Harvest Time by Marina Razbezkkina

Harvest time does an excellent job depicting a very difficult period during Soviet history. This movie illustrates the delicate line between work, family, and pride. Antonia, a mother and wife to a warfront vetran without legs, is forced to take sole responsibility for the well being of her family. After recieving the Red Flag for being the best tractor operator in the region. This award brought her great prestege within her community becuase she is the first woman to ever recieve the Red Flag. When the Red Flag is threatened by a plague of mice, Anotonia becomes obssessed with its preservation. After its destruction, she becomes overwhelmed by the duality of her roles. The death of her husband, which was probably initiated by his drinking habits, later followed by the death of her son in war became too much for Antonia and she moved out of the house. I had trouble following why this happened and the events that took place after.

The Recruiter by Gulshat Omarova

This movie was very well filmed. It displayed an assortment of camera angles which seemed to correspond with the action taking place. I enjoyed the far away shots that captured large scenes of action such as when Schizo was recruiting men for fighting.
I was suprised at the varying dynamics in this film and how it illustrated the tough times of that area. It also higlighted the racism in that area. Schizo was basically a pawn to a white alpha-male figure, Sakura, who was in a relationship with his mother. It was very disheartening to see the Shakura and Schizo's relationship dynamics change so rapidly and extremely becuse it was obvious that Schizo looked up to Shakura.
The movie provided realistic insight into the times. It took twists and turns that I didn't expect which catorgorized this movie as a winner in my book.

Russian Ark By: Alexander Sukurov

Sukurov did quite the job utlizing his set, the Winter Palace, organizing his camera crew and actors/actresses, and controlling the action within the individual frames. His talents allowed him to complete the longest uninterrupted shot and the first feature film created in a single take. If he wouldn't of been able to maintain control of any of the previous factors, the movie would have lost much of its peculiarity, mystery, and flow. He accomplishes this by being the invisible narrator and the various camera angle. Since Sukurov plays the narrator, he is able to direct us to the planes of action he want us to see. He really takes advantage of the variation of the camera angles by zooming in when there is a change of scene and then zooming back out when we arrive in the correct set.

Sukurov's overall idea for the film, including the director-narrator character and his interactions with various fictional/non-fictional characters from different time periods, allowed him to manipulate the setting because there are many, different planes of action occuring. He is able to interact with some of these characters while in other scenes he is not seen at all. This in it self creates varying feelings to individual scenes. This creates and extravegant film filled with lavish costumes which are surrounded by luxurious settings. Although the plot is quite unorthodox, it plays out beautifully. He chooses to highlight centuries of Russian history, which was extremely interesting, and portrays the contrast of culture throughout the ages. Many of the operas and plays that were shown throughout the film were from the time of Catherine the Great but we also see other events such as the formal court proceeding offered up by a tsar. . The climax of the movie is a grand ball in which there are hundreds of people entering in through a grand staircase. I wondered if there was any meaning in that some scenes the narrator-director was seen vs. the scenes he was not visible in.

Overall, the film was one of the best maintained, uninterrupted films that I have seen. I learned so much and was still awe struck by the filming, casting, and costumes.

Unknown Title (It slipped my mind)

This film really opened my eyes to the lack of individuality among many people. It wasn't very suprising that the young women, who was so vivacious and filled with life, was able to tear two mens long standing friendship apart. The fact that the whole day was simply a charadeto prove a bet seemed to tell me that that type of uniqueness is nearly impossible to find at real, face value within many individuals. I mean honestly I fell in love with her too. Although she was a little bit out there, a tad bit outspoken, and at times a complete wreck, she possessed stong passion for life which is hard to find.

I also loved how this movie was filmed. It basically a one shot film which beautifully displayed St. Petersburg. I was very impressed by the architecture around every turn and the abundance of people out and about. It seems like the city was proud of their historical background and worked hard to preserve it within the infrastructure. There was much diversity among the buildings they walked by which was fantastic because I am generally able to see similar structure within an area. Overall, this film protrayed St. Petersburg in a genuine, vibrant light which makes it appealing to anyone who would watch the film.

