Piter FM

I found the film Piter FM was entertaining though it wasn’t as intense or thought provoking as some of the previous films we have watched. It really had nothing to do with politics in any form and it didn’t really relate back to Russian or Soviet History. I agree that the star of the film Piter FM was the city of St. Petersburg. Throughout the film there was great shots of the city that really captured its “personality.” I found the dynamic between Masha and Maksim quite interesting. They get so close to meeting and you expect them to figure who one another is but they get so close yet really so far. They’re relationship in a way reminded me of a pen pal as they had never met each other but had simply talked through the phone. 

The Return

In the film we watched, The Return, it has a very gloomy and dark atmosphere to it. No colors really come to mind other than black and white. This seems to center around the character of the father. I would characterize the father as a negative character. He doesn’t seem to like his kids that much, he always has an unpleasant demeanor about him and there seems to be something about his past that he wants to keep hidden and not talk about. It’s apparent he has been away from the family for a while and this seems to have a negative effect on his kids. Andrey, the oldest, doesn’t seem to hate his father but he is intimidated by him and does his best to impress him. Ivan, the younger brother, hates his father and does not do anything to hide it. He goes as far as to say he wants him dead and near the end threatens to kill him. The lack of the father throughout their lives has forced the brothers to rely on each other and this comes apparent when their father dies. Since they haven’t really had a father figure most of their lives the boys don’t seem to be shaken by their father’s death as if they were almost expecting it or simply were used to the idea of no father.

Brother

The film Brother centers on the character, Danila. I think Danila’s character is good at heart but it seems his experiences from the weather seems to have taken the emotion and feeling out of him. He seems to be immune to violence. I don’t believe he wishes to be violent but the army has engrained that in his nature to the point that he can’t go back. This is what makes him perfect for these mob assignments. His conscience doesn’t get in the way. He can go out and do a “job” and not think twice about it. We are meant to approve or sympathize with some of his actions. He always lets the innocent go even though most would take them out for what they know. He meets a German man who he helps from the continuous harassment he faces. Another instance of this controversial sympathy we may have is where he puts the men at gunpoint on a bus for not paying their ticket. He has a vigilante character to him. He helps the good people and kills the “bad” guys. What makes Danila character seem real is that music is his escape. I think at times when life is at a rough point music helps express that for us or it helps us escape from the world for a little bit. This is the case with Danila. His life has been rough and throughout the film it gets tougher and music is that escape.

Little Vera

In Little Vera, Vera starts out the opposite of a heroine. Her parents looked down on her because of her rebelling attitude toward them. Her older brother Viktor criticizes her for lack of motivation and drive toward life. She has an I-don’t-care and a tough guy attitude about everything. Throughout the film you begin to see her walls coming down before she has an ultimate breakdown at the end of the film. She takes care of her drunk father. She wants things to work out between her fiancé Sergei and her parents but Sergei also has a rebellious attitude and treats Vera’s parents disrespectfully which ends up getting him stabbed. Before her major breakdown, she is at the beach with her family when she loses it when her mother claims she never wanted to have her. Though it seems at first like Vera deserves the grief from her parents it starts to become apparent that her parents are too hard on her and she isn’t very wanted and that her breakdown is understandable. I wouldn’t say Vera is a heroine but she is a sympathetic character with the verbal abuse she takes from her parents. I also sympathize with her father. Yes he is an alcoholic but the mother seems like an extremely difficult person to live with. Sergei is not by any means a sympathetic character and seems to cause even more tension in the family then there already is.  

Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears

Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears was one of the longer films we have watched so far and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought it was great how the film was set in two significant time periods in Soviet History; the Thaw and the era of Stagnation. During both these parts of the films you really get a sense for what life was like in the Soviet Union during the time periods. I’m sure this film glorified a little was Soviet life was really like but for the most part it seemed like a fairly accurate portrayal. Women typically had lower end jobs such as a factory worker and men typically held the more high-end jobs. It was interesting how men seemed to be attracted or approving of a woman with a job of less status than theirs. They didn’t really seem to care what characteristics they had, just what their status was. Katya had deceived her first love, Rudolph, into thinking she lead a higher end life, which is what he was looking for in a woman. When he finds out it’s a lie he leaves her. Later on in the film, she meets the man of her dreams in Gosha on a train. Things seem to be going smoothly until he finds out she has worked her way up to a executive director he temporarily leaves her. During this temporary leave by Gosha I believed he would end up coming back to Katya. He loved her and I thought his heart was in the right place and that he would get over what a women’s status is suppose to be.

