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Beloved Russian movie? Do you have one?


Hi everyone!
Really need your help ASAP 🙂

I'm a journalist from Moscow (Russia), RBC Style. We are making a new issue - it will be on Russian cinema. Well we wonder, what does the foreign audience think of Russian movies? Maybe some of you guys are so lucky to watch Tarkovsky movies. Or a brand new project "Major Grom" on Netflix? Who knows, maybe you met "Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears" in your life somewhere...

There can be various examples. If you would like to share your experience of meeting Russian cinema, please, do it) I really need you to remember some Russian movies and tell me about it in the comments below. I'll be so gratеful for your nostalgia and impressions.

All your brights I'll put together in a feature. And I promise to share it with you ;)

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I haven't seen many but I liked the ones I've seen. My top 3 are probably:

Loveless
Russian Ark
Leviathan

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i second loveless and leviathan, and am angry that i didn't get to post them first.

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We can go halfsies.

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The RUSSIAN version of SOLARIS is definitely one of my all time favorite films.

https://subsublibrarian.com/2021/08/12/we-have-no-need-of-other-worlds-we-need-mirrors-we-dont-know-what-to-do-with-other-worlds/

We take off into the cosmos, ready for anything:

And yet, if we examine it more closely, our enthusiasm turns out to be all sham.

We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. We don’t know what to do with other worlds.



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aside from the obvious tarkovsky stuff, which i think most hipster film bros have at least taken a half-hearted run at, my favourite russian film is probably viy.

this is what i said about viy on letterboxd after my 2nd watch:
"my re-watch confirms that the best moments of this are absolutely stellar - fantastic to look at, weird, trippy, and even revolutionary in style considering the time & place this was made.

and the witch is very foxy.

it's not a complete triumph because all the moments that aren't great really are a bit dull. even at a lean 75m running time, i did find parts of this dragging on.

but the last third is absolutely full of great moments that make this worth a watch and a re-watch."

here is my 'the cranes are flying' review:

https://letterboxd.com/damosuzuki/film/the-cranes-are-flying/

& my review of 'the ascent':

https://letterboxd.com/damosuzuki/film/the-ascent/

that's all i can think of off the top of my head.

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I've never seen a Russian language film. Obviously I've heard about Battleship Potemkin. The only modern ones I've heard about are the aforementioned Solaris, and Night Watch/Day Watch.

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What I like about SOLORIS is the way it FORCES you to rethink the idea that we'd be HAPPY to MEET our DEAD LOVED one's again.

And since many of us also assume that's something that' going to take place in HEAVEN, SOLARIS would also be GOD to have the ability to create our DEAD LOVED ONE's for us again.

But what supposedly takes place in HEAVEN also becomes a LIVING HELL, and is also not something any of the characters are able to tolerate happening to them there on the SPACE STATION.

The SHRINK accepts it, but then look at what happens to him after he does accept it (when he sees his father again inside of the house with all of the water leaking everywhere inside of it).

At that point it also becomes pretty clear that it was only an ILLUSION that had been created for him.

Because The ALIEN PLANET was giving him a MIRROR to gaze into -- since it could also tell that was what the humans really wanted -- (as opposed to them actually learning anything NEW about the ALIEN Planet itself that they'd also been sent there to study).

ENDING SCENE can be seen at the 2:42 TIME MARK:

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=ending+scene+of+russian+version+of+soloris&&view=detail&mid=5BA3D83D69AA91C964A05BA3D83D69AA91C964A0&&FORM=VDRVRV

The rest of the film is in RUSSIAN, but that also doesn't matter in the ENDING scene where no words are spoken.









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Brother (1997)
The Return (2003)
The Island (2006)

And of course Night/Day Watch

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The Cranes Are Flying - 10/10

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It's not a film, but I thought the Russian Netflix series "To the Lake" was excellent and very cinematic. It was my favorite series from all of last year.

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9th Company

Its very similar to the American movie, Full Metal Jacket. Its follows a group of Soviet recruits from basic training to the war in Afghanistan.

And the miniseries - The Dawns Here Are Quit, which is about an all female garrison during WWII.

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