Chungking Express 0 v Kanal 1
Chungking Express to me is an underwelming imitation of Godard (who I am not a fan of). Wajda’s Kanal is perhaps not the best war movie I’ve ever seen but is at the same time a strange and memorable road movie. Kanal wins easily in my book.
Devils on the Doorstep vs Tess.
Can’t vote on this one because I haven’t seen Tess. I would urge everyone to see Devils on the Doorstep though. It is an absolute masterpiece. A tragedy told within the framework of a farce. A wholly original film and a definite must-see.
I haven’t seen too many Korean films but I’d like to give another mention to Goryeo Jang by Kim Ki-Young. If in between Shock Corridor and the Naked Kiss Samuel Fuller directed Ugetsu, it would be Goryeo Jang’s dizygotic twin. A magnificent, outrageous, melodramatic nightmare unstifled by the bounds of good taste or plausibility.
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance was also very good and much more interesting than the other films in Park’s “Vengeance” trilogy.
Marketa Lazarova 1 Cyclo 0
I felt that Cyclo wanted to be equal parts Los Olvidades and Le Samourai but in the end degenerated into a typical Asia Extreme offering, juxtaposing exotic imagery with brutal violence in order to compensate for the lack of real depth.
Market Lazarova is a complex, layered epic of the Middle Ages, an avant-garde historical masterpiece that is in a class of its own.
I’ll stick with 20th century only, otherwise this list might get a little out of control:
“The Trial”, “The Castle”, “America”, “The Metamorphoses”, “In The Penal Colony” – Franz Kafka
“Beware of Pity” – Stefan Zweig
“The Maimed” – Hermann Ungar
“Jacob Von Gunten” – Robert Walser
“The Radetzky March” – Joseph Roth
“Berlin Alexanderplatz” – Alfred Doblin
“Hunger” – Knut Hamsun
“Brave Soldier Shweik” – Yaroslav Hashek
“Ferdidurke” – Witold Gombrowicz
“Red Cavalry”, “Odessa Tales” – Isaac Babel
“Chevengur”, “Foundation Pit” – Andrei Platonov
“Master and Margarita”, “Heart of a Dog” – Mikhail Bulgakov
“Moscow Circles” – Venedict Yerofeev
“The Twelve Chairs”, “The Golden Calf” – Ilya Ilf & Yevgeniy Petrov
“As I Lay Dying”, “The Sound And The Fury” – William Faulkner
“Winesburg, Ohio” – Sherwood Anderson
“Heart of Darkness” – Joseph Conrad
“McTeague” – Frank Norris
“The Great Gatsby” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
“The Clockwork Orange” – Anthony Burgess
“The Day Of The Locust” – Nathanael West
“A High Wind In Jamaica” – Richard Hughes
“Blood Meridian” – Cormac McCarthy
“Yoshe Kalb” – Israel Joshua Singer
“The Stranger” – Albert Camus
“100 Years Of Solitude” – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
+ some selected stuff by Karel Capek, Daniil Kharms, Ryhosuke Akutagawa, Leo Perutz, Stanislaw Lem, Jorge Luis Borges, Horacio Quiroga, Tommaso Landolfi, Vladimir Nabokov, Arkadiy & Boris Strugatski, Amos Tutuola, Philip K. Dick, Henry Miller, Fedor Sologub, Mark Ageyev, Georgiy Vladimov, Felipe Alfau
Ran
Amadeus
Santa Sangre
Raging Bull
The King Of Comedy
Kin Dza Dza
Heart Of a Dog
Do The Right Thing
Full Metal Jacket
Scarface
San Soleil
Popeye
Under The Volcano
Walker
Once Upon A Time In America
The Thief, The Cook, His Wife And Her Lover
The Shining
Quest For Fire
“The Dawns Here Are Quiet” – As far as Russian war cinema goes, this is its oversentimentalized propogandistic fairytale pinnacle and a movie not to be missed.
“The Apple” – Handicapped children have adventures amid the third world poverty of their fundamentalist homeland. I think there was a moral to it all somewhere as well…
I thought both Mason and Sue Lyons were great in Lolita. As was Shelley Winters. Can’t say the same for Peter Sellers though. He was completely out of sinc with the rest of the actors, operating on a totally different frequency. It was almost like he was part of some whole other movie, one only he alone out of of the entire cast knew about and participated in. Reminded me a lot of that badger (I think it was a badger.. was it?) in Winnie-The-Poo. I thought it was distracting.
