Russian Film

Sokurov. Period, the end.

Siberiade. It may be the greatest film ever.

Presuming Soviet as well as specifically Russian:

The Colour of Pomegranates (Paradjanov)
Tale of Tales (Norstein)- the greatest animation!
Man with a Movie Camera (Vertov)
The Return (Zvyagintsev)
Salt for Svanetia (Kalatozov)
Arsenal (Dovzhenko)
King Lear (Kozintsev)
Fall of Leaves (Iosseliani)
Girl with a Hatbox (Barnet)
The Childhood of Maxim Gorki (Donskoi)
The Ascent (Shepitko)
Come and See (Klimov)
Happiness (Medvedkin)
Ballad of a Soldier (Chukhrai)
Unfinished Piece for Player Piano (Mikhalkov)
The Thief (Chukhrai jnr)
Bed and Sofa (Room)
Mother (Pudovkin)
Of Freaks and Men (Balabanov)
Mother and Son (Sokurov)
Twilight of a Woman’s Soul (Bauer)
War and Peace (Bondarchuk)

Siberiade may be the greatest film ever, but i can’t confirm that cos i’ve not seen it.

I second:
Little Vera
The Cranes Are Flying
Man With a Movie Camera

I don’t think there has been mentioned:
My Friend Ivan Lapshin

There are two films that are Fabulous pieces of Russion/Soviet film (assuming we are including soviet film)
that I cannot remember the titles for and it’s driving me mad.
One is a Stalin satire, color, a surrealist/satire— anyone? It has this notable monologue where the ‘Stalin’ character talks of finding the black cat in the dark room…
The other consists of a man who starts a gang of guys that idolize a poet whose name I also can’t remember (I’m a lot of help…) also a satire. Vague, I know, but it was long ago…
Sorry to get off track, but if anyone has seen either one, please chime in. They’re awesome.

sounds like REPENTANCE by Tengiz Abuladze, a very dark satire about Stalin.

From 2005, ‘4’ by Ilya Khrjanovsky. Very interesting film. Experimental for sure, but really worth the effort.

Mikhalkov is important. Check out:
-Burnt by the Sun
-Barber of Siberia
-Unfinished Piece for the Player Piano (title for Gordon Ackerman’s recommendation perviously)

Then if you want to go beyond these:
-S Legkim Parom (classic New Year’s Tale)
-East/West

Luna Park (1992) Pavel Lungin now based in France

i havent’ seen “burnt by the sun” in ages. but i really liked when i saw it. but that’s the only mihalkov film i know.

Yay, will be watching Soviet cinema for my film history course next week!

What should I expect from Soviet cinema?

Will be viewing Man with a Movie Camera and Aleksandr Nevsky.

Being a Russian, I’d definitely recommend Eisenstein’s “Battleship Potemkin” and “Ivan the Terrible Parts 1 and 2” if you’ve got an open mind, and not willing to bend to nationalist propaganda, because that’s what both films are.

Tarkovsky’s “Solaris” and “Stalker” are also brilliant, if obscure. However, if you watch those films right before you plan to go to sleep, you’ll have the craziest dreams, so that’s a plus.

“Stalker”^

Roman, were you replying to me?

Also, saw entire battleship Potemkin, only saw snippets of Ivan the Terrible (I think part 1) and man with a movie camera.

The Ascent by Larissa Shepitko (very Tarkovskian, though, if you don’t just want to watch films influenced by him); Earth by Dovzhenko; Mother and Son by Sokurov (also Tarkovskian)

Horem pádem is really good…but i actually think that it’s Czech and not Russian.

I’m surprised no one has mentioned The Irony of Fate or How to Enjoy Your Bath, a classic New Year’s movie from the late Soviet era. Great fun!

And snippets of Aleksandr Nevsky.

“my friend ivan lapshin” is the best movie ever made, but it is hard to find on DVD,

Little Vera
Mne dvadzat let (aka Zastava Il’ycha)
Brother
War
Cargo 200
Zhmurki
The Banishment
The Nedle

Mesto vstrechi izmenit nelzya (The meeting place cannot be changed) – russian classic

on a funnier note: Ivan Vasilievich menaet professiju (Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future)

and of course I’ll second Irony of faith or enjoy your bath: essential Russian new year’s comedy.

