Thread: Films & TV: Russian & Non - Q&As/Reviews/Links all in here!

Originally Posted by rockzmom

Starrysky, I know you love Indian films... maybe I could branch out and try one of your favorites?

*I've been engulfed by the dangerous underworld called Hindi cinema, so all my free time is consumed by it now.*

Just noticed that this whole thread was moved and a subforum created... Good idea.

Yeah, for half a year I've been watching mainly Hindi movies. I've now seen about, I dunno, 50 films. Not that much, really, but I am rather cautious when it comes to watching stuff.

rockzmom, you really shouldn't have asked! *groaning* How can I restrain myself from talking about my fave subject at the moment? There'll be no stopping me now!!

My favourites remain practically the same:

Favourite Hindi movies Part 1

1. Asoka (2001; dir. Santosh Sivan)

-- for SRK's performance, for the tragic story and for the visuals from Santosh Sivan... It's a treat

I really strongly recommend this movie to anyone who thinks there's nothing original in Indian movies. It may seem a bit strange at first but this is one movie most bolly-fans practically worship...

Check out these great fan videos, for example
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUNhKIjbDuA&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_KD7...eature=related

Making of Asoka

asoka on rediff.com









2. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (199 Karan Johar's debut as a director and one of my all time favourites... It has colours, emotions, a lot of heart and sincerity...











3. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995; Aditya Chopra) -- a true classic from first-time director Aditya Chopra. This one has been on in Mumbai theatres for 15 years now. It's also one of only two Hindi movies that got a spot in the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" book. It's a brilliant comedy in a lot of ways... and great music. The movie that catapulted Shahrukh Khan and Kajol to fame and made them into a legendary screen couple in India.

















4. Main Hoon Na (Farah Khan) -- this is a brilliant self-parody! I've loved this movie for a long time and never tire of it... It's all about the humour and irony and I love all the characters.















5. Chalte Chalte (2003; Aziz Mirza) -- already wrote about it too.

Love Rani... Favourite Indian actress...

Favourite Hindi movies Part 2

6. Josh (2000) -- Bollywood remake of Westside Story.













7. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi -- just a very nice, feelgood, heartfelt, beautiful movie. Exactly "my type" of film. Very nice music. Check out two songs from it:

Tujhe Mein Rab Dikhta Hai
Yaara Main Kya Karoon...
(I See God In You, Dear, What Am I to Do?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ux-BqSBomE

Haule Haule ("Little by little you'll love me")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkPhLZ0Zpr8

















interesting review

8. Devdas (Sanjay Lila Bhansali)

9. Dil Se (1998; Mani Ratnam) -- well, I already wrote at length about it earlier...

And there are a few others that I liked a lot (Yes Boss, Ram Jaane...) But maybe later...

These are almost all mainstream movies, with Asoka and Dil Se being a bit of art-films. They are all qute entertaining but of course it depends on your taste. There are directors in Bollywood that make more serious, gloomy, original, whatever, movies, like Mani Ratnam, Ram Gopal Varma (Satya, Company), Anurag Kashyap (Black Friday, No Smoking) but the thing is, they are not "my" movies. Those are often about terrorists, Mumbai criminal underworld and things like that.

Don't remember if I posted this before:

BollyWHAT?'s Top Ten Films
http://www.bollywhat.com/rentalguide.html

1. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
2. Dil Se
3. Satya
4. Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge
5. 1942: A Love Story
6. Dil Chahta Hai
7. Zakhm
8. Lagaan
9. Satta
10. Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak

There are too oldest film awards in India:

Filmfare Awards
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmfare_awards

Filmfare Award for Best Movie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmfare_Best_Film_Award

and National Film Awards (this one is more "serious"; but those films that get this award are as a rule very obscure and hard-to-find)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Film_Awards

National Film Award for Best Film
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationa..._for_Best_Film

-------------------------

I've seen My Name Is Khan recently and thought it was great. In September it'll be released in theatres in Russia. Well, I'll write about it a bit later too.

"My Name is Khan" (2010)



I liked it quite a bit. I was actually very surprised that I liked it so much, because for some reason I was rather wary of this film.. But it turned out to be much better than I expected. Spectacular if not sulime in some aspects (acting, cinematography, music), and very entertaining on the whole. At least, it's way better than most of the stuff Bollywood churns out. As Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India said, it's "indubitably one of the most meaningful and moving films to be rolled out from the Bollywood mills in recent times."

