How come nobody has mentioned this one, it’s almost criminal not having done that before. If you liked ”The cranes are flying” you’re sure will like this movie too, all the more so when it’s dubbed already.
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How come nobody has mentioned this one, it’s almost criminal not having done that before. If you liked ”The cranes are flying” you’re sure will like this movie too, all the more so when it’s dubbed already.
Impressive! What a surprise! The dubbing is really well done.
As I understand it, Americans during the Cold War knew nothing of life the USSR apart from some exaggerated nonsense and disinformation.They thought it was mostly like a big prison camp.. Judging from the stiff language, the dubbing of this film was done in the 1950s or 1960s. At the height of Americas "anti-communist" (anti-USSR) paranoia!
Well this is certainly is amazing proof of freedom of speech in the US!
But I have heard many Americans make comments which show that they believe that all art (including films) produced in the USSR during this period was purely "propaganda". (Really - if the USSR had done HALF as much propaganda as these people think, then I'm sure it would still exist today....but America might not... lol....)
It's difficult to imagine that there could have been USSR films widely watched in America, or indeed at all...
What about American films in the USSR days, for you who remember it, were you able to watch any?
Well I wonder who did the dubbing of this film and whether the film was watched by a large audience..? Is this a "one off "or were any more films dubbed?
=) When I was a kid I saw films about Lassie and Flipper on Soviet Union TV. I remember "Stunts" (Каскадеры), "The Deep" (Бездна), "Convoy" (Конвой), "Hangar 18" (Ангар 18), "And Justice for All" (Правосудие для всех), "Mackenna's Gold" (Золото Маккены), "Cleopatra" (Клеопатра), "The Vikings" (Викинги), "Some like it Hot" (В джазе только девушки), "Tootsie" (Тутси), "Three Days Of The Condor" (Три дня кондора), "The Domino Principle" (Принцип домино), "The Great race" (Большие гонки) but the episode with gloomy hostile Russia has been cut out, I've seen whole film only several years ago :ROFL:Quote:
Originally Posted by Johanna
http://ipicture.ru/uploads/080313/OZBa167iA4.jpg
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (полёт над гнездом кукушки, так кажется он у нас назывался)
O Lucky Man! (О, СЧАСТЛИВЧИК!) The songs in it by Alan Price were what made the film very popular among the young.
Sla Forst Freddy!/Бей первым, Фредди! Don’t remember what it was about other that it was a comedy, there was a guy with a big retractable knife attached to his hand and that we, as kids, laughed our as**s out over it.
A Stitch In Time (Приключения Питкина в больнице) A stupid comedy it must have been, but kids loved it too.
RUSSIAN MOVIE REVIEW
"The Cranes are Flying", (Летят Журавли, Letyat Zhuravli), 1957
(Drama/Romance/War)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cranes_Are_Flying
Movie links:
http://narod.ru/disk/7257110000/The_Cra ... s.avi.html
(see page 13 of this thread for direction on how to download using above link )
OR WATCH ONLINE AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrUu6InN5kw (English subtitles) Part 1 of 10
Awards
Winner of Palme d'Or at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival
Winner of Special Mention Award for Tatyana Samojlova at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival
Winner Diploma of Merit, Foreign Actress (Tatyana Samojlova) at the 1958 Jussi Awards (Finland)
Review
For two days now I have been mentally writing this review. I start with a pristine sheet of paper in my head and see the words flash across the page as the chatter in my brain dictates them and then I realize that I have not correctly expressed myself and I violently crumply the poor defenseless piece of paper and toss it aside and start anew. I can’t begin to tell you all how many virtual trees have been sacrificed for this one review. My lack of education and double or triple Scrabble bonus score words is once again haunting me. How can I adequately convey my thoughts about this movie? I am taking a deep breath and a sip of tea, and I will try yet again.
I believe of all the films I have seen thus far, if I had to recommend one Russian film for someone to see, to say “Hey, you want to see what the folks over in Russia were making back in the day?” I would recommend this film. Because this film would blow their socks off. It has it all, unparallel technical work (cinematography and editing), emotional acting (and attractive actors/actresses), believable script/dialogue (and I only got the subtitles, I can just imagine it in Russian, oh how wonderful it must truly be), realistic settings and costumes, perfect sound effects, and on and on… In short, it is a masterpiece of art.