Night Watch

Bekmambetov's film Night Watch definitely came off as a big-budget film. I feel like I've seen this movie at least 10 other times. The storyline was overly predictable and I really don't find an interest in vampire flicks (unless its Buffy!) From the beginning, we are introduced to the clash between "Dark and Light" and we learn that there will be a Great One who will finally appear and end the unfinishable battle. We also learn that the Great One will choose the side of evil- which he enevitably does.
We see the young boy's, who is the Great One, initial awakening to his future destiny. He is taken into the force of the Darkness but awakes surrounded by people of the Light, one of those people being his long lost father. In the end, he sees that the side of Light is corrupted and is not much better than the side of Dark. This aspect of the film was one of the only refreshing ideasbecause in nearly all films, whether they be love, comedy, action, or thrillers, the good or Light side will prosper.
I can understand why this was such a hit in Russia. The rapid montage, the exciting fight scenes, and the dramatic special effects make it extremly entertaining on a visual level. However, the plot was very confusing and intricate. I found myself putting the elements of the plot together until the very end of the film. I had a difficult time drawing connections between the various levels of conflict. It's even worse because the ending was overly predictable. It was like I had all these high hopes for an end to all the confusion but I was left with the same ending I had in mind the entire time.
Overall, I wasn't too fond of this vampire thriller. The plot was confusing, the ending was predictable, and the characters relationships were really unestablished.

Brother

Balabanov's film Brother pulled an interesting take on a "hero." Danila's character was pretty complex. We are left to ponder his status in HQ and are basically left clueless to most of his past. He seems to be easily persuaded to kill because he has a natural knack for it. On the one hand, Danila is a mean, lean killing machine but we are also shown his sympathetic, compassionate side. We see him kill strangers for the ones he loves, help the poor abused Sveta, and trust his brother to the end.
I find it interesting the the mother said that Danila should look up to Viktor when clearly that respect should be switched around. It was so unfair that Viktor set Danila up after all Danila had done for him.
I found Danila's obsession with music added an interesting spin to the plot line. His love for music served multiple purposes such as an escapes from the present, an overall relief of his life, and an outlet to meet new people and experience new things.

The Return

Zvyagintsev's The Return struck me as rather odd. At the end I felt like I was trying to pull all the loose ends together to try and find the meaning in the whole charade. Zvyagintsev may have intentionally led me to these feelings. I felt just as lost, confused, and scared as Ivan and Andrey.

Zvyagintsev says that it's impossible for any serious Russian director to be able to avoid Tarkovsky and that is blatantly demonstrated in The Return. Since recently watching three other Tarkovsky films, The Return could have just as easily been directed by Tarkovsky as it was Zvyagintsev. The parallels were innumerable. From the scenic shots, to their views on nature, to the filming of them running through the woods of long, lean trees, to the continual use of water, or the overall message I recieved from the film. It was unbelievable!

The mother, and grandmother, seemed to demonstrate some of the unusual detachment the father demonstrated. She believed that it would be completely fine to allow her two young sons to leave with their father whom they haven't seen in twelve years. She is unusually casual at dinner and seems to have grown far apart from the boy's father.

The father seemed like he would have had a scarred past. He seemed to have trouble controlling his usual instincts when it came to handling his children. Instead of considering them precious, he treated them as if they were any one of his other friends. He did show bits of compassion but these seemed quite spread apart. In the end, the boys were able to survive because of the few days guidance provided by their father. I thought this was an interesting spin near the end of the film. I didn't understand why his father choose to bring his sons along on his "mission." That part of the film seemed completely irrelevant especially considering he was going to send the boys home after they were in the diner.

Pichul's Little Vera takes place during the crumbling of the Soviet Union. During this time we follow one young girls struggle to find her place within those walls. Although Vera is rude, crude, and permiscuous character, she still shows some of the common characteristics of a tragic hero. She is basically torn down by her surroundings and is having an extremely hard time dealing with that. However, she does seem to have a quirky, semi-optimistic outlook on various aspects of life. Her attempted suicide is her "chance at freedom", to escape her current, awful situation.