The film is about a Muslim with Asperger's syndrome (Rizwan Khan) living in post 9/11 US... "My name is Khan and I'm not a terrorist" is his mantra. The film is not without flaws but it's got great performances from Shahrukh Khan, Kajol and supporting cast, great music and stunning cinematography. America looks really beautiful here. For all those who don't know, Shahrukh and Kajol are the legendary, most beloved couple in Hindi cinema, Han Solo and Princess Leia or Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn of Hindi cinema, as someone put it. So this movie was a bit of a big deal because it has them reuniting after about 10 years.

Shahrukh -- well, prior to this, I've seen him in more than 30 other films, plus interviews. I had my doubts about Shahrukh playing an autist. Because he seems so far from being even an introvert. I know he's a really good actor but I was absolutely thrown by his performance here... Because I never saw "Shahrukh" in Rizwan. I totally believed in this character. Because of his condition, Rizwan is a very touching, endearing character. A lot like Forrest Gump. I don't know much about autism. I've seen "Rainman", of course, and we learned about it as part of psychology courses at my uni... As far as I can judge, it was great work on SRK's part. I've read comments from people who work with autists that it was spot-on.

Kajol is a fantastic actress. Very natural, very beautiful, very watchable, she is the only one who nearly succeeds in stealing the scene from Shahrukh. I can never take my eyes off her.

Music. The music is very modern but with national, Sufi motiffs. "Muslims in America" describes it best. It can be downloaded here. My favourite is Noor E Khuda. In fact, my favourite scenes in the movie are during this song -- Khan's journey through America.

Director. Karan Johar is one my favourite Indian directors (along with Santosh Sivan, Aditya Chopra, Farah Khan and Aziz Mirza). He's not the best director out there but I love him for the kind, warm and sincere person he is. I think his best film was Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, his debut, which he made when he was 25. In KKHH you can see that everything is from the heart, perhaps that's why it's been so popular. His other films -- Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, Kal Ho Naa Ho (as a screenwriter) are interesting works and some of the few films that made me cry my heart out but they have maaaany flaws... Karan has been sort of blamed for making fluffy romances. Now, MNIK is quite different. It doesn't have any dance--song routines/item numbers. The songs are all in the background. The subject matter is quite serious but the film is not gloomy, it has some great humour.

MNIK is human. Beautiful. Touching. Sincere. Heartfelt.

All this can be said about other Johar's films as well.

Cinematography by Ravi Chandran is... well, fantastic.
Fave shots





The first half of the movie is so good in terms of scripting, that it's a bit of a shock to see how it goes downhill in the second half... It is as if Karan sabotaged himself. But I have to say, this film is such an emotional rollercoaster that I didn't really care about the flaws toward the end. MNIK has been described as "Slumdog Millionaire" meets "Forrest Gump" meets "Rainman" but this creates a slightly negative image of ideas rehashed... whereas MNIK looks really fresh and interesting.

It was released in the US in February and an abridged version (about 100 min) was released again in June ,if I'm not mistaken. In Russia, we'll see it in theatres in September but I don't think it's gonna make any collections, really, because of all the piracy.

Oh God, I could go on and on and on about it, I'd better just stop.

Official website

MNIK on imdb

wiki article



A nice review by Charles R. Larson

another interesting review, only in French

nice fan video

Some pics from MNIK

















































OK, that's enough about one film... Told ya, there'd be no stopping me. Hope I've not been too obnoxious... Please, don't kill me for the pics overload. It's just that I saw it recently and the impression is still very strong.

Starrysky, dear! Maybe we want to open a separate topic for foreigh movies?

Originally Posted by Lampada

Starrysky, dear! Maybe we want to open a separate topic for foreigh movies?

+10000
Или может быть лучше открыть свою тему про индийские фильмы.

А я послей вот этой старой пародии индийские фильмы смотреть вообще не могу - после нескольких минут просмотра пробивает на ха-ха. Правда, последним индийским фильмом, который я посмотрел от начала и до конца, был "Танцор диско" и смотрел я его, как сейчас помню, в совковом сельском клубе в Рязанской области году так эдак в 88.

Originally Posted by starrysky

OK, that's enough about one film... Told ya, there'd be no stopping me. Hope I've not been too obnoxious... Please, don't kill me for the pics overload.

starrysky!!! you made my day.... 105 degree heat here and my migraines are killing me and you have just made me feel soooo much better... thank you!