Yet, I have not mentioned anything about it being “It's one of the Great Patriotic War subject films,” as Olya stated. For me, an outsider, this movie is more about human nature than it is about the war. The war is more of the setting for the story which is being told. Sort of the same way the movie Atonement was for me. That movie also dealt with the war, yet the story was with human nature.
So here we have a fantastic story line going on that happens to be taking place during a war. This setting adds to the story instead of detracting from as it enriches the characters by giving them additional dimensions that otherwise they would not have. Instead of a small palette of colors, we see them in the full spectrum of the rainbow, even though this movie is in black and white. And about it being in black and white…once again, I would NOT colorize this movie. Throughout this movie, the director and cinematographer made phenomenal uses of lighting almost as if the lighting was a character. This could not be done if the movie was in color.
The acting throughout this movie was impeccable. I am truly amazed and saddened that this did not win more awards. I agree with AlexB’s comment about Tatiana Samoylova. If she had been an American actress, she would have been a superstar. Vasili Merkuryev, who I believe played Fedya (Boris' Dad), was also very impressive. The entire cast was just top notch and I feel if this movie had not been Russian, it would have won more awards and would have been recognized for the outstanding work of art it is. What a shame.
One of the parts I loved about this movie, and I need someone to tell me if the English subtitles are anywhere near correct, is the banter back and forth between the family members in the beginning. The subtitles at least, had this as “real” dialogue and not some stupid insipid babel which helped immensely to give the movie its realistic feeling. From the start, you are sucked into the lives of these people because you become part of their world. You become attached and connected to them very quickly and that is in part due to the scriptwriting as well as the acting.
I know Johanna wants to watch this movie, so I do not want to spoil it for her and give away the major plot twists and ending, or for anyone else who may read this and then hopefully want to watch this amazing film. I will say, there were only two scenes that I thought were just a tad over done for me both acting wise and camera effect wise, yet I forgive them as I understood the effect they were going for and maybe on a big screen it worked and just on my little TV it came across as a little too much.
Also without giving too much away, the scene where Veronika goes back to her apartment after the bombing, that was brilliantly done. I got goosebumps watching it. I wonder how many takes they did to get that one just perfect or if they only had one chance to get it right? The clock left there and ticking. Time does not stop, time goes on. Very artistic.
So to sum it all up, I don't see this as a great war film at all.... just simply a great film.
Questions/Comments about the film:
In Boris’ room, on his wall it looks like he has architectural maps rolled up and hanging on the wall next to his bed. Did I miss something? What was his job at the plant? Why would he have those?
I also noticed the statue on his desk. Nicely put there.
At the 6:33 mark in the movie, the subtitles translate the line as “That’s what love is my dear: a harmless mental illness” is that what the dad actually said? I laughed at that, so I hope it was correct.
The cake/strudel the grandmother is cutting at the 8:12 mark, does anyone know what that is? It looks yummy!
The apartment doors open out. I have only seen that on houses in hurricane areas such as Florida. Do most of the doors open out? If so why?
Solaris:which version do you prefer?
Thank you for your review, Rockzmom. I only want to point out that YES, indeed, this film really is about human nature and not about the war itself. But I think American and Russian ideas of "a war movie" differ a lot. The fact is that almost all Russian Great Patriotic War subject movies are, in fact, about people and human nature. They are all about that. So in Russian, "a film about War" means "a film about people in the war". That's the most important thing for me in those movies, and that's what makes them so impressive, what turns them into masterpieces.
He said: "My dear, love is a mutual giddiness".Quote:
Originally Posted by rockzmom
The previous lines are:
- (wife) He totally turned her head.
- (husband) And she turned his head.
The Russian verb "to turn smb's head" and the noun "giddiness" have the same root in Russian and sound similar.
It looks like a big пряник... Russian Wiki pageQuote:
The cake/strudel the grandmother is cutting at the 8:12 mark, does anyone know what that is? It looks yummy!