Vera's character was a tad inspiring to me. She loved the feeling of being in control of her outcome whether that included making love to random men, doind a variety of drugs, or coaxing her parents into her wants. Although she was definitely considered quite permiscuous by most, she was still independent and made her own choices, even though they weren't always the wisest. And besides the fact the she was a "sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll" type of girl, it is always nice to see a women, especially in the time period it was made, be in a independent and strong role. In the end, she even wanted to feel control over her own life through her attempted suicide.

Mosow Does Not Believe In Tears

Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears definitely reminded me of Irony of Fate. It was a love story, but a twisted love story. Since joining Russian cinema I have a different view on the films of today. Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears and Irony of Fate don't follow the typical love story but are much more ironic, "fate-driven", and quirky which are all things I find pretty entertaining.

I enjoyed the film because the characters attitudes and morals in the first part of the film seem to represent their latter outcome. I also liked that the film showed how the "big city" can influence a person or at least cause some sort of tension or pressure on their given living conditions. I respected that the film portrayed Katerina as such and independent and strong woman. I'm not sure the role women played during the Thaw/Stagnation period but I wouldn't of thought that a woman would have been portrayed as so strong especially considering that she "did wrong" by most of society's eyes.

Overall, I enjoyed this film because it was a simple, funny, and heartwarming story of love, life, and karma.

Ivan's Childhood

Of course the stark difference between Mirrors and Ivan's Childhood is that Mirrors is a non-narrative film while Ivan's Childhood is a narrative film. Also, Tarkovsky is establishing two very different feelings and ideas the correlate to the movie. In Mirrors, he wants us to pull out a broad idea of various situations that had influenced a childs life while in Ivan's Childhood we are more focused on the hardships of one child, Ivan.

The two films are similar in that they both are partially motivated by events happening during WWII. I also noticed similar "symbols" (although Tarkovsky didn't believe in symbols) such as water, fire, wind, and the continually shots of the natural surrondings. My favorite scene was after Kholin goes to fetch the boat after they drop off Ivan on the German front lines when they focus on the horizon of slim trees in the water. Tarkovsky also incorporates mirrors in the film. I noticed that when Galtsev and Ivan were seriously talking we saw the image of Galtsev which could represent that are certain characteristics/morals that both Ivan and Galtsev share.

I also really enjoyed Ivan's character. He was such a pure soul. I believe this is why Tarkovsky choose to focus the film on a child rather than any other soldier fighting the war. He had such superior morals and morale compared to the other men that were left in care of him. I believe this is something that Tarkovsky truly believes in. When we watched the interview with him, he mentions that people need to "...learn to love solitude. The individual needs to be alone as his own child. " He also says that the more knowledge you accumulate the less you know. Both of these ideas are fufilled through Ivan's character.

Overall, I really enojoyed this film. It featured interesting/multiple plots, varying camera angles, and had a strong focus on the comradery obtained on the front lines.

The Mirror

Andrey Tarkovksy seemed to value the photogenic aspect while filming The Mirror. I found that after reading up on Tarkovsky and thinking more critically about what was really happening throughout the film that Tarkovsky is quite the genius. Just as Vertov strove to develop a film with a universal theme with The Man With the Movie Camera, The Mirror seems to have a similar effect. We are not forced to follow a characters family problems, love life, or awkward teen years but rather are allowed a glimpse of various stages and important events that occurred throughout his life.

The movie obviously had no apparent plot but it did seem to continually revert back to images of childhood and clips from the news. Many of these images and scenes formed a general connection of overall feeling towards certain ideas. I also noticed that the film portrayed different images from various stages of the war. I wasn't sure if Tarkovsky purposely had some scenes be long with little action while others seemed short and action packed. It may have been set up to demonstrate the longing and passing time families spent waiting for family members to return home versus the life of war which is intense and fast paced.