Loved the music. Made me want to listen to Astor Piazzola’s “Tango Zero Hour” again which I’ve been happily doing for the last few days. The film itself didn’t really grab me though. I like neither Mellvile nor Godard so I guess this “Melville meets Godard in Argentina” experiment didn’t really have much of a chance with me. I did want to see this for the longest time though so it was nice to scratch it off the list.
“Ivan the Terrible, Part II”, Sergei Eisenstein, 1944
What is it? The unruly, undisciplined, magnificent second part of Eisenstein’s unfinished historical trilogy I’d watch this rather than… “Ivan the Terrible, Part I” by Sergei Eisenstein
I do love Part I as well but Part II is an apocalyptic madcap miracle of a movie.
Joseph Stalin liked part I better though. You decide which camp you are in.
“Chapayev”, the Vasilyev brothers, 1934
What is it? An antique adventure film of civil war heroics that cannot contain its own awkward brilliance within the boundaries of its ideology I’d watch this rather than… anything made by Dovzhenko, Pudovkin or any other scary old man of the Russian Cinema
BTW, the Vasilyev brothers weren’t actually related.
“The Outskirts”, Pyotr Lutsik, 1998
What is it? A bizarre, haunting and hilarious snail-pace action film that violently explores the archetypes of the Russian psyche. I’d watch this rather than… anything else produced by the Russian film industry in the last 20 years.
“Trial on the Roads”, Alexei German, 1971
What is it? The most complex and significant Russian war film in history and a deep and merciless portrayal of imperfect people facing moral dilemmas in times of crises. I’d watch this rather than… “The Ascent” by Larissa Shepitko, which is improbably and unexplainably better known in the West
“Andrei Rublev”, Andrei Tarkovski, 1966
What is it? A brutal and spectacular epic of the Middle Ages and a thoughtful meditation on the nature of art and the creative process I’d watch this rather than… the rest of Tarkovski’s output
This is easily his best work as far as I am concerned.
“The Commissar”, Alexander Askoldov, 1967
What is it? A cerebral, gritty historical masterpiece and a thought-provoking exposition of human nature, misery and folly I’d watch this rather than… “The Shop on the Main Street” by Jan Kadar and Elmar Klos
Both deal with the Jewish question but “The Comissar” avoids the simplistic moralising that pervades the Slovakian Oscar winner.
“The White Sun Of The Desert”, Vladimir Motyl, 1970
What is it? An ironic, self-aware, wildly entertaining eastern with a cult following I’d watch this rather than… “Once Upon a Time in the West” by Sergio Leone
“Heart of a Dog”, Vladimir Bortko, 1988 and “The Golden Calf”, Mikhail Shvejtser, 1968
What is it? Wild, clever, masterful screen adaptations of iconic Russian satires I’d watch this rather than… “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” by Stanley Kubrick
“Come And See”, Elem Klimov, 1985
What is it? A nightmarish, surreal reimagining of the realities of war. I’d watch this rather than…
Can’t watch this one too often. No other war film I’ve seen goes this far.
“Cargo 200”, Alexei Balabanov, 2007
What is it? A macabre piece of Soviet era nostalgia and a gruesome little comedy of horrors from the director of “Brother” and “Of Freaks And Men”. I’d watch this rather than… any Romanian abortion movies that are currently out there
“Our Own”, Dmitriy Meskhiyev, 2004
What is it? A savage revisionist war melodrama I’d watch this rather than… “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” by Stanislav Rostotsky
Don’t miss out on “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” either though – a heartbreaking, unconventional narrative and a classic example of the ecstatic mythologizing of the Great War that is the cornerstone of Russian war cinema
“Kin Dza Dza”, Georgiy Daneliya, 1986
What is it? An inventive and hilarious dystopian sci-fi comedy I’d watch this rather than… “Brazil” by Terry Gilliam
“Khrustalev, the Car!”, Alexei German, 1998
What is it? A grotesque and terrifying epic-scale examination of Soviet society under Stalin. Think “Eraserhead” meets “Gulag Archipelago”… I’d watch this rather than… “Burnt By the Sun” by Nikita Mikhalkov
We can’t all get an Oscar. Or a Region 1 DVD release…
“The Fountain”, Yuriy Mamin, 1988
What is it? A bitter and intelligent comic allegory of life in the Soviet Union I’d watch this rather than… “The Fountain” by Darren Arronofsky
I’d watch almost anything rather than “The Fountain” by Darren Arronofsky
@ Drew Kelly
The only thing I can say about “The Russian Ark” is that I’ll never be able to get back the 2 hours that I spent watching it. Of course that is true for any movie that you watch but in this case it actually makes me angry. “The Russian Ark” is an empty, pseudo-intellectual excersize in style. It certainly does not explore the Russian history or the national character as it claims to do, it has absolutely no entertainment value and its gimmicky premise has all the audacity of a high school science project. What was the purpose of this movie?! Unless this was Sokurov’s misguided attempt to become an answer to a trivia question, I see none.