I think you are asking this question in the wrong forum! :D The Russian version of course!Quote:
Originally Posted by GreenLarry
I know there is an American version of Solaris, but I've never seen it. However I have seen the Russian version many times.
My guess would be that the American version is a bit more fast paced, and that (in true Hollywood fashion) they changed the plot and the characters as needed (e.g. add some new, remove the less exciting characters).
The Polish one. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by GreenLarry
I mean the book.
Not bad!Quote:
Originally Posted by BappaBa
Actually I haven't seen ANY of those films, lol! I know of Lassie though.
When I grew up in Sweden we had only two channels (state owned). The channels had a lofty view of eductating the viewers and refining their tastes in culture. They tried to balance films and programs from Europe (East and West) with American and domestic. I really regretted not being able to watch "Star Trek"! However you could rent this kind of stuff on video if you really wanted it. In their wisdom, our state TV refused to broadcast anyting by Disney, apart from once a year on Christmas eve, lol! But all this came to an end in the early 1990s when two commercial channels were started and people got cable TV. After that, American productions started dominating all of the channels. Sometimes I feel a bit nostalgic about the old setup. There were never any commercials back then! Without these policies in the 1980s I wouldn't know anything about Polish historical dramas, Soviet comedies or German soap operas...... People a few years younger than me know mostly Hollywood productions!
Here is what I really wanted to watch on TV when I grew up... Not available though, so I watched on holidays abroad.
[video:2kusoclm]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsxgcLf0TSY[/video:2kusoclm]
I watched a dozen episodes of Start Trek: The Orginal Series, and, putting it mildly, I was not impressed. Captain James Kirk, with an imbecilic half-smile glued to his face, looks like an effing moron, pardon my French. Most episodes were boring. Spock is good, and Uhura looks striking (when she doesn't sing). Oh, and I liked Scotty too. But, all in all, I didn't really enjoy the series. (But then, I was an adult when I watched it). I don't regret watching it, because now I can better understand my American online friends when they make a reference to it, but I have no desire at all to watch the remaining episodes. Is Star Trek:The Next Generation any better than the original series?Quote:
Originally Posted by Johanna
TranslationsMRU - I haven't seen the original StarTrek. But it has lots of famous catch phrases that are used a lot by Americans in particular. Such as:
Star Trek Next Generation was probably pretty good - it was incredibly popular.But to be honest I haven't seen a lot of it. Perhaps it just seemed cool because it was inaccessible... I remember watching it while on holiday in Germany and Israel (dubbed). Because of the dubbing I missed a lot of the plot.Quote:
"It's life Jim, but not as we know it!" ("life" can be replaced with any word.. this means that it is a familiar phenomenon, but not done in the way that you are used to... It's often used in a sarcastic way..)
Beam me up Scotty! (I don't know what this means exactly, but I have heard it a lot of times. Perhaps somebody can explain).
To boldly go where no one has gone before!
Plus many references to the plots and characters of Star Trek.
There were two more Star Trek series made after "Next Generation", which I have seen parts of. These are Star Trek Voyager and Star Trek Enterprise. I thought Star Trek Enterprise was the best of those. It has been running on cable TV here in the UK... But I'm a sci-fi fan, so it's not surprising that I like it.. !
Can you recommend any Russian Sci-fi films?
Quote:
PS - Anybody who hasn't watched 2008 Russian film "The Inhabited Island, " watch it! It's available to download with English subs in the Russian section at Hexagon.cc http://russian.hexagon.cc/torrents
That's exactly the reason I decided to watch it in the first place :).Quote:
Originally Posted by Johanna
"Beam me up, Scotty" means "Scotty, teleport me back to the ship". Scotty was an engineer in charge of the equipment that was used for teleporting ("beaming") people from and to the ship.
.
Some BRITISH classics for learners of English!
'Allo, 'Allo! From the 1980s. This was super-popular across Europe and it's still running on many channels. It is a parody of life in France, while it was occupied by Germany during the war. It's an hilarious parody of all the nationalities involved.