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Originally Posted by Lampada

Starrysky, dear! Maybe we want to open a separate topic for foreigh movies?

+10000
Или может быть лучше открыть свою тему про индийские фильмы.

Lampada! I agree with you and gRomoZeka. I think that this thread might be getting tooo large and hard to navigate. Maybe if we had different sub threads it would be easier?

We could start with starrysky's amazing Hindi/Indian reviews that she has posted in this thread and make a Hindi/Indian sub thread that would be great!

I guess the question would be where to have all of these in ONE central place so that everyone can find them easily? So no matter what films/tv you are looking for you would go to ONE central location and all the sub groups for discussion would be there. Does that make sense?

So, like one for Animation with all the great things that gRomoZeka has, and Basil's War collection, one for Hindi/Indian, and make others as we need them but have them all under ONE umbrella. We can still have the catch all Russian reviews that Hanna started and this major beast of a thread as they both have a wealth of information with lots of links and people can just ask questions in this thread about ANY TV or FILM.... but it might be nice to have the genres broken out for people to be able to find a movie quickly that suits what they are specifically looking for.

Thoughts? Counter ideas or suggestions?

What do you think???

Originally Posted by rockzmom

starrysky!!! you made my day.... 105 degree heat here and my migraines are killing me and you have just made me feel soooo much better... thank you!

I always overdo things... Can't do anything about it.
So sorry about your migraines, rockzmom... I know what it's like. It's not your usual headache. I used to have them as a teen. It's been years since I've had a migraine though. *touch wood*

Originally Posted by Basil77

А я послей вот этой старой пародии индийские фильмы смотреть вообще не могу - после нескольких минут просмотра пробивает на ха-ха. Правда, последним индийским фильмом, который я посмотрел от начала и до конца, был "Танцор диско" и смотрел я его, как сейчас помню, в совковом сельском клубе в Рязанской области году так эдак в 88.

Забавная пародия. Я старых индийских фильмов немного видела, но они действительно были ужасненькие и удручают этими клише. В современных фильмах такого практически нет. Там даже женщин в сари уже редко увидишь.

P.S. Я все-таки "Меня зовут Кхан" всем советую. Вроде отзывы хорошие и не только от индоманов. http://my-hit.ru/film/6980 Хоть и не без недостатков фильм...

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Originally Posted by Lampada

Starrysky, dear! Maybe we want to open a separate topic for foreigh movies?

+10000
Или может быть лучше открыть свою тему про индийские фильмы.

Yeah, that's a good idea... Never thought about it! Those posts could be moved into a separate foreign movies thread or something. I mean, I also like Chinese films. *be prepared * Has anyone seen "House of Flying Daggers" and "Hero"? The most beautiful movies I've ever seen... The thing is, I sort of said everything I wanted to say at the moment, and Masterrusian is not a movie forum...

I did not know where to put, and so I put Александр Петров 1, Александр Петров 2, Русалка, etc in Русские мультики на ютюбе.

These and the other things I've been watching are really анимация, not мультики. But I did not know where to put.

Originally Posted by starrysky

I mean, I also like Chinese films. *be prepared * Has anyone seen "House of Flying Daggers" and "Hero"? The most beautiful movies I've ever seen... The thing is, I sort of said everything I wanted to say at the moment, and Masterrusian is not a movie forum...

I must admit, that I do not like Indian or Chinese movies too much. All this singing, dancing and flying put me off since I was a kid. ))) But these two films you mentioned I did watch!
"House of Flying Daggers" was visually stunning, and I enjoyed watching it (even more so because it was filmed in Ukraine), but it was a one-time film for me. The plot was almost non-existent, and I doubt I'll ever watch it again.
"Hero" on the other hand is one of the best movies in this genre in my opinion!!! Great idea, decent acting, amazing visual sequences - it's beautiful all around. I watched it more than once, and I made my friends watch it. That counts for something. )))

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

"House of Flying Daggers" was visually stunning, and I enjoyed watching it (even more so because it was filmed in Ukraine)

I was really surprised to see a birch tree forest in it, and the snow, it felt so familiar at once (сразу показалось что-то родное ). And then I read in wiki that it was actually filmed in Ukraine! Yay! I knew it! Родина-мать. Хоть я и не с Украины, но я тут различий не делаю. Все равно сразу видны родные пейзажи.