I believe that Tarkovsky doesn't give most of the cast names because he doesn't want us to relate to multiple characters. He keeps most of the focus on Alexi. I thought that this film may be portraying some twisted, unchronological biography of Alexi. I found myself getting very confused as to which parts of the film were following Alexi's life versus some other character. It seemed to splice into pieces of his childhood, man hood, and elderly stages. It was interesting that he showed Alexi on his deathbed near the end of the film because this would then follow somewhat of a chronological order which the rest of the film hadn't exactly done

Ballad of a Soldier

Chukhari's film "Ballad of a Soldier" demonstrates a change in film's from Stalinist reign to ideas that are more free ranging and less edited. It is interesting that Alyosha doesn't seem to hold a very significant meaning within the film. He is depicted as honest, kind-spirited, and quite naive. These qualities reoccurred in most all circumstances throughout the film. Shura's part also didn't seem to hold a signifigant message in the film. She seemed to serve as a "ray of happiness" to Alyosha.

The opening scene in "Ballad of a Soldier" seemed to set the stage for the rest of the film's plot. It depicted a mother treacherously awaiting her sons (Alyosha) arrival from gruesome WWII. Left and right her friends were losing sons, husbands, and brothers. Keep in mind this was wiped out a generation of men.

As we move further into the plot, we see the Alyosha courageously fend off two tanks and win a six day leave to visit his mother. He simply wants nothing more than to see his mama for a couple of days but due to the horrific circumstances caused by the war, his journey was anything but simple. I enjoyed how the director depicted the honest comradery between all the soldiers. We even see Aloysha go on a mission to deliver two bars of soap to a fellow soldiers fiance and father in which he has never met before. These sort of situations that Aloysha is put in really exemplifes his pure, honest self. It is through these types of situations that we are able to really feel connected and sympathtic toward Aloysha.

Ivan The Terrible

I had mixed feelings about Ivan The Terrible. The actors portrayed their emotions in such an extreme, overbearing manner. Nearly all of the actors made their eyes very large when they spoke and all of their motions were very over acted which made many of the scenes seem unrealistic. I definitely see influences of kabuki in the film. Kabuki is derived from the root words meaning "to lean" or "to be out of the ordinary" which are two great ways to describe the acting throughout the entire film. The acting came across as bizarre and something the western culture is definitely not used to.

It was strange that so many people choose to follow Ivan because he seemed indecisive and radical in most of his decisions. I do understand that this was a time of indecision and many people were looking for any leader to get them out of their curent predicament. What I don't understand is that Ivan seemed to be a pretty typical Soviet leader and besides the fact that he was offering comradery between the people, he seemed to be leading them in a similar direction to where they were headed. Also, many of his followers could not be trusted which added to Ivans irrational decision making.

I did notice some similarities in Eisensteins films such as how he filmed the long line of followers and in the way he portrayed Soviet Russia. However, other than these few similarities I wouldn't have guessed the Eisenstein filmed this movie. I'm sure this had a great deal to do with the fact that he was incorporating sound into this film.

Burnt By The Sun

Mikhalkov's Burnt By The Sun was set during the 1930's which was a prime decade for violence within the USSR. The movie opens showing images of a glowing red star and red flags. These images seemed to be referred to throughout the movie. I found it intriguing how Mikhalkov presented Mitya as such an upstanding guy but then crushed our image of him, as well as anti-Soviet feelings, at the end of the film. We still aren't sure of Mitya's motive for arresting Kotov but I do believe they are more political than personal based on the fact that he still seemed to care about Marusia and his overwhelming love for Nadya.

I also noticed some Russian comedy in the film. For instance, when the man is continuely looking for the city (?) that doesn't seem to exsist. I think this is representative of the Soviet's followers mindless search for a fufillment that doesn't exsist. I think the repitition of the tune "Burnt by the Sun" represents Kotov's "burn" due the Soviet Union. I also think the tune holds the signifigance in that it seems omniscent of what happens to Kotov and many other Soviet followers.

The sexual tension, the raw emotion, and the bits and pieces of action really make this movie a winner in my book!

Circus

Grigory Alexandrov's Circus put an subtle spin on propaganda. Unlike other films we have watched in the class, such as Chapaev or Battleship Potemkin, Circus alludes to hints of propaganda throughout the film which ultimately ties into the severe message of pro-Soviet spirit found in the last ten minutes of the movie. It's light humor made it very easy to watch and enjoy.