The story is based around René who owns a café in occupied France. He is trying to be on friendly terms with the Germans while at the same time supporting the French resistance, rescuing stranded British paratroopers, having affairs with the waitresses at the café and making money on the black market... The series was so popular that it ran for almost ten years.The most famous is probably "Listen carefully, I shall say this only once!"
[video:1grmgytp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh-QtNN5Xiw[/video:1grmgytp]Quote:
Warning: Never pronounce the word "Colonel" like the do in this series, it's part of the comedy....
[video:1grmgytp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNStcseZMw0[/video:1grmgytp]
British Political Humour
"Yes Minister!" and "House of Cards..."
(Good for learning RP pronounciation!)
Catch phrase: "You might say so.... But I couldn't POSSIBLY comment... "
Super-evil politician Sir Francis Urquhart who coined the expression above..[video:1grmgytp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tyex8KswZo[/video:1grmgytp]
Yes Minister! A "good" prime minister with evil advisors...
The scheming Sir Humphreys explains Britain's European policy to the PM...
[video:1grmgytp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIXH3-A8zMI[/video:1grmgytp]
ALL OF THIS IS AVAILABLE ON BITTORRENT, NO DOUBT.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Johanna
BappaBa, you are showing your age now. :D What an interesting assortment of films. Of the films you have listed, I have seen about half of them.Quote:
Originally Posted by BappaBa
The Deep and one you didn't list "Jaws" I was not allowed to see beacuse I was a swimmer and my grandfather thought they would frighten me too much and I would not want to swim any more, so he made me promise NEVER to read the book or see the movie. To this day I have not broken that promise!!!
"Three Days of the Condor" OMG, how I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED, that movie. I am not certain now if I saw it what I would think of it. I remember that one of the reasons I liked it soooo much was part of it took place near where I lived. So, that was neat for me as a "kid" to hear and see places that I knew. I also thought it was a interesting that they got the area code for Chevy Chase as 202 when very few people knew/know that there were/are ANY phone numbers in Maryland with a 202 area code, almost all of them were 301. As Chevy Chase is on the line that divides Maryland and Washington, DC, there were just a few houses that had the 202 area codes to them (202 is for Washington, DC and now Maryland has more than one area code). The other part was how he could just do EVERYTHING! Maybe he was the prototype for MacGyver??
I never read the book though, did you? It was because of Condor though that I DID read the book The Cuckoo's Egg. Have you read that one? I might swing this over to the Book thread...
Convoy, hehehe.. I saw this one too. My parents had CB radios in their cars and we had one in the house too! I still remember our call numbers after all these years.
Tootsie, I had the girls watch that one last summer. They were LAUGHING!!!
Alex, Cuckoo's Nest... Jack is a very interesting man as well as actor. I saw Cuckoo when it came out and I remember in high school going to see "The Shining" and actually screaming in the theater. I also saw Chinatown as soon as it came out on DVD. I remember being impressed with that one as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by alexB
A Stitch in Time... At first the girls and I thought you meant the Kim Possible Movie which is a stupic cartoon comedy that the kids love. :ROFL:
Johanna, about the "Beam me up" line... just to expand on it for a sec. When it is used now, it means sarcastically to "get me out (insert your favorite curse word or string of curse words here) of here." There are bumper stickers, signs and stuff that have an added part so that the entire thing is now
Quote:
"Beam me up Scotty. There's no intelligent life down here."
I remember watching these American movies in a cinema theatre during 1984-88: "Spartak", "Star Wars episode 4" (almost 1/3 was cut out for some reason, when I watched it later on video I was impressed how much scenes I hadn't seen before) , "It's a mad,mad,mad,mad world". I'm sure there were some others, but I can remeber only these three.Quote:
Originally Posted by Johanna
Star Wars IV.... That's really the first one, right?
You watched that one in the USSR?! What about the sequels? Well after reading the latest posts I am beginning to think that this censorship that the USSR supposedly engaged in was mostly hype! Were there any program / film that you were aware of and wanted to watch but couldn't?