Regarding the script, I guess I'm a very visual sort of person, so I was so transfixed by the sheer beauty of it -- I didn't care so much about script inconsistencies, if there were some. Plus, it's so tragic in the end -- whenever I re-watch it, I feel this huge lump in my throat or just start crying... I'm rather emotional, yeah. Though I always thought that I'm a very reserved and calm sort of person. But I think Zhang Ziyi played it beautifully, she's an amazing actress, like her a lot... And then, there's this haunting music...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcXCq...eature=related It pretty much kills me, this music!

another version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvcRQ...eature=related

found it. It's called "Lovers" and it's sung by kathleen Battle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRWo8...eature=related

"The Hero" is just another story altogether. Also fantastically beautiful AND intelligent. I don't compare these two movies in terms of which one is better because their subject matter is totally different. HFL is about love... And Hero is about, well, heroism!

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

I must admit, that I do not like Indian or Chinese movies too much. All this singing, dancing and flying put me off since I was a kid.

Hmmm... To me, music and dancing are just narrative conventions to which I got used and totally embraced... It wasn't that easy but in the end it really depends on the movie. Sometimes the music and dancing are great and fit very well into the story, sometimes not. For me, they are still much easier to accept than, for example, such ways of storytelling as ballet and opera. I probably just had unfortunate experiences with those but a) I don't like operatic voices, too powerful b) can never understand what they're singing and the whole story is sining c) it's really hard to get into the story when Tatyana and Onegin are both over 40 years old and weigh over 100 kg!

Soviet films also have a lot of singing, like "Twelve chairs" or "Diamond Arm". Of course, we can actually understand those songs since they're in Russian. With Hindi movies, you lose a lot if you don't have subtitles for the song -- it may seem a bit boring because you don't understand the words but important stuff about characters is often revealed in songs.

Singing in old Hindi movies is indeed not great... But when it comes to modern movies, music is sometimes the best part of a movie! For me it's become a huge bonus! Great songs can't save the movie if it's bad but still they're something to look forward to. There was one film I saw recently, and the only thing I really liked about it was this one song --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIXz1...eature=related

I also adore this one, from Main Hoon Na, it always lifts me mood http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy4Pz...eature=related

Another song which I like though I haven't actually seen the movie itself http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmGS4I0XNj4

Fave dancing song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvgTM6gF6LM

And fave sad one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oAAVWeIAF4

Just fun songs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uPNwg4F9NU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHVrIq6aaB8

Lampada has referenced VelikayaRus's Channel (Youtube) in thread Кинофильм "Вокзал для двоих" before. But it is worth including again here, because VelikayaRus really has a very large collection of high quality movies/playlists, and other things.

VelikayaRus

Yeah I think this thread has become a monster. It's impossible to read the whole thread. It was entertaining at first, but now it's gone to far.

I think it would be better to have a thread for Asian (or Bollywood) films.

Shortly after I joined the forum, I started a separate thread about Russian kino films ONLY, because I wanted there to be something that was only about Russian films, no deviation into Hollywood films etc. I have made a few posts to that since..

I wouldn't mind it if there was a separate thread for Russian animated films and maybe childrens films/series. Childrens material is good for learners because of simpler vocabulary.

And why not one about TV series and entertainment programs from Russian TV?

Ane maybe one about the latest from Hollywood, and/or European films?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBCHbJn- ... re=related

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

Hell yeah!

So... if you are fans of GLEE... They are doing a Rocky Horror episode for Halloween!!!

Here are two of the more popular scenes/songs from the movie. They actually follow one another in the film.

Time Warp:
http://www.livevideo.com/video/C45A5...-show-tim.aspx

Sweet Transvestite:
http://www.livevideo.com/video/A4F52...-show-swe.aspx

Originally Posted by rockzmom

Sorry... I have been feeling up to posting too much...

Okay, my thoughts on what a cult film is....

I think a good example is Rocky Horror Picture Show and I can speak about that one as I have seen it in the movie theater and can explain it better.

