Best Actress (Yekaterina Rednikova), Best Director (Pavel Chukhraj), Best Film
& Best Music at the 1998 Nika Awards (Russia)
Winner, Prize of the International Youth Jury, The President of the Italian Senate's Gold Medal, and UNICEF Award, at the 1997 Venice Film Festival
Winner, Best Young Performer in a Foreign Film (Misha Philipchuk), at the 1998 Young Artist Awards (Los Angeles, Ca)

You can download this video (avi-file with English subtitles, DivX or XViD, 25 fps) from Russian Yandex-server. It's very easy.
How to download a movie:
1. Enter the following link:
http://narod.ru/disk/10070192000/Thi..._subs.avi.html
2. Enter the numbers placed in the window over the green button.
3. Press the green button "СКАЧАТЬ".
4. A page will open with the link starting with http//. Press the link.
Notes: If you don't want to install Yandex Bar, please remove the sign from the control box (into the yellow background). Yandex Bar performs a function for downloading without using control numbers, i.e. next time, if you want to download any file from Yandex-server, you’ll get the download link without entering control numbers.
5 A window will open. Choose "Save".
6. Download the movie.
7. Enjoy. The file size 658 mb

OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJboCGxMxEk (English Subtitles) Part 1/9


“The Very Same Munchhausen” (Тот самый Мюнхгаузен, Tot samyy Myunkhgauzen) 1979
(Comedy/Fantasy)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Very_Same_Munchhausen

WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj82II0EAks Part 1/14

"Volkodav (Wolfhound)", (Волкодав), 2006/2007
(Fantasy)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkoda...nd_Clan_(film)
torrent only


"War and Peace", (Война и мир, Voyna i mir), 1968
(Drama/ History/Romance/War)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_and...281968_film%29

Awards
Winner, Best Foreign Language Film, at the 1969 Oscars (Academy Awards, USA)
Winner, Best Foreign Language Film, at the 1968 Golden Globes (Hollywood Foreign Press Association)
Winner, Best Foreign Language Film, at the 1968 New York Film Critics Circle Awards
Winner, Best Foreign Language Film, at the 1968 National Board of Review Awards, USA

You can download this video (avi-file with English subtitles, DivX or XViD, 25 fps) from Russian Yandex-server. It's very easy.
How to download a movie:
1. Enter the following links:
Part 1 'Andrei Bolkonsky': http://narod.ru/disk/6895046000/War_...art-1.avi.html
Part 2 'Natasha Rostova': http://narod.ru/disk/6936056000/War_...art-2.avi.html
Part 3 '1812': http://narod.ru/disk/6939877000/War_...art-3.avi.html
Part 4 'Pierre Bezukhov': http://narod.ru/disk/6946055000/War_...art-4.avi.html

2. Enter the numbers placed in the window over the green button.
3. Press the green button "СКАЧАТЬ".
4. A page will open with the link starting with http//. Press the link.
Notes: If you don't want to install Yandex Bar, please remove the sign from the control box (into the yellow background). Yandex Bar performs a function for downloading without using control numbers, i.e. next time, if you want to download any file from Yandex-server, you’ll get the download link without entering control numbers.
5 A window will open. Choose "Save".
6. Download the movie.
7. Enjoy. Part 1 file size 1.15 gb ,Part 2 file size 782 mb, Part 3 file size 652 mb, Part 4 file size 772 mb

OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RihV-ZJ-GAA (English Subtitles) Part 1/4 (1/14).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbGtmdHOXjg (English subtitles). Part 2/4 (1/9).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scgLxPHHdR4 (English subtitles). Part 3/4 (1/.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsD6lsCpPQg (English subtitles). Part 4/4 (1/9).


"White Sun of the Desert" , (Beloe Solntse Pustyni/Белое солнце пустыни), 1969
(action/Adventure/Comedy/Drama/War/Western)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Sun_of_the_Desert

You can download this video (avi-file with English subtitles, DivX or XViD, 25 fps) from Russian Yandex-server. It's very easy.
How to download a movie:
1. Enter the following link:
http://narod.ru/disk/9221552000/Whit..._subs.avi.html
2. Enter the numbers placed in the window over the green button.
3. Press the green button "СКАЧАТЬ".
4. A page will open with the link starting with http//. Press the link.
Notes: If you don't want to install Yandex Bar, please remove the sign from the control box (into the yellow background). Yandex Bar performs a function for downloading without using control numbers, i.e. next time, if you want to download any file from Yandex-server, you’ll get the download link without entering control numbers.
5 A window will open. Choose "Save".
6. Download the movie.
7. Enjoy. The file size 697 mb

OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDEpRLPbSGM


CARTOONS/ANIMATED Short Films!

“Film Film Film!” (Фильм, Фильм, Фильм), 1968
Animated Short Film by Fyodor Khitruk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film,_Film,_Film

Awards
- Grand Prize in Colombo, Sri Lanka 1973
- Official Selection of Tampere, Finland 1970
- Official Selection New York, USA 1969

WATCH ONLINE AT:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfwm7bMTKCM
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moQkOXrLoqU


"Once Upon a Dog", (Once Upon a Time There Lived a Dog), (Жил-Был Пёс), 1982
Animated Short Film (more cartoonish)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Dog

WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A64rHrDJ3NE


"Three from Buttermilk Village", (Three from Prostokvashino), (Трое из Простоквашино, Troye iz Prostokvashino)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostokvashino

WATCH ONLINE AT:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOebKn_WhI0
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hnPSSnS1g0
Part 3: (coming soon) ???


"Winnie the Pooh"

WATCH ONLINE AT:
Episode 1: Adventures of Winnie the Pooh http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqdiEUp6s4E
Episode 2: Winnie Pooh Goes Visiting (Vinni Puh Idet v Gosti) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qam9JBk5Oig
Episode 3: Winnie Pooh and the day of Concerns
part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73uIn56G1YE
part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtVVRuy1T9c


*updated December 16, 2009
added links for:
Beware of Car
Ivan Vasilievich Changes Occupation
The Irony of Fate
The Very Same Munchhausen

Rockzmom you are amazing!

I have wanted to see some of these films with subs, but I don't know how to find subs other than the standard subtitle sites, and they don't have a lot of Russian subs.
This is amazing.

Btw, I have come to the conclusion that the best way to learn from a film is definitely to watch it several times. Ideally first with subs in a language you fully understand. Then again with Russian subs to.

It is interesting to watch films in this way - the third time you watch a film you start noticing all sorts of interesting details.

Great! Thanks for all of the links!