If you could watch Star Wars and those other films, then you didn't really miss a whole lot of GOOD 1980s Western popular culture! At least not much more than what I "missed" in Sweden! The fact you didn't grew up with Disney and Dallas is probably just healthy. There were some good blockbusters like "Dirty Dancing", "Top Gun" and James Bond... Other than that, no big loss by the sound of things..
It sounds like you got some worthwhile US films after seeing Rockzmoms comment. (I forgot that I HAVE in fact seen "One flew over the Cuckoo's nest.)
The reason they cut Star Wars may not have been anything political - it was seriously cut in Sweden too. I think it was just very violent. As a result the uncut version became very sought after. I don't remember what the difference was.
I guess you missed out on the opportunity to be able to go to the videostore and rent a trashy horror film (about a psychopath killer or something like that) and watch it with friends... I'm not sure that was very culturally enrichening though!
There is one cultural phenomenon that is VERY American which I enjoyed a lot and which has entered popular culture. The Muppet Show.
The reason I thought about this is because there is an expression "Dont' be such a muppet!" or "he's a real muppet" which is quite popular in English. We kept using it at work until it emerged that neither the Serbian nor the Indian colleagues had any idea what a "Muppet" was... But they had started usin the expression anyway. Being a muppet means being a bit comical, irritating and stupid but not necessarily nasty.
[video:n3uks95x]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y89zLBcKlfs[/video:n3uks95x]
Speaking of which.... I read that there was some kind of Russian puppet show which was a political parody and got banned in MODERN times! What was that about? What was the show called, are there any clips? Maybe I got mixed up, but I THINK that's what I read.....
How interesting because I have never heard those expressions and Maryland is the home of Jim Henson and The Muppets. I wonder if it is a British thing as the shows were filmed over there???Quote:
Originally Posted by Johanna
So, Johanna, what do you think of the Swedish Chef? All of the videos on YouTube of Swedish Chef seem to be of very poor quality :sad:
[video:33ey25ka]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbs64GvGgPU[/video:33ey25ka]
For all you Coldplay fans, here is a great fan made video of The Muppets.
[video:33ey25ka]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phyg_uIPQII[/video:33ey25ka]
I think the forum, at least the Russian part of it, owes Rokzmom much more credit for her Flying Cranes review. I give her my personal thumbs up and acting on behalf of the most of Russians a virtual Golden Palm for best review. :bravo:
Yep.Quote:
Originally Posted by Johanna
As far as I remember, it was in 1986, the very beginning of so-called "Perestroyka". I saw the sequels on video several years later.Quote:
You watched that one in the USSR?! What about the sequels?
I was a kid at that time, and loved American cartoons, especially "Tom&Jerry", but there was only one opportunity to watch it - on a VHR. And it was a very rare thing in the middle of 80s in USSR. One of my father's friends had a video recorder at home (he was a diplomat or something) and I was able to watch VHR only if we went visiting that family.Quote:
Well after reading the latest posts I am beginning to think that this censorship that the USSR supposedly engaged in was mostly hype! Were there any program / film that you were aware of and wanted to watch but couldn't?
I'v also just remembered that I watched "Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade" on video when I was very little, about 5 or 6 y.o., but it was dubbed in Spanish :) . A boy, who showed me this film spoke Spanish fluently (he was a son of that diplomat and they brought this tape from Mexico), so he was doing translation.Quote:
If you could watch Star Wars and those other films, then you didn't really miss a whole lot of GOOD 1980s Western popular culture! At least not much more than what I "missed" in Sweden! The fact you didn't grew up with Disney and Dallas is probably just healthy. There were some good blockbusters like "Dirty Dancing", "Top Gun" and James Bond... Other than that, no big loss by the sound of things..
I strongly suppose that there was another reason - a very bad quality of the copy (the tape broke a couple of times during the seance) :) .Quote:
The reason they cut Star Wars may not have been anything political - it was seriously cut in Sweden too. I think it was just very violent. As a result the uncut version became very sought after. I don't remember what the difference was.