Ballad of a Soldier

Ballad of a Soldier was an easier watch in comparison to the most recent film we watched, Mirror. Though throughout the movie I was thrown for a loop here and there but it was still easy to follow and understand what is going on. Compared to other films we watched this didn’t have much of a Socialist Realist feel at all. Those films seemed to try and convey a message of propaganda and how the great the Soviet Union is more than the director conveying a specific message of his own or simply entertaining the audience with a story. Socialist Realist films were not as much about the individual but more about the Soviet people.  They didn’t want individuals rising above one another. In Ballad of a Soldier we see the focus on an individual, Alyosha. Throughout the film he is busy helping anyone he gets the chance to which hinders him getting home on time since he only has a short time to be home. He meets this girl, Shura, and they seem to have a connection of being more than just friends. To my surprise, we never really see that blossom into anything. They go their separate ways to never see each other. The ending also caught me off guard. He only gets a few minutes to see his mother and then he has to go and that is the end. It didn’t feel like a sad ending but it certainly didn’t seem like a happy one either. He goes out of his way to help others and doesn’t seem to be rewarded in the end. He falls in love and never gets to see the girl again and he only gets to be home for a few short minutes.

Mirror

Mirror may have been the strangest film I have ever seen. To be honest, I never fully knew what was going on. Though the film was strange and had me confused there were some intriguing aspects to it. At the beginning, after a man is leaving after asking for directions, the wind picks up rapidly. This puzzled me and I am still puzzled to why this is and what significance it played. Throughout the film it switches from color to black and white to signify a dream or flashback. Though we occasionally use this in films today it seemed to be used quite often throughout this film, which I found interesting. Throughout the entire film there was an eerie feel to it, which kept me intrigued despite being lost throughout most of the film. I am curious to know what Tarkovsky’s motivation to make a film like this was and to see what the deeper meaning behind this confusing film is.

Ivan the Terrible

This Eisenstein film was unlike the previous film we watched of his in several aspects. Ivan the Terrible was set in the 1500s while Battleship Potemkin was set in the early 1900s. Battleship Potemkin was a silent film while Ivan the Terrible had sound. I am not good at detecting a director’s specific style so if I hadn’t known Eisenstein had directed Ivan the Terrible I doubt I would’ve noticed. The one similarity between the two films I notice is short shot length and the characters actions help enhance what is going on even though it is a film with sound. From my perspective it didn’t seem like much of a Socialist Realist film. I understand Part II is even less Socialist Realist but it seemed Eisenstein was taking a shot at Stalin being an evil dictator, from the title of the film to how Ivan was potrayed throughout the film. Ivan seems to be the brutal dictator who will do anything to seize more power and he enjoys the power. He is a very charismatic speaker but his weakness seems to be his lack of effective strategy. He seems very similar to Stalin. Stalin was charismatic but had no history of military. Stalin loves his power and is all about the propaganda.

Burnt by the Sun

It was intriguing to watch a movie about the 1930s in the Soviet Union from a point of view that wasn’t forced with Socialist Realism. It was refreshing to see a more modern movie done by Russians. Throughout most of the film I was unsure what to think of Mitya. From the moment the camera lays eyes on him, I sense there is something evil about him but I couldn’t quite pinpoint it until the very end. There seemed to be tension between him and Kotov. It was apparent he had a romantic history with Kotov’s wife, Marusia. With all of this, I was trying to figure out where he fit in and what was his purpose there. Kotov and Chapaev are similar in how they both well respected leaders. They differ in how Kotov seems to know what’s going on politically where Chapaev is more naïve to the political situation, he seems more like a military leader than a political figure.

Circus

The Circus is a Socialist Realist film but I didn’t really get a feel for that until the end. Near the end of the film we find out Marion left America because she has an African-American child and is discriminated because of him. In the 1930’s this would have likely been the case in America but this also shows Soviet propaganda putting down another country while the Soviets accept everybody as the audience in the arena embraces the child. At the very end of the film it shows Marion marching next Petrovich down Red Square and showing their support of the Soviet Union. She says she has never felt so free in her life which is an ironic statement considering that during the 1930s Stalin and his men terrorized the people. Overall I didn’t find the film extremely entertaining and if I was part of the Soviet government I would be disappointed in the lack of propaganda it conveyed.

