Thread: Russian films with clear dialogues?

Hello, all! I am preparing for a Russian language test, the Test of Russian as a Foreign Language (TORFL), at an upper-intermediate level. If I took the test, which consists of reading, writing, listening, speaking, and grammar subtests, today, I think I'd pass everything except listening.
The listening portion of the test consists of watching extracts of Russian-language films, and then answering multiple choice questions about the extracts, which are generally around five minutes long.
In brief, I need to find good Russian-language films with lively dialogue. Some of the older films have pretty poor sound quality, I need something with clear sound quality. So far I have seen Осенний Марафон, Ирония Судьбы, and Москва Слезам не Верит, which were all at about the right level of difficulty. I tried В Бой идут Одни Старики, but it was rather too hard.
Any help is very much appreciated!

You can find movies with Russian subs, that way if it's unclear you can read the subs. As I recall, Брат and Брат 2 were pretty clear and not too difficult. Don't try Андрей Рублёв, it's very difficult. BTW, listening takes tons of daily practise, you can't watch a few movies and expect to understand the language.
http://subtitry.ru

Ищите женщину, Служебный роман, Операция "Ы"

Or, have the text ready to hand and watch "Евгенин Онегин" or "Пикавая дама" or any other adaptation of literature.

Originally Posted by ingberlin

"Пикавая дама"

=> Пиковая дама

Thanks for the tips, guys.
I already have a decent level of understanding, I understood around 95% of the films I mentioned (with a lot of rewinding)- the main problem for understanding for me is not the I don't have a good level, it's really that sound quality in these films is often not so high. A lot of the films have scripts available online.
Tim

What do you mean about the sound quality being poor?
Where precisely are you getting these films from?
I suggest you BUY them, or download a good DVD rip.

I have watched some old films too and the only obstacle to understanding them is my very limited vocabulary....

В некоторых фильмах даже носитель языка не все фразы расслышит. Фильмы - это скорее тест твоих возможностей. Если тебе нужно развить восприятие русской речи на слух лучше слушай аудиокниги и радио, там говорят довольно четко. Если говорить о видео, то лучше смотреть научно-популярные и документальные фильмы. Художественные же фильмы бывают испытанием даже для русского человека, потому что в некоторых местах и не нужно слышать полную фразу. Нечеткая речь - это художественный прием: бормотание, пьяная речь, шёпот, нечленораздельный панический выкрик и пр.

Надеюсь помогла

Зачем вообще придумали сколько языков) ох, как просто было бы людям общаться на одном)

Можно пытаться: Война и Мир, Джентльмены Удачи, Верные Друзья (диалог совсем быстрый), Русалка, и Солярис Тарковского

You might try: War and Peace (Bondarchuk), Gentlemen of Fortune, True Friends, Mermaid, and Tarkovsky's Solyaris.

There is one film from the 1970s called The Gentlemen of Fortune which has a character that speaks EXTREMELY slowly. You are almost guaranteed to be able to understand everything he says. I think the other actors must be classically trained or something, because they really articulate everything very clearly - great for a language student! It's a very funny film too I recommend it.

I thought "Летят журавли" was relatively easy to follow language-wise.

Thanks, guys.
About watching/ listening to the news- that does help, and I listen, sometimes carefully, sometimes not, to BBC Russia's morning news almost every day. But the range of vocab is relatively limited.
My technique now is to find films that give me a challenge, and watch them, rewinding when necessary to catch as much as humanly possible just from listening. I keep a dictionary by my side and look everything up; then I download the script, and read through all the dialogue, highlighting everything I don't understand. Then I check all those words in the dictionary, and if anything is left I check it with a native speaker. Then I watch again, with something like 95% understanding. For every hour of straight movie-watching without rewinding, there is around 4 hours of studying. This takes away some of the enjoyment of just sitting down and watching a movie, but each time it does get easier, and the whole exercise leaves me with a better understanding of the conventions of Russian conversation.
Hopefully I'll be really ready for the TORFL-3, and not just to scrape by, in a year.

You can found many interesting there
http://rutracker.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=22
http://www.opensubtitles.org/ru

Tim, would you please share where you find the scripts to download online?

I just google them.
Typing the title even with Roman letters will give the right result.
Not all of the scripts correspond EXACTLY to the movies, though.

I definitely recommend Letyat Zhuravli and Sobache Serdtse. We used them in Russian Language classes for comprehension.

(sorry I can't type in Cyrillic on this computer)

I also recommend finding cartoon videos on YouTube! Like Vinni Pux...(Winnie the Poo!)

К празднику ОРТ любезно залило на YouTube старые военные фильмы.
[url=http://intrestingworld.mybb.ru/click.php?[url]http://www.youtube.com/prazdnikpobedi]

This link is still good but I don't know for how long. Two Russian movies for Victory day.
http://etvnet.com/pop/241135/?utm_sourc ... dium=email

http://etvnet.com/-odna-vojna/291384/?u ... dium=email

Some of the older films was remastered to take a more quality at current time.
A good idea is to use some of old USSR animated cartoons: it has a very "clear" voice specially created for childrens. And its has exclusively right grammar also: each of animated cartoon for childrens was been reviewed and censored before publishing: no one grammar or speaking error in it.