The Muppets have bypassed me someway. But I remember and love his Fraggle Rock. This show was aired in Russia in the middle of 80's. The only things I was grief of were the Doozers' constructions which Fraggles ate a lot. But when in some episode I'd known that the Doozers liked Fraggles' eating their constructions I realized that there is a harmony in the world.Quote:
Originally Posted by rockzmom
Sprocket was adorable.
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/mu...ocketgobo.jpeg
I believe "The Magnificent Seven" was a very popular American movie in the USSR...
Also probably Hitchcock movies...
@Rockzmom --- haha Swedish chef!!! Needless to say he's not speaking a word of Swedish and many people in Sweden thought the character was irritating. But I think he's cool! I was VERY young when this was on though. I probably only liked it because the figures are cute.
And Fraggle Rock was AWESOME, particularly the talking rubbish heap... ! I had no idea you watched so much US programs in the USSR.
Swedish sounds like this, below (extreme Stockholm accent) from "Karlsson on the Roof". Josefina, a Swedish girl who blogs from Russia explained in her blog that Karlsoon is quite popular in Russia and has his own cartoon (which she says is awesome.)
This is an old film from the 1970s. Karlsson is a figure by Astrid Lindgren a Swedish woman who also wrote Pippi Longstocking and lots of other childrens books.
[video:1z3wua6i]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5NdqvsLEgs[/video:1z3wua6i]
[video:1z3wua6i]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjUMZvLvzLQ[/video:1z3wua6i]
Karlsson is extremely popular in Russia, much more so than Pippi - probably due to the cartoons :).Quote:
Originally Posted by Johanna
AWESOME!!!
What a top class cartoon! Super funny and they've really captured the spirit although with a Russian twist I think. How nice of the poster to put English subs on the Youtube video!
I love it!!!
:bravo: :bravo: :bravo:
I think it is the other way around here. I have never heard of Karlsson-on-the-Roof, yet Pippi... I even have one of those books on our bookselves behind me as I type! The cartoon looks very cute though. I wonder why it never caught on here in the States? Oh, wait a minute, I see on Wiki here what that answer might be...Quote:
Originally Posted by translationsnmru
Gotta love censorship. Ya know, the poor kids might disobey authority and fear their babysitters...oh my! :oQuote:
His antics earned him the ire of some traditional educators and parents, who believed that Karlsson might incite young children to disobey authority and mistrust and fear babysitters. The books were accordingly banned in some libraries and schools in North America.
Yeah, that's very silly!Quote:
Originally Posted by rockzmom
Well, Pippi herself was probably an Anarchist (she refused to go to school and to move to an orphanage even though she had no parents... There was also an argument by people with extreme socialist views that Pippi was promoting capitalism, since a lot of the plot was focussed on her sack of gold coins which she refuses to share with others.. Plus she is violating Health and Safety regulations when she's climbing around in trees and on rooftops!!
But all of this is what made her cool! I think Pippi turned several generations of kids into semi-anarchists... The author was well known for being a Social Democrat though and she often spoke on 1 May and similar. She was practically a cult figure in Sweden and she had a lot of public influence which she didn't hesitate to use. She was tremendously rich but she kept living in a state allocated flat until she died a few years ago.. Pippi and Karlsson were only two out of hundreds of characters. She was a real genius of childrens' litterature.
Perhaps somebody remembers this film which was made by a Russian director I think?
Astrid Lindgren wrote this book too.
[video:1pwv33ho]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAMK56brdls[/video:1pwv33ho]
I remember when it was aired in the Soviet Union in late 1980s, but I didn't watch it (well, maybe a part of one of the episodes). I haven't read the book either.Quote:
Originally Posted by Johanna
You might be interested to know that there was a Soviet film about Kalle as well. There was also a film about Rasmus, but for the life of me, I can't recall if it was a Soviet film or a dubbed foreign production.
... as the topic of what is a "war" film seems to still be a bit of a mystery and it has spilled over to another thread, I want to bring some of the posts back over to this one so if someone comes here, they have the chance to read parts of the posts and understand what is meant when we are talking about "war" film as a genre.
If anyone still has questions or comments about this, please chime in!