First, what is a cult movie? It is any movie which has a large devoted specific fan base. And in that sentence is the key word...fan... short for fanatic, a person with an extreme and uncritical enthusiasm or zeal. The people who like these films and go to see these movies don't go just once or twice, they go 100 times! I have a cousin who has seen Rocky Horror more than 200 times! I also believe it is "usually" a film that is not that great of a movie to begin with. Usually the topics of the films are the reasons they stay off the main charts. Rocky Horror is a musical that parodies science fiction and pornography films. It is not your main stream type of film! John Waters, a director from Baltimore, has a number of cult films. Pink Flamingo is one of his and the original Hair Spray, and Cry Baby (with a VERY young Johnny Depp) were his too. His films are just way out there and do not appeal to a mass audience but have a BIG fan base.

Now, back to Rocky Horror.... This film is a very funny film but if you were to watch it a home by yourself, oh my... you would just not have the same experience and would probably turn it off and think I have just lost my mind or I have taken way too much medication for liking this film.

In the movie theater, people dress up in costumes and bring props. They spray water (when it is raining in the movie), throw toast and rice (during the wedding scene of course) and snap rubber gloves (you'll have to guess why and when). They talk back to the screen and answer questions from the characters. It is all interactive. People get up and dance (they "do" the Time Warp dance that I posted the link for). It is a total experience, not just a movie.

Rocky Horror is also the longest-running theatrical release in film history, 34 years! I saw it the first time probably around 1979-80 as my sister who is older took me to see it. Now, I have only seen it in a movie theater a few times, but the music from the show and the Time Warp & Sweet Transvestite scenes are classic "cult" scenes and used in other TV show and movies.

Which leads me to my next point about a cult film....A cult movie is one that I feel is somehow used over and over again in other films or TV shows as an inside joke and Rocky Horror has been used countless times in other things:

Family Guy: They have done a number of episodes mentioning Rocky Horror. There is a Family Guy episode entitled Dammit Janet. In the episode, PTV, Peter, Stewie and Brian are dancing in transvestite’s outfits, for about 2 seconds.... and then there is this little clip ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js-Fji8KhaQ

Cold Case did an episode where they were looking for a murder that happened that was connected to Rocky Horror in the 1970's and Barry Bostwick played the killer. The ending of the show is really good as the used some of the songs from the movie and scenes from a theater showing the movie and then used similar fonts for the credits.... here it is: YouTube - Cold Case 'Creatures Of The Night' Ending

The Simpsons: (just for you alex!) The Dr. is dressed in Frank garb and is seen standing outside a theater -
(p.s. not from my computer, I just found the photo online)

Rocky Horror is mentioned on Gilmore Girls: Lorelei and Rory made plans to go to "Rocky Horror." Lorelei says she's Magenta, and Rory's usually Janet. And of course she tried to get Luke to dress up as Frank. YouTube - GIlmore Girls 2.11 Luke/Lorelai Rocky Horror Diner Scene

Rocky Horror has been spoofed on Whose Line is it Anyway? Wayne Brady has to do a song about a coffee grinder and he does "let's grind some coffee again!” YouTube - Whose Line is it Anyway: Song Styles: Rocky Horror

There are many more… but you get the idea... a cult film is much more than the film itself... it takes over and spreads into other things. Many times you may not understand the references made until someone explains them to you and then you go "Ohhhh" and start to notice them all over the place.

So, whatcha think?? Do you understand why I DON'T understand Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory & The Shawshank Redemption being on the list? These two movies just don't seem to ME, to fit this type of movie.

So, the Russian film, The Edge (Край) has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award! Who has seen this film? Is it available to watch online (maybe with English subtitles?)?

Originally Posted by rockzmom

So, the Russian film, The Edge (Край) has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award! Who has seen this film? Is it available to watch online (maybe with English subtitles?)?

Interesting!
English subs here: English Kray subtitle - By asheq-torrent - Subscene
The film, is definitely available for download at the usual places.

Of course, it would be better to BUY it and support the Russian film industry. Lampada knows a good US based site for buying Russian DVDs

RussianDVD.com - Russian music & Russian video store ?

So I see this commercial and I am distracted by the music from it. I am thinking... "I know this song... but from where?" Then I see the commercial again and the same thing and it bugs me. It took me the 3rd time to remember and I then feel so smart! I won't spoil the fun for those who might want a brain teaser.

YouTube - Sprint EVO 4G commercial

Hi,

I've made a quick list of Russian movies with English subtitles that are hosted on youtube or vimeo:

Russian Language Resources: Movies with Subtitles - Grammatica Blog

This list is non exhaustive.