Chapaev

I find the history of mankind and its wars fascinating. For me the film Chapaev was fascinating. Though the film may not have been entirely accurate it certainly caught my attention. I believe Chapaev succeeded with the Russian public because he was an ordinary man. The ideal of the Soviet Union was that everyone was equal, and it looked down upon the wealthy. What this film had, that Battleshop Potemkin lacked was obviously sound but emotion. Because of the sound, we got to feel the emotion coming from Chapaev while leading his men. The Soviet audience got to understand and feel Chapaev’s passion. It was likely more of a success because the audience had a specific character to relate to, not just an ideal. I am not a supporter of what the Soviet government did to the country but I find the propaganda they use fascinating and look forward to seeing it more of it.

Man with the Movie Camera

Of all the silent films we have seen so far Man with the Movie Camera was by far the most unusual. The film didn’t have any actors and there really is no specific plot, which can make it hard to follow as you’re wondering what is going on the whole time. What I really enjoyed about this movie was the music. It went perfectly with what was going on the screen and all in all it was entertaining music. The sound affects it would use for certain events going on was interesting. Another interesting aspect I found cool was the montage on the sports. I found it fascinating that it was in slow motion focusing on specific motions, whether it was throwing, jumping, etc. All in all it seemed to be a documentary about life which was unique but at times it was losing me.

Battleship Potemkin

Battleship Potemkin has so far been the most interesting silent film we have watched. In the other silent films we watched it will focus on one shot for an extended time before changing angles, something as viewers today we're not used to. In Battleship Potemkin there were more angles and a shot was not as prolonged as the other silent films we watched. This made viewing it a little easier as you wouldn't get bored would a continuous shot. It was intriguing how Vakulinchuk was buried in a similar way to Lenin in how he was preserved in a tent making him look like a hero, which he was in the film. The anoymity of most characters in the film I believe refers to how the Soviets didn't want individuals to stand out, but that everyone was equal and no one would excel over another.

Silent Films

Of the three silent films we watched the one that caught my interest was The Dying Swan. The film may be silent but the main character, Giselle, is a mute, which is made obvious throughout the film. Giselle is with a man, Viktor, until she catches him with another woman. When she sees this, she asks her father to take her away and so she can make a career out of dancing. While performing, Valeri, a painter is transfixed by her dance as the dying swan as he has been trying to capture death in his paintings. He asks Giselle to sit for him for a painting. Later, Viktor finds Giselle and apologizes to her and they marry. Because of her excitement Giselle struggles to capture death and Valeri ends up murdering her. For a film that seemed to be on its way to a happy ending that the ending through me off. Silent films contain advantages over sound in how you are forced to watch the film intently to understand what’s going on. You have to watch the character’s body language to get a sense of what’s going on. Overall it makes you pay attention to detail. The challenge a director faces is conveying a message or story without using words; simply the actions and the scenery have to tell the story. From a viewers standpoint, it’s a challenge because you have to pay more attention visually then you normally would with a film with sound. My viewing strategy is to pay attention through my sight as much as possibly. During a “talkie” you can tune out visually because the sound is there to help you out.

Irony of Fate Part 2

The end of the Part 1 and Part 2 of Irony of Fate were dragged out a bit. Overall I felt it was a good heart-warming story but the film seemed to drag on and beat around the bush. Clearly Zhena and Nadia were falling in love but the process seemed dragged out but all in all a good film. In our readings, specifically in the Beaumers I thought it was interesting on the history of Russian Cinema. History is one of my interests and I found it intriguing how much of the films viewed early in Russia weren’t actually Russian but foreign films.

Irony of Fate

I thought the first half of Irony of Fate was interesting not just from a comedy standpoint, but a cultural and political one as well. I found it intriguing at the beginning of the film how the director appeared to be making fun of Soviet leaders for building everything in the country very similar. It seems universal in its comedy by making light of drinking and being drunk. Going back to similar structures this seems culturally peculiar to the Soviet period. Same buildings, streets, and set up. Some of the humor is some that I am used to but in todays culture a lot of our humor is sexually related and so far this film has none of it.