Author Topic: The Russian/Soviet film and animation thread  (Read 6251 times)

Krokodil_Gena

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The Russian/Soviet film and animation thread
« on: August 31, 2015, 04:40:57 AM »
The stop-motion series where I got my namesake and avatar, Gennady the Crocodile ("Gena" is a diminutive), Cheburashka. The title character is Cheburashka a small furry animal who because he is top-heavy, is prone to tumbling ("cheburakhnulsya" is the colloquial term), so his name is close to Toppler or Tumbler. Below is film one of the series, Krokodil Gena (1969) which has English subtitles.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xrr9mcdFvw


When Andrei Tarkovsky made what became his last film, The Sacrifice (Offret) in 1986 a number of Western film-makers (and his editor, Michal Leszczylowski) made films about Tarkovsky after he died of cancer. In Moscow, Aleksandr Sokurov took lower-grade video of that footage, plus pieces from Tarkovsky's Soviet films, and other footage to make his 1987 film Moscow Elegy. Here is a short snippet, the only one on YouTube with subtitles.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcN1oyYlmnw

Krokodil_Gena

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Re: The Russian/Soviet film and animation thread
« Reply #1 on: September 03, 2015, 06:42:11 AM »
Here is Cheburashka (1972), the second stop-motion film of the series.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcGnuR0uqq0

In 1956 a young Andrei Tarkovsky made his first film jointly with fellow State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) students Aleksandr Gordon and Marika Beiku because VGIK was lacking enough equipment for each student to make single movies. They chose Ernest Hemingway's short story "The Killers" to adapt; Hemingway had recently been translated, so the story was fresh to the students. Tarkovsky directed the beginning and the end of the film, while Gordon directed the middle scene. And so here is Ubiytsy(Убийцы)/ The Killers.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofHN3PTpVg


Tarkovsky's next student film was There Will Be No Leave Today..... (1959), a 46-minute film about a un-exploded ordinance incident in an un-named town. A cache of buried World War II mortars is discovered while asphalting a road and the local Soviet Army demining unit is brought in to move and demolish the bombs. The film was run on Soviet television on Victory Day (May 9th) of 1959 and run during the next three Victory Day celebrations. For a period of time it was considered a lost film, until it was rediscovered in the mid-1990s. This is the least "Tarkovsky" of Tarkovsky's films, and as with The Killers he made it with Aleksandr Gordon.....the object was not to make a masterpiece, but to make an uncomplicated and easy-to-digest movie. Here is Сегодня увольнения не будет... or There Will Be No Leave Today.....


www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2mHBS4cfCQ

Mike Desert

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Krokodil_Gena

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Re: The Russian/Soviet film and animation thread
« Reply #3 on: September 05, 2015, 02:06:39 AM »
Tram-param-param-param-Param-pam-pa

Where that bit of editing above came from, the Soviet Winnie the Pooh, Vinni Pukh (1971).
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqdiEUp6s4E
Part one of three.

Krokodil_Gena

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Re: The Russian/Soviet film and animation thread
« Reply #4 on: September 06, 2015, 09:40:42 PM »
Part 2 of the Soviet Winnie the Pooh, Vinni Pukh (1971). In this part, we are introduced to Soyuzmultfilm's version of Rabbit.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdogzjfzKTM


Part 3, section 1 of the last Vinni Pukh film, where we meet Russian Eeyore and Owl (Sova.)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=73uIn56G1YE


Part 3, section 2.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtVVRuy1T9c

Mike Desert

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Re: The Russian/Soviet film and animation thread
« Reply #5 on: September 08, 2015, 01:15:27 PM »
Romanian I believe but with Russian circus and ballet performers. One of my favorites////

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Krokodil_Gena

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Re: The Russian/Soviet film and animation thread
« Reply #6 on: September 17, 2015, 12:23:54 PM »
Good find Mike Desert!

The last and shortest Cheburashka film, Cheburashka Goes to School (1983). The character is liked in Japan and they made a number of cartoons in the early 2000s of it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXBMDDIFo5Q

Following our general tack of recounting the filmography of Andrei Tarkovsky, here is his first real film, Andrei Rublev (1966), which is about the medieval Russian icon and fresco painter of whom little is known, not even his birth and death dates (1360-1370 to  circa 1430).  You will have to watch this in full screen, because Mosfilm decided to use annoying subtitles. They also split the film into two pieces, which is a thing Soviet cinema did when a film ran longer than two hours. This version runs 172 minutes.