Agreed on The Irony of Fate, Dzimas and Fandorin-san. A must see, at least once, preferably on the day and night referenced in the film. Also, Kimov’s Come and See, one of the most profoundly affecting film experiences I’ve ever had.

I hadn’t realised My Friend Ivan Lapshin, which i’ve wanted to see for ages, is now on youtube, thanks to one of the members here; it’s tremendous, and i can see why it was recently voted best Russian film. Films like Hamlet, Slave of Love, Repentance, Vij and Lady with a Little Dog are also now on youtube, on one guy’s Russian film channel. So many to catch up on!

Anything by Alexander Sukurov—he may be greatest of all living film directors—very few of the masters left, but Russian has 1 at the very least, alive and kicking and making the most profound films of his time bar none.

The 41st (Chukhrai)
Clear Skies (Chukhrai)
Brother (Balabanov)
Zhmurki (Balabanov)
The Second Circle (Sokurov)
The Ascent (Shepitko)
The End of St. Petersburg (Pudovkin)
Destiny of a Man (Bondarchuk)
The Outskirts (Lutsik)
Schizo (Omarova— it’s Kazakh, but in Russian)
4 (Khrzhanovsky)
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Paradzhanov— Ukrainian, but the folk customs depicted are very similar to those of Russia)

Anything by Tarkovsky, Dovzhenko, Sokurov, Kalatozov, Khutsiyev, German, Shepitko, Daneliya.

Also, there’s a film festival that just started in Питер called the Festival of Festivals (Фестиваль Фестивалей) that will be showing some Russian films, which may interest the original poster but I don’t know if he’s still reading this thread.

just thought i throw in my vote for come and see, possibly the best war movie ever

Just tracked down the rarest film ever – more or less – thanks to a broadcasting: The Unsent Letter by Kalatozov. One of the most beautiful Russian films.

Someone please identify this film for me. If you can. All I know, broadcast-wise, it that it has enjoyed one screening on Channel 4 in the UK. It was part of a “Soviet Cinema” season. A while back. Late 80s, early 90s perhaps.

I don’t remember much about the film. It takes place in what I think is a fairly cold and remote region of the then Soviet Union. I’m imagining somewhere northerly.

This is all sounding very vague, isn’t it. And I’m sounding like a real monkey for writing it. Let me save myself. There is one highly distinctive and defining element which will definitely identify this film to anyone who has seen it. Towards the end, all the people in the small community the film is set in strip down to their underwear/night garments and walk into the sea at night. I think this is observed by the protagonist of the film who seems to inhabit something of a voyeuristic role. If you’d seen the film you would definitely remember this scene. It’s unmistakable.

Can anyone help?

hi, I’ve been trying to find this movie for years.. it was on tv one day and i can’t remember what it was called; I’ll tell you a bit that i remember and hope that it rings a bell.. a drama, the action takes place in 1989 during a war in Soviet Russia, studying the war effects on human behavor on all plans, revealing in a brilliant way severel formes of human degradation which I could never describe it in words.. the movie includes a love story.. they are young and engaged, he becames soldier in the soviet army and goes to fight on the front, she stays at home where she lives with her parents and waits for him, writing letters to each other; the local militiaman cheef falls inlove with the girl and tries to seduce her but with no results; meanwhile the youngman dies in batle and his body is returened home along with many others; the militiaman kidnaps the girl locking her up in his mother’s apartment, who’s too mentally ill to figuer it out what’s happening around her; this is where he rapes and torture the girl by reading outloud love letters sended by her fiance; at the end of the movie some female character who was looking for revenge, i don’t remember why, breakes into the kidnaper’s house and shoots him dead.. and that’s about all I can remember..

@Maura
Sounds like Cargo 200 by Alexei Balabanov.

exactly! thank you! :)

Anyone know if these films are any good? Most of the Russian films I have seen were made before 1960, so curious about the films listed on that site.