Russian Film

Russian war drama covers Cannes with Fog

2012-05-26T13:04:00.000+02:00

Film buffs on the glamorous French Riviera have finally found themselves in the thick of action set during WWII, orchestrated by Russian director Sergey Loznitsa, whose dark latest feature is a hot candidate for the coveted Golden Palm.

The film, based on a novel by Vasil Bykov, had its world premiere at the world's most prestigious film festival, which will close on May 27.

In The Fog is Loznitsa's uncompromising reflection on human nature, and more specifically, the Russian mentality.

Set in 1942, when much of the Soviet Union struggled under German occupation, the drama revolves around a pair of partisans, Burov and Voitik, eager to get revenge for a group of comrades arrested and executed by the Germans. They don't doubt that the only man who could possibly give the partisans away is Sushenya, a rail worker. He was also arrested, but for some reason the Germans decide to set Sushenya free. Sushenya’s treason looks evident to all, including his own wife.

There's a line in Apocalypse Now that goes, “Horror has a face. You need to make friends with horror.” In Loznitsa's film, however, horror seems to have no face whatsoever. The film's director disagrees.

“The main character has got a face. He has no place in the world, though.” Loznitsa told RT that he had wanted to make In the Fog for ten years. But it proved to be difficult to find funding for a film set during the war. The producers Loznitsa turned to didn't think In the Fog had potential.

“The producers asked me, 'who is going to watch a film set during the war?' But I was deeply touched by the novel. I thought there was something special about the story,” Loznitsa said.

The award-winning filmmaker initially made a name for himself as the creator of numerous documentaries.

Born in the former Soviet Republic of Belarus, Loznitsa grew up in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, where he majored in engineering and mathematics. Having moved to Moscow, he embarked on his second profession, that of filmmaker, which he studied at VGIK. ...

Yuri Korolev: Slove / The Soldier - Slove. Прямо в сердце (2011)

2012-05-23T23:55:00.003+02:00

Directed by: Yuri Korolev
Starring: Alex Chadov, Andrew Chadov, Glory Chichivarin, Karina Hidekel

Slove, the debut film by writer, producer, and director Iurii Korolev, who for this film’s release is billed by the Nordic-Teutonic moniker Jürgen Staal, is an interesting mélange of international B-movie action clichés in service of a specific reconfiguration of Russian masculinity.

A brief opening sequence shows a tranquil domestic setting, in which three young brothers are huddled on pillows in their living room while they are being trained by a stern father in the art of perseverance and concentration required by long-distance snipers. These brothers are Grisha, Sergei and Aleksei Ronin, who grow up to become soldiers in an elite Border Guard unit. In an intense firefight with Central Asian drug smugglers, Grisha is killed. Having been dismissed for disobeying orders during the skirmish, Sergei becomes a police captain in the St. Petersburg police force. “Zorro,” as Sergei now calls himself, has his own particular rogue way of policing, which does not endear him to his superiors.

On a furlough from his Border Guard unit, Aleksei visits his brother Sergei. He assists his brother in a mission to arrest a second-rate Mexican drugs and casino gangster, who is attempting to muscle into the local market after failing to branch out into US territory. Aleksei attracts the attention of two powerful officers in the Ministry of the Interior, Colonel Savelii Kotov and his high-ranking bespectacled adjutant Ludwig Karlovich Wingen. They offer him a position as a sniper for the Ministry, so that he can continue his job of killing people in the “civilian world” for the sake of justice. Aleksei has doubts because his task would be “too obscure”—there are no clear-cut enemies and he does not consider himself “entitled to determine their fates.” How, he asks the Colonel, would they be “different from the bandits” if he shoots them without trial?

Kotov, however, knows how to manipulate Aleksei’s ethical reservations to his advantage and secretly instigates the release of the Mexican gangster. In the face of such an obvious travesty of justice, Sergei questions his chosen profession and Aleksei changes his mind, now convinced that his services as an assassin for the Ministry are necessary. Aleksei is given a call sign “Slove” (rhymes with “love” and pronounced “Slav”), apparently an invented portmanteau contraction of the English phrase “soldier of love.”

Reviewed by Daniel H. Wild © 2011 in KinoKultura

Movie Review: Elena

2012-05-18T17:05:00.001+02:00

Movie Review: Elena - Huffington Post (blog):

Salon

Movie Review: Elena
Huffington Post (blog)
Though billed as a Russian film noir, Elena skimps on the noir, and more's the pity. Instead, it's a disciplined, controlled and ultimately disappointing drama of family tension and murder. The crime does not go unpunished, but the punishment seems ...
Pick of the week: A class-war thriller from Putin's RussiaSalon
SIFF 2012: 'Elena' and 'Hemel' [Reviews]Film Equals
'Elena': A Femme Fatale, In The Rubble Of PerestroikaNorth Country Public Radio
Wall Street Journal -GreenCine -ARTINFO
all 11 news articles »

Top 20 Soviet Films

2012-05-17T21:00:00.001+02:00

20. Needle (drama) - Rashid Nugmanov
19. Ballad of a Soldier (war) - Grigori Chukhrai
18. Arsenal (drama) - Alexander Dovzhenko
17. The