Devils On The Doorstep
Dogville
The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada
Songs From The Second Floor
The Assasination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
There Will be Blood
Innocence
Punch-Drunk Love
Requiem For A Dream
City Of God
@the world… my kin… my twin…
Watch at your own risk. Cargo 200 is a very dark and graphic movie. Balabanov is best known for “Brother” which is probably the most famous Russian gangster picture ever. If you like Mellville’s gangster films or Takeshi Kitano’s yakuza pictures then “Brother” is something you should definetely check out. It is an interesting take on the genre and is Russian to the core, which is probably why it is so massively popular there.
@Fandorin-San
Great point about “The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed”, an excellent multi-part tv production from the 70s with the iconic russian actor, poet and singer Vladimir Vysotsky in the main role. This epic adventure film covers roughly the same thematic territory as German’s “My Friend Ivan Lapshin” and is one of Soviet television’s greatest achievements. Another famous Soviet tv film that has long engrained itself into the national consciousness is the mammoth “17 Moments Of Spring” which is the story of a Soviet military spy working in Germany at the height of World War II.
BTW, The White Sun Of The Desert, Heart Of A Dog, The Commissar, Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed, 17 Moments of Spring and many other Russian movies are available on youtube with english subtitles. In case anybody is interested, here is a link.
Just finished a book of short stories by S.Y. Agnon.
Currently reading “The Silver Dove” by Andriy Beliy and “The Books In My Life” by Henry Miller.
Also rereading “The Cyberiad” by Stanislaw Lem.
Japan: Fires on the Plain (Kon Ichikawa, 1959)
Soviet Union: The Trial on The Roads (Alexei German, 1971)
China: Devils on the Doorstep (Jiang Wen, 2000)
France: The Sorrow and the Pity (Marcel Ophuls, 1969)
Poland: Kanal (Andrzej Wajda, 1956)
Sadly, I can’t think of a single British or American movie WWII movie that I actually like.
Sansho the Bailiff 0 – Before the Rain 1
Before the Rain is a mediocre film, predictable and full of cheap symbolism. Sansho the Bailiff though is the worst kind of melodrama – self-important, weepy and long-winded. I never understood what people get out of that movie.
High and Low 1 – Montenegro 0
High and Low is a solid, well-made procedural anchored by a strong performance by Mifune. Montenegro is an amusing, irreverant, lightweight, obscene little comedy. Neither was a revelation but High and Low wins out easily in the end.
3 adventure films that immediately come to mind.
Each one is a nightmarish odyssey, a journey through a world of horrors and wonder, a violent scary fairytale with a happy ending.
What exactly do you mean when you say “humanity”? It is one of those words that is used often in discussions of film and literature but doesn’t really carry any meaning. Does Sansho the Bailiff tell us something about the world that we didn’t already know? What exactly is so subtle and honest about the artificial twists of its melodramatic plot? Is it ultimately much different from a soap opera or a Ron Howard film? I understand that Sansho is the sacred cow of cinephilia but I just don’t get it. Then again I feel the same way about Ikiru, Wild Strawberries and many other movies that are generally revered and beloved. I am not trying to be contrarian. I just find them bland and uninteresting and I am not touched by the sunday school lessons that these movies are trying to teach to me.
@Apursansar
My main problem with Sansho is that it is a humorless spook story preached from an impossibly high moral ground. I don’t think that a depiction of “human comportment under unbearable conditions” is something that I would define as a work of art. “Passion of the Christ” is also a depiction of “human comportment under unbearable conditions”. Do you consider that a work of art as well?