And to most of you who I believe currently follow both threads, please forgive me for these double posting.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Оля
Quote:
Originally Posted by rockzmom
Quote:
Originally Posted by Оля
Okay, has anyone here seen "The English Patient"? :crazy:
hehehee... Amazingly, I have not. That year I was prego and going out to the movies was not high on my list. I have always wanted to see it, yet for some reason I just never got around to it. ALSO, I did not know what the storyline was about until your posting!Quote:
Originally Posted by Оля
So, this film, it won 9 Oscars (Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Music, Original Dramatic Score, Best Picture, Best Sound) and another 41 awards.
I do find it interesting after reading your comments that it did NOT win the Oscar for Best Screenplay (Sling Blade did).
So Olya, let me ask you this (and I ask with sincerity) ... story line aside... what about the rest of the movie? The things that it won Oscars for, did you find those at all to help the film have any redeeming value or was the storyline so upsetting for you that it would not matter how good everything else was, it was too distracting for you?
The reason I ask, I know that there are times when even one piece of dialogue (maybe it is not right for the character or would not have been said at the time the story took place), one wrong continuity, or some other little distraction... can ruin an otherwise fantastic film for people. So if this is the case, if the story line itself (or the main character) was such a distraction for you, even with the rest of the film being the cream of the crop, 50 awards, is it a film you would never recommend on any level?
Just wondering, 'cus ya know, I am the curious type when it comes to this stuff. :)
To be honest, I don't remember the film very well, and I don't remember the whole plot in details, even. But I remember very well all my impressions about this film. I can tell you that I didn't like the acting AT ALL (I don't remember supporting roles, though). The story line told us that the man and the woman loved... no, LOVED each other. I didn't see that at all. I only saw vain attempts to imitate love. All those "love" things in the film were boring to me.Quote:
Originally Posted by rockzmom
I must add, however, that we Russian viewers are used to a very high level of acting we saw in our films (I think many Russians even don't realize that). So an acting which won Oscar could look just very pale and even just bad from Russian dainty point of view. To be quite honest, I see really good acting (in my opinion) in foreign films very rarely. At best, acting in foreign films is just "okay" to me.
P.S. If you are interested, the only foreing actor who convinced me that he can play not worse, and even better than some Russian actors, was Alan Rickman.
I don't know if this has been posted but it's a list of all the Russian films that have been translated into English on subtitry.ru (subtitles.ru). The movies are listed in Russian.
http://subtitry.ru/subtitles/native/
Оля, +500 от меня =)Quote:
Originally Posted by Оля
Ну слава богу, я не одна, а то я иногда думаю - вдруг это у меня какая-нибудь ксенофобия вперемешку с оголтелым патрио-национализмом. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by BappaBa
Ты знаешь, последний пример: пару дней назад посмотрел Taxi Driver, столько про этот фильм читал и слышал разговоров... Чуть ли не одна из самых лучших ролей Де Ниро. Абсолютно бестолковый фильм, имхо, а Де Ниро, вообще, одинаковый в любом фильме. Имхо, опять же... =)Quote:
Originally Posted by Оля
Just so there is NO misunderstanding... the following comes under the definition of HUMOR :D
Quote:
Originally Posted by Оля actually meant to
Well, actually, to be honest, I don't think so. I really like and even love some foreign films. As for Alan Rickman and "Die Hard", I don't think his acting in that film is something special. First of all, I meant his role in "The Perfume".Quote:
Originally Posted by Оля actually meant to
But! Okay, to make things a bit clearer. What is the main thing in Russian cinema (which actually comes from Russian theatre): as Stanislavsky said, "жизнь человеческого духа" (don't know how this classical phrase sounds in English; my attempt is, "the human soul's life"). No any screenplay, costumes, landscape views, soundtracks, or any other thing that could help if actors play badly. Human is THE MAIN. That's all. How, tell me please, can special effects be more important than the human soul's life? They can't.