Part one:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PAhbcy8mP4


Part two:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwCJoEJFW5g



Mike Desert

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Re: The Russian/Soviet film and animation thread
« Reply #7 on: September 18, 2015, 02:32:59 PM »
the Criterion version I have runs at 185 minutes. Wonder what was cut..
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Krokodil_Gena

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Re: The Russian/Soviet film and animation thread
« Reply #8 on: September 19, 2015, 01:52:45 AM »
the Criterion version I have runs at 185 minutes. Wonder what was cut..

This blog post brings that up:

I thought I would do a post introducing that there are of course several versions of Andrei Rublev. Those who are ‘in the know’ are probably laughing with sadistic glee, but I think it is useful to at least try to give a very brief overview for those who are just meeting this wonderful film and give them some hints as to where to find more information. Suffice to say, this is not a straightforward subject. All should be warned that it will get ‘hectic’.

Essentially, versions of the film exist in three different running times: a 145 minute version, more than one 185 minute version, and a 205 minute version. So duration is not the only thing to consider as apparently there are at least two versions of the 185 minute cut; they may run for the same amount of time, but they are edited differently.

In Australia (where I live), the most readily-available DVD version of the film is that put out by The Distinction Series. This edition goes for 185 minutes and is apparently touted to be the version that ‘Tarkovsky preferred’.

Criterion Collection

The 205 minute ‘original’ version of the film (it is longer because it is the version of the film that existed before Tarkovsky cut it down to platacate the censors, but at the same time, he held that he agreed with all the cuts he made because they improved the film’s momentum) is available as the well-known Criterion Collection edition. This version was thought as the best version for a long time as it was ‘rescued’ by Martin Scorsese, and who can argue that it is surprising this original version survived at all?

Anyway, it does not end there, for there is yet another version (which I am sad to say I have not seen) which is the RusCiCo edition. Many report that although the edit of this version is not as satisfying, the image quality is astounding. For a lengthy but very interesting examination of the differences between the RusCiCo version and that of the Criterion Collection, you may want to look through this archived PDF file of the Criterion Collection’s discussion board.

Also confusing me is the Artificial Eye version that is advertised as being 175mins long; it does not appear on Nostalghia.com’s exhaustive list of Tarkovsky DVDs. (Here is a lovely comparison of the transfer quality between the Artificial Eye version and that of the Criterion Collection.)

And of course apart from the different durations, edits and transfers, there are numerous editions put out through different distributors. I am just beginning to come to terms with how complicated this subject really is.

For me, the crux of the issue is that I want to see all the versions, and I absolutely need to see as much footage as possible. I remember reading an article by Robert Efird* where he analyses a series of flashbacks in Andrei Rublev, and I sadly realised I had not seen one of the instances he was describing.

*Efird, Robert. ‘Andrei Rublev: Transcendental Style and Creative Vision’. Journal of Popular Film and Television. 35.2 (2007). p. 86-97

From here: https://keates.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/the-versions/

Krokodil_Gena

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Re: The Russian/Soviet film and animation thread
« Reply #9 on: October 12, 2015, 11:13:47 PM »
Continuing from where we left off running through the filmography of Andrei Tarkovsky.....
Solaris (1972). This is the film everybody remembers*, an adaption of Stanislaw Lem's 1961 novel about a space station orbiting the titular ocean planet, a planet that can make human dreams realities. In Tarkovsky's version the space station is more like a high-altitude platform because one character recounts how he used a helicopter to get closer to the ocean surface. YouTube has the film in two versions: the free Mosfilm one (split in two parts) and the Criterion Collection version, which you have to pay for. I'm linking the free one, which like Andrei Rublev has the wonky subtitles so you have to watch the video in full screen.

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG9Anstjlro

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOGHMmKpASk

Fun factoids: in the recording of Burton talking about what he saw on Solaris, in the background of the room there are art pieces of Russian space pioneer Konstantin Tsoilkovsky on the left and Yuri Gagarin on the right. The people asking the questions were journalists and Tarkovsky's friends. The director wanted Hari to be played by a Swedish actress to make the film more international; as it was the lead was Soviet Lithuanian, and other actors were Soviet Armenian, Soviet Ukrainian, and Soviet Lithuanian which is interesting for a Russian-language Soviet film.

Four year prior, Soviet television did a completely monochrome version with the same title Solaris (1968). It's like a very long Twilight Zone episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSEGTBBHqgw

______________

* Mainly because they think it's the Soviet 2001, which it isn't. Ironically, Tarkovsky disliked Solaris, though it was the film of his most shown outside of the Soviet Union while he was alive.