Art cannot take itself so seriously. It is by nature a caricature of life and it has to stay true to its nature. “Berlin Alexanderplatz”, “Aguirre the Wrath of God” and “Barry Lyndon” are works of art and genuine depictions of the “tragic aspects of life”. “Sansho the Bailiff”, on the other hand, doesn’t strike me as such. Socially conscious art is an oximoron. The minute the preaching starts, art turns into propaganda, no matter how noble the ideals.
I am also not sure that the purpose of art has anything to do with beauty. You can make a persvasive argument that art is just as concerned with the ugly side of life as it is with the beautiful. Did Bruegel, Goya or Bosch deal in beauty? What about Cervantes, Gogol or Kafka? I get just as bored by looking at pretty pictures as I do by listening to sermons.
And finally I don’t believe that there is anything beautiful about human suffering or the ability to bear, withstand and accept suffering as part of life. More often than not, tragedy is a direct result of human folly. Humans shouldn’t admire the fact that they can endure the results of their own stupidity or pretend that suffering is some gift from above. Any movie or book that tries to wrap suffering and beauty together as part of the same pretty little package is shallow and fake. Beauty and tragedy don’t mix. The Holocaust was tragic. There was absolutely nothing beautiful about it.
Well, here I was worried that I was polluting the thread with my ramblings on “Sansho” and now come to see that the thread has been completely hijacked by a troll. What exactly is the issue here? You don’t want to watch these 288 films? Don’t watch them. You don’t want to particiapate in the AWC? Don’t participate. Why are you posting in a thread you have no interest in?
Anyway, back to my original thought. Apursansar, I feel that you are misunderstanding my point or perhaps I am not being very clear about it. I am not saying that a work of art cannot be tragic and beautiful at the same time. I just don’t believe that there is anything beautiful about the suffering itself. Sansho glorifies suffering and treats it (much like organized religions of all sorts do as well) as the most noble and beautiful part of human existence. I am not a religious man and refuse to see the world that way.
The trial and tribulations of the protagonists of the ancient Greek tragedies came about as a result of their own hubris, which is much more true to life, in my opinion, than the cult of suffering that is peddled to the masses in “humanistic” works like “Sansho the Bailiff”.
I completely agree about true works of art needing to combine the tragic, the beautiful and the ridiculous but only as long as it is understood that these things cannot be substituted for one another. I too think that Kafka is very funny, even at his darkest. Sansho the Bailiff though is completely humorless, it is an artificial world, void of the absurdity and the ridiculousness that are an integral part of life in the real world. A chorus of satyrs would do Sansho a whole lot of good. :)
Come and See is more of a cult favorite than a classic of the genre. It is a unique and fascinating curio not a universally acknowleged masterpiece. How exactly is it overrated?
WORLD CUP: VOTING - GERMANY V SPAIN (GROUP 5) over 2 years ago
The Tin Drum 1 – Spirit of the Beehive 0
Run Lola Run 0 – Belle de Jour 1
Go to Comment
WORLD CUP: VOTING- CHINA V POLAND (GROUP 8) over 2 years ago
Chungking Express 0 v Kanal 1
Chungking Express to me is an underwelming imitation of Godard (who I am not a fan of). Wajda’s Kanal is perhaps not the best war movie I’ve ever seen but is at the same time a strange and memorable road movie. Kanal wins easily in my book.
Devils on the Doorstep vs Tess.
Can’t vote on this one because I haven’t seen Tess. I would urge everyone to see Devils on the Doorstep though. It is an absolute masterpiece. A tragedy told within the framework of a farce. A wholly original film and a definite must-see.
Go to Comment
your fav. korean language film ? over 2 years ago
I haven’t seen too many Korean films but I’d like to give another mention to Goryeo Jang by Kim Ki-Young. If in between Shock Corridor and the Naked Kiss Samuel Fuller directed Ugetsu, it would be Goryeo Jang’s dizygotic twin. A magnificent, outrageous, melodramatic nightmare unstifled by the bounds of good taste or plausibility.
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance was also very good and much more interesting than the other films in Park’s “Vengeance” trilogy.
Go to Comment
WORLD CUP: VOTING - USA V BELGIUM (GROUP 1) over 2 years ago
Night of the Hunter 1 – Jeanne Dielman 0
Go to Comment
WORLD CUP: VOTING - CZECH REPUBLIC V SOUTH EAST ASIA (GROUP 1) over 2 years ago
Marketa Lazarova 1 Cyclo 0
I felt that Cyclo wanted to be equal parts Los Olvidades and Le Samourai but in the end degenerated into a typical Asia Extreme offering, juxtaposing exotic imagery with brutal violence in order to compensate for the lack of real depth.