I noticed in the beginning of the movie when Mary was taking off her wig, one side of her was left dark black and the other was blonde. This seems to contrast the evilness that her former life and past decisions represent vs. the purity and happiness that is brought about after Von Kneishitz tells of Mary's past but others are able to embrace her bi-racial child.

Overall, this film was delightfully entertaining. I throughly enjoyed the circus scenes and can see why this film would have well received. It was the most refreshing to not have messages of propaganda shoved down my throat.

Chapev

Chapev was a very appealing movie. It had many of the elements of modern day films such as sound, a hero/heroine, a love story, a complicated plot, and a villian. I believe these qualities greatly influenced the Russian public to be fond fo the film. I also believe it was able to portray the realistically portray the ideal Soviet which probabaly gave hope to many of the Russian people.

It was nearly necessary for this movie to utlize sound because of the various levels of plots and action. Near the end of Chapev's speech to his troops, one of his militia ask him what side he is on and he is unable to answer. After that callout, Furmanov is able to inform him what party Stalin supports and Chapev simply agrees with that. Sound really adds to the battle scenes not only because you can hear the roar of the guns but you are able to hear the uproar of the soldiers.

I also throughly enjoyed Chapev's character. He fronted as such a hard, stern commander but there were many scences that showed that he had a great heart. This is highlighted with his relationship with Furmanov. In the beginning, he is very hesistant to bulid a realtionship with Furmanov and rejects many of his ideas and advances; however, as the film continues he begins to warm up to the wise Furmanov and they become brothers, a theme relevant in many of the propagandistic films we've watched in class. Their brotherhood enables great things to happened for Chapev. We also see that during the final battle, Chapev would rather stay and fight for his fellow brother than endanger the young Petka and his love Anka.

This film forms a great plot and really grabs at some core emotions which allows us to really relate to the film and the message it sets out to deliver.

Experiment, experiment, experiment

Vertov belonged to a group called the kinoks whos ideal was to deliver facts to the people. They believed that documentary film were a more righteous and deserving type of cinema. Vertov strove to deliver a definte pro-soviet Russia message in "TheMan With The Movie Camera".

I could only imagine what a controversial film this must have been not only because of the nature of the filmed subjects but Vertov's brave experimentation with cinematic techniques. I found that his use of varied cinematic techniques what kept me most interested in the film. I noticed examples of freeze frames, split screens,fast and slow motion, close-ups, and double exposure. He portrayed aspects of indutrialization and highlighted the benefits and prosperity that could be brought about through labour. I noticed how images of the bourgeois seemed generally distant from the images of the industrialization. This demonstrates a jutting difference in the classes which supports the message that Russia needed to move away from the idle lifestyle it was living.

It was very interesting that he choose to capture very intimate aspects of people lives, such as the birth of a newborn or when the women was getting dressed. I thought that was a very, very daring step on Vertov's part. However, I noticed that many of the images seemed to relate to one another which delivered "mini-messages" throughout the film.

Overall, I thought this film would have proven a little to severe and intense for the audience he was presenting to at the time. I would imagine that the bulk of the viewers would be more appalled then enthralled by Vertov's "The Man With The Movie Camera."

Battleship Potemkin

The leap in the cinemotography from Bauer's film, such as The Dying Swan, to Battleship Potemkin's seems revolutionary. What I noticed most about Battleship Potemkin was how the scenes were able to convey a more meaningful message through the use of multiple, shorter camera shots. Unlike previous films that needed to focus so much on lighting, setting, and the movement of the actors, Battleship Potemkin was able to play with angles, lighting, and the movement and variety of the shot, which made the film more intriguing and entertaining. It was quite the change to not be staring at the same scence for a couple of minutes. This type of filming is very interesting because it allowed the director to use an artistic scenes, such as the filming of the passing water or the sunset, and incorporate that into the message of the film. I think this device is well used because the scences of beauty and purity were almost always correlated with the sailors, who are representative of the Soviet Union. On the other hand, harsh and ugly images seems to be correlated with the admirals such as the rotting meat and the dead little boy. These two aspects make the film's underlying message of propaganda much more receiveable. I must admit that I even felt sympathetic for the mens situations.