The western cinema... is just different. The main thing is a plot. Action. Special effects, maybe. If the worst comes to the worst, a popcorn. It doesn't mean that all Western cinema SUCK. It's just that when I watch a good Western / American film, I... get pleasure of another kind. I enjoy the plot (like in "Catch Me If You Can"), or a geniusly created atmosphere (like in "Vertigo") and good acting (yes, it does happen in those films, too :D ). But, then again, they very rarely touch my soul deeply , make me cry. The one I can recall right now is "The Pianist" (a war film, again...). Also, there are a lot of American movies which I find senseless (it's not just "I find", really; it's just alien to us Russians, mostly, at least; well, let's rather say "to Russian art", it's fairer). There are a lot of "horror movies" which only make a viewer to feel horror, and nothing more. I've just watched one of such, "White Single Female". A lot of murders. I pity no one. It's not because I am hard-hearted, it's just because the director's goal was other. Just to frighten. What should I learn from this film? I learned nothing. Probably someone tells me, "You should learn that there are crazy people in the world one should be careful with". Sorry, but for me, it's not the art's goal (and cinema, for me, should be [close to] art). And the film I mentioned is not the worst movie of that kind at all. There are much worse ones.
I also can say that movies of that sort can only provoke fear, disgust, ...well, also prudence in life, maybe. :D They really can only "upset" a viewer and nothing more. But those war dramas I've spoken so much already before, even if they "upset", they provoke catharsis and compassion. That's what I want to feel having watched a movie. Not disgust or fear. Don't give me special effects, leave them for kids, or for cartoons. Give me true feelings, make me better, so that I could watch a movie and say "I must become kinder", "I want to love people", or ask myself, "What am I living for?", or something. So, what I mean - I, too, like Rockzmom, don't want to watch movies that just upset me, show me some loathsome picture and nothing more.
As for movies about "crazy people", I want to tell you something. In МХАТ (Moscow Art Theatre School), students have to make exercises called "etudes" (to show, to play someone/something, to show a short dumb scene from its/his/her life where some event happens). First, it should be a thing (a ball, a table, a photocamera, whatever). Then an animal. Then a human. But every its/his/her action should be "inwardly reasonable". That is, if you are a cupboard, you can't just be swinging your doors hither and thither, without any reason, just so. You should have some inward reason. For instance, "I'm swinging my doors because I want more dishes to stay into me, so I want to tell people in this way to put more dishes into me, meaning come on guys, here, bring the plates in here, quickly". But bad students usually, showing some "swinging cupboard" say: "It's swinging its doors because it's crazy". So, what I mean. I mean that in all those movies where acts some crazy-person-who-murders-everyone-just-because-he's-crazy, the director tells us viewers, "There is no inward reason. He just is crazy. He just was unhappy in childhood. Watch this movie, there is a lot of blood, you'll like it". No, sorry, your etude is bad. I want to pity someone, even if you don't show me blood.
Thanks Sperk for the subtitle link!
Olya (and others) there are some Vietnam (war) films that you might enjoy - they are a good insight into American views of the world, I think, and some of them are VERY good in my opinion. The people in the film are common people who get caught up in a political war and have their lives messed up. I don't think the film directors much agree with the objectives of that war, so it's definitely no glorification of this very tragic war. The films do not show the point of view of the Vietnamese of course, just the American experience. However I have been in Vietnam and they are very proud there of their "victory" (as they see it).
The Youtube display functionality seems to be broken! :sad: Shame! I love linking to Youtube as you might have noticed!
"THE DEER HUNTER" tribute (with it's famous theme sonata, Cavatina)
[video:2iy6wriw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3s5LjyFl18[/video:2iy6wriw]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3s5LjyFl18
DEER HUNTER: A super crazy review from American radio! :shock: --- Is this normal US radio?!?
[video:2iy6wriw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnUfwEr1PF4[/video:2iy6wriw]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnUfwEr1PF4
FULL METAL JACKET:
[video:2iy6wriw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSQ2WRoqOCA[/video:2iy6wriw]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSQ2WRoqOCA
GOOD MORNING VIETNAM:
[video:2iy6wriw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgvY4dlAiGU[/video:2iy6wriw]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgvY4dlAiGU
HAIR - the classic hippie musical:
[video:2iy6wriw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhNrqc6yvTU[/video:2iy6wriw]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhNrqc6yvTU
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