Market Lazarova is a complex, layered epic of the Middle Ages, an avant-garde historical masterpiece that is in a class of its own.
Go to Comment
WORLD CUP: VOTING- SPAIN V CANADA (GROUP 5) over 2 years ago
The Exterminating Angel 1- Heart of the World 0
Go to Comment
Favorite Books over 2 years ago
I’ll stick with 20th century only, otherwise this list might get a little out of control:
“The Trial”, “The Castle”, “America”, “The Metamorphoses”, “In The Penal Colony” – Franz Kafka
“Beware of Pity” – Stefan Zweig
“The Maimed” – Hermann Ungar
“Jacob Von Gunten” – Robert Walser
“The Radetzky March” – Joseph Roth
“Berlin Alexanderplatz” – Alfred Doblin
“Hunger” – Knut Hamsun
“Brave Soldier Shweik” – Yaroslav Hashek
“Ferdidurke” – Witold Gombrowicz
“Red Cavalry”, “Odessa Tales” – Isaac Babel
“Chevengur”, “Foundation Pit” – Andrei Platonov
“Master and Margarita”, “Heart of a Dog” – Mikhail Bulgakov
“Moscow Circles” – Venedict Yerofeev
“The Twelve Chairs”, “The Golden Calf” – Ilya Ilf & Yevgeniy Petrov
“As I Lay Dying”, “The Sound And The Fury” – William Faulkner
“Winesburg, Ohio” – Sherwood Anderson
“Heart of Darkness” – Joseph Conrad
“McTeague” – Frank Norris
“The Great Gatsby” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
“The Clockwork Orange” – Anthony Burgess
“The Day Of The Locust” – Nathanael West
“A High Wind In Jamaica” – Richard Hughes
“Blood Meridian” – Cormac McCarthy
“Yoshe Kalb” – Israel Joshua Singer
“The Stranger” – Albert Camus
“100 Years Of Solitude” – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
+ some selected stuff by Karel Capek, Daniil Kharms, Ryhosuke Akutagawa, Leo Perutz, Stanislaw Lem, Jorge Luis Borges, Horacio Quiroga, Tommaso Landolfi, Vladimir Nabokov, Arkadiy & Boris Strugatski, Amos Tutuola, Philip K. Dick, Henry Miller, Fedor Sologub, Mark Ageyev, Georgiy Vladimov, Felipe Alfau
Go to Comment
Best Films of the 80's? over 2 years ago
Ran
Amadeus
Santa Sangre
Raging Bull
The King Of Comedy
Kin Dza Dza
Heart Of a Dog
Do The Right Thing
Full Metal Jacket
Scarface
San Soleil
Popeye
Under The Volcano
Walker
Once Upon A Time In America
The Thief, The Cook, His Wife And Her Lover
The Shining
Quest For Fire
Go to Comment
WORLD CUP: VOTING- RUSSIA V IRAN (GROUP 7) over 2 years ago
The Dawns Here are Quiet 1 – The Apple 0
“The Dawns Here Are Quiet” – As far as Russian war cinema goes, this is its oversentimentalized propogandistic fairytale pinnacle and a movie not to be missed.
“The Apple” – Handicapped children have adventures amid the third world poverty of their fundamentalist homeland. I think there was a moral to it all somewhere as well…
Go to Comment
Great films with terrible acting? over 2 years ago
I thought both Mason and Sue Lyons were great in Lolita. As was Shelley Winters. Can’t say the same for Peter Sellers though. He was completely out of sinc with the rest of the actors, operating on a totally different frequency. It was almost like he was part of some whole other movie, one only he alone out of of the entire cast knew about and participated in. Reminded me a lot of that badger (I think it was a badger.. was it?) in Winnie-The-Poo. I thought it was distracting.
Go to Comment
Invasión (1969) by Hugo Santiago over 2 years ago
Loved the music. Made me want to listen to Astor Piazzola’s “Tango Zero Hour” again which I’ve been happily doing for the last few days. The film itself didn’t really grab me though. I like neither Mellvile nor Godard so I guess this “Melville meets Godard in Argentina” experiment didn’t really have much of a chance with me. I did want to see this for the longest time though so it was nice to scratch it off the list.