Overall, this advance in the film industry made selling messges of propaganda much easier. This film was one of the earliest to fully take advantage of the montage aspect of film.

Now don't you say a word

I cannont begin to fathom Maxim Gorky's response to the first silent film. He is overly critical of the films drawbacks and doesn't seem to have faith in what the silent film could generate. I can relate to his negative feelings towards the "gray, silent, bleak, and dismal life" that the silent film portrays, however, film is considerably more capable of capturing people, places, and things than photographs ever were. I believe some of apprehensive feelings towards the silent film is due to his misconception that many directors were trying to document major cities and capture some of thier essence not "compress its multi-storied buildings from their roof-tops to their foundations to minute size." Also, directors did not wish to "compress the people to correspond, depriving them of the power of speech", it was just that the technology was not present in 1895.

Contradictory to Gorky, I found myself inthralled by the silent film. The fact that the angles and lighting in which a director choose had a huge impact made the film much more interesting. It was also fundamental the the director choose a filming topic that would appeal to various age groups and social classes. Each of the silent films had an artistic aspect whether they choose to film the Kremlin, various planes of action, or were demonstrating the new era of industrialization. This was key to silent film because it was necessary for the film to be visually pleasing.

Silent films are great because they allow the viewer to put together the various parts of the story that are not clearly stated by the directors' written diction. This allows the viewer to be in control of much more of the inticacies of the plot compared to "talkie" films. I find that I pay much closer attention to facial expressions, especially in the earlier silent films, as well as actions that are going on around the characters who are in focus at a given time. These viewing strategies allow for a fuller understanding of characters varying feelings and of other side relations that may be evolving.

I found The 1002nd Ruse to be the most interesting film we watched today. Although the husband tried to manipulate his wife it was her who got the last laugh. The fact that they portrayed the woman as slightly promiscuous seemed quite scandalous fo 1915. I also enjoyed the arrogant man did not find his wife's secret lover because I believe that was empowering for her and women who watched the film during that time.

Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath! Pt. II

The second part of Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath! did become a little predictable. Zhenya and Nadya's relationship seemed to become a game of cat and mouse. It was irritating to see Nadya be so hesitant to become intimate with Zhenya because the attraction was clearly there. On the otherhand, it was refreshing to see a man become confident enough to really try to become close to a woman he believes to be quite amazing. This aspect as well as the bits of situational comedy really kept me interested in thier game of love.
However, the end of the film did come as a bit of surprise to me because I was not expecting Nadya to pursue Zhenya after his departure. The fact that she arrived so shortly after Zhenya reached his home was quite heart-warming because it shows that it took her only a short time to realize what she was losing. It was quite comical to watch his friends mistake Nadya, the one-night love of his life, for Galya, his long-time fiance. Overall, the film's love sotry was whimsical and sweet while it's message proved to be very satirical and ironic.

Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath Pt. I

Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath has so far proven very entertaining and quite comical. This film brilliantly highlights the uniformity that had been implemented during the time of the USSR in a light-hearted and amusing fashion. It allows viewers to more personally understand the way the people during that time lived and interacted.
I have found the film to be thoroughly funny. Some of the humor is comparable to American humor, such as the dirty jokes or references, but most of the humor is a little drier and sarcastic which is why I've enjoyed the film so much already.
I thought Zhenya's character was the most intriguing because he seemed to represent multiple aspects of the Russian culture. It was interesting to see how he initially interacted with Nadya because he then seemed to initiate some serious flirtation with her during their acquaintance. The idea of finding love in unpredictable places seems to parallel multiple American films, however, Irony of Fate, of Enjoy Your Bath presents this scenario in very different circumstance because the love story also seems to be highlighting uniform Russia. The film is filled with surprises.
Overall this film has been very witty and pleasant to follow. It has successfully introduced me to various parts of Russian culture and a very interesting love story.