Go to Comment
Between Hammer and Sickle: A personal list of favorite Russian films over 2 years ago
“Ivan the Terrible, Part II”, Sergei Eisenstein, 1944
What is it? The unruly, undisciplined, magnificent second part of Eisenstein’s unfinished historical trilogy
I’d watch this rather than… “Ivan the Terrible, Part I” by Sergei Eisenstein
I do love Part I as well but Part II is an apocalyptic madcap miracle of a movie.
Joseph Stalin liked part I better though. You decide which camp you are in.
“Chapayev”, the Vasilyev brothers, 1934
What is it? An antique adventure film of civil war heroics that cannot contain its own awkward brilliance within the boundaries of its ideology
I’d watch this rather than… anything made by Dovzhenko, Pudovkin or any other scary old man of the Russian Cinema
BTW, the Vasilyev brothers weren’t actually related.
“The Outskirts”, Pyotr Lutsik, 1998
What is it? A bizarre, haunting and hilarious snail-pace action film that violently explores the archetypes of the Russian psyche.
I’d watch this rather than… anything else produced by the Russian film industry in the last 20 years.
“Trial on the Roads”, Alexei German, 1971
What is it? The most complex and significant Russian war film in history and a deep and merciless portrayal of imperfect people facing moral dilemmas in times of crises.
I’d watch this rather than… “The Ascent” by Larissa Shepitko, which is improbably and unexplainably better known in the West
“Andrei Rublev”, Andrei Tarkovski, 1966
What is it? A brutal and spectacular epic of the Middle Ages and a thoughtful meditation on the nature of art and the creative process
I’d watch this rather than… the rest of Tarkovski’s output
This is easily his best work as far as I am concerned.
“The Commissar”, Alexander Askoldov, 1967
What is it? A cerebral, gritty historical masterpiece and a thought-provoking exposition of human nature, misery and folly
I’d watch this rather than… “The Shop on the Main Street” by Jan Kadar and Elmar Klos
Both deal with the Jewish question but “The Comissar” avoids the simplistic moralising that pervades the Slovakian Oscar winner.
“The White Sun Of The Desert”, Vladimir Motyl, 1970
What is it? An ironic, self-aware, wildly entertaining eastern with a cult following
I’d watch this rather than… “Once Upon a Time in the West” by Sergio Leone
“Heart of a Dog”, Vladimir Bortko, 1988 and “The Golden Calf”, Mikhail Shvejtser, 1968
What is it? Wild, clever, masterful screen adaptations of iconic Russian satires
I’d watch this rather than… “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” by Stanley Kubrick
“Come And See”, Elem Klimov, 1985
What is it? A nightmarish, surreal reimagining of the realities of war.
I’d watch this rather than…
Can’t watch this one too often. No other war film I’ve seen goes this far.
“Cargo 200”, Alexei Balabanov, 2007
What is it? A macabre piece of Soviet era nostalgia and a gruesome little comedy of horrors from the director of “Brother” and “Of Freaks And Men”.
I’d watch this rather than… any Romanian abortion movies that are currently out there
“Our Own”, Dmitriy Meskhiyev, 2004
What is it? A savage revisionist war melodrama
I’d watch this rather than… “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” by Stanislav Rostotsky
Don’t miss out on “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” either though – a heartbreaking, unconventional narrative and a classic example of the ecstatic mythologizing of the Great War that is the cornerstone of Russian war cinema
“Kin Dza Dza”, Georgiy Daneliya, 1986
What is it? An inventive and hilarious dystopian sci-fi comedy
I’d watch this rather than… “Brazil” by Terry Gilliam
“Khrustalev, the Car!”, Alexei German, 1998
What is it? A grotesque and terrifying epic-scale examination of Soviet society under Stalin. Think “Eraserhead” meets “Gulag Archipelago”…
I’d watch this rather than… “Burnt By the Sun” by Nikita Mikhalkov
We can’t all get an Oscar. Or a Region 1 DVD release…
“The Fountain”, Yuriy Mamin, 1988
What is it? A bitter and intelligent comic allegory of life in the Soviet Union
I’d watch this rather than… “The Fountain” by Darren Arronofsky
I’d watch almost anything rather than “The Fountain” by Darren Arronofsky
Go to Comment
Between Hammer and Sickle: A personal list of favorite Russian films over 2 years ago
@ Drew Kelly
The only thing I can say about “The Russian Ark” is that I’ll never be able to get back the 2 hours that I spent watching it. Of course that is true for any movie that you watch but in this case it actually makes me angry. “The Russian Ark” is an empty, pseudo-intellectual excersize in style. It certainly does not explore the Russian history or the national character as it claims to do, it has absolutely no entertainment value and its gimmicky premise has all the audacity of a high school science project. What was the purpose of this movie?! Unless this was Sokurov’s misguided attempt to become an answer to a trivia question, I see none.
Go to Comment
you fav tim burton film ? over 2 years ago
Beetlejuice, without a doubt. No 8 year old should miss it. I am being dead serious about this. I recently showed this to my kids and they loved it.
Go to Comment
The Greatest Film of the 2000s over 2 years ago
Devils On The Doorstep
Dogville
The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada
Songs From The Second Floor
The Assasination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
There Will be Blood
Innocence
Punch-Drunk Love
Requiem For A Dream
City Of God
Go to Comment
Between Hammer and Sickle: A personal list of favorite Russian films over 2 years ago
@the world… my kin… my twin…
Watch at your own risk. Cargo 200 is a very dark and graphic movie. Balabanov is best known for “Brother” which is probably the most famous Russian gangster picture ever. If you like Mellville’s gangster films or Takeshi Kitano’s yakuza pictures then “Brother” is something you should definetely check out. It is an interesting take on the genre and is Russian to the core, which is probably why it is so massively popular there.
Go to Comment
Between Hammer and Sickle: A personal list of favorite Russian films over 2 years ago
@Fandorin-San
Great point about “The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed”, an excellent multi-part tv production from the 70s with the iconic russian actor, poet and singer Vladimir Vysotsky in the main role. This epic adventure film covers roughly the same thematic territory as German’s “My Friend Ivan Lapshin” and is one of Soviet television’s greatest achievements. Another famous Soviet tv film that has long engrained itself into the national consciousness is the mammoth “17 Moments Of Spring” which is the story of a Soviet military spy working in Germany at the height of World War II.
Go to Comment
Between Hammer and Sickle: A personal list of favorite Russian films over 2 years ago
BTW, The White Sun Of The Desert, Heart Of A Dog, The Commissar, Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed, 17 Moments of Spring and many other Russian movies are available on youtube with english subtitles. In case anybody is interested, here is a link.
Go to Comment
OT: What are you reading? over 2 years ago
Just finished a book of short stories by S.Y. Agnon.
Currently reading “The Silver Dove” by Andriy Beliy and “The Books In My Life” by Henry Miller.
Also rereading “The Cyberiad” by Stanislaw Lem.
Go to Comment
Classic Japanese Horror films over 2 years ago
If Onibaba is a horror film then so is Polanski’s Macbeth. It is one of my favorite japanese movies but horror film it is not.
Go to Comment
WWII in perspective over 2 years ago
Japan: Fires on the Plain (Kon Ichikawa, 1959)
Soviet Union: The Trial on The Roads (Alexei German, 1971)
China: Devils on the Doorstep (Jiang Wen, 2000)
France: The Sorrow and the Pity (Marcel Ophuls, 1969)
Poland: Kanal (Andrzej Wajda, 1956)
Sadly, I can’t think of a single British or American movie WWII movie that I actually like.
Go to Comment
WORLD CUP:VOTING- USA V S.E.ASIA (GROUP 1) over 2 years ago
Lady from Shanghai 1 – Himala 0
Mean Streets 1 – Rebels of the Neon God 0
Go to Comment
Anyone for Iosselliani, Carpathian filmmaker? over 2 years ago
Carpathian filmmaker? How did you come up with that one? I am genuinely interested.
Go to Comment
WORLD CUP: VOTING-SOUTH KOREA V HUNGARY (GROUP 2) over 2 years ago
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring 0 v Werckmeister Harmonies 1
Go to Comment
WORLD CUP: VOTING - JAPAN V BALKANS (GROUP 3) over 2 years ago
Sansho the Bailiff 0 – Before the Rain 1
Before the Rain is a mediocre film, predictable and full of cheap symbolism. Sansho the Bailiff though is the worst kind of melodrama – self-important, weepy and long-winded. I never understood what people get out of that movie.
High and Low 1 – Montenegro 0
High and Low is a solid, well-made procedural anchored by a strong performance by Mifune. Montenegro is an amusing, irreverant, lightweight, obscene little comedy. Neither was a revelation but High and Low wins out easily in the end.
Go to Comment
The Action/Adventure Thread over 2 years ago
The Naked Prey
Quest for Fire
The Warriors.
3 adventure films that immediately come to mind.
Each one is a nightmarish odyssey, a journey through a world of horrors and wonder, a violent scary fairytale with a happy ending.
Go to Comment
WORLD CUP: VOTING - JAPAN V BALKANS (GROUP 3) over 2 years ago
What exactly do you mean when you say “humanity”? It is one of those words that is used often in discussions of film and literature but doesn’t really carry any meaning. Does Sansho the Bailiff tell us something about the world that we didn’t already know? What exactly is so subtle and honest about the artificial twists of its melodramatic plot? Is it ultimately much different from a soap opera or a Ron Howard film? I understand that Sansho is the sacred cow of cinephilia but I just don’t get it. Then again I feel the same way about Ikiru, Wild Strawberries and many other movies that are generally revered and beloved. I am not trying to be contrarian. I just find them bland and uninteresting and I am not touched by the sunday school lessons that these movies are trying to teach to me.
Go to Comment
WORLD CUP: VOTING - JAPAN V BALKANS (GROUP 3) over 2 years ago
@Apursansar
My main problem with Sansho is that it is a humorless spook story preached from an impossibly high moral ground. I don’t think that a depiction of “human comportment under unbearable conditions” is something that I would define as a work of art. “Passion of the Christ” is also a depiction of “human comportment under unbearable conditions”. Do you consider that a work of art as well?
Art cannot take itself so seriously. It is by nature a caricature of life and it has to stay true to its nature. “Berlin Alexanderplatz”, “Aguirre the Wrath of God” and “Barry Lyndon” are works of art and genuine depictions of the “tragic aspects of life”. “Sansho the Bailiff”, on the other hand, doesn’t strike me as such. Socially conscious art is an oximoron. The minute the preaching starts, art turns into propaganda, no matter how noble the ideals.
I am also not sure that the purpose of art has anything to do with beauty. You can make a persvasive argument that art is just as concerned with the ugly side of life as it is with the beautiful. Did Bruegel, Goya or Bosch deal in beauty? What about Cervantes, Gogol or Kafka? I get just as bored by looking at pretty pictures as I do by listening to sermons.
And finally I don’t believe that there is anything beautiful about human suffering or the ability to bear, withstand and accept suffering as part of life. More often than not, tragedy is a direct result of human folly. Humans shouldn’t admire the fact that they can endure the results of their own stupidity or pretend that suffering is some gift from above. Any movie or book that tries to wrap suffering and beauty together as part of the same pretty little package is shallow and fake. Beauty and tragedy don’t mix. The Holocaust was tragic. There was absolutely nothing beautiful about it.
Go to Comment
WORLD CUP: VOTING - JAPAN V BALKANS (GROUP 3) over 2 years ago
Well, here I was worried that I was polluting the thread with my ramblings on “Sansho” and now come to see that the thread has been completely hijacked by a troll. What exactly is the issue here? You don’t want to watch these 288 films? Don’t watch them. You don’t want to particiapate in the AWC? Don’t participate. Why are you posting in a thread you have no interest in?
Anyway, back to my original thought. Apursansar, I feel that you are misunderstanding my point or perhaps I am not being very clear about it. I am not saying that a work of art cannot be tragic and beautiful at the same time. I just don’t believe that there is anything beautiful about the suffering itself. Sansho glorifies suffering and treats it (much like organized religions of all sorts do as well) as the most noble and beautiful part of human existence. I am not a religious man and refuse to see the world that way.
The trial and tribulations of the protagonists of the ancient Greek tragedies came about as a result of their own hubris, which is much more true to life, in my opinion, than the cult of suffering that is peddled to the masses in “humanistic” works like “Sansho the Bailiff”.
I completely agree about true works of art needing to combine the tragic, the beautiful and the ridiculous but only as long as it is understood that these things cannot be substituted for one another. I too think that Kafka is very funny, even at his darkest. Sansho the Bailiff though is completely humorless, it is an artificial world, void of the absurdity and the ridiculousness that are an integral part of life in the real world. A chorus of satyrs would do Sansho a whole lot of good. :)
Go to Comment
WWII in perspective over 2 years ago
Come and See is more of a cult favorite than a classic of the genre. It is a unique and fascinating curio not a universally acknowleged masterpiece. How exactly is it overrated?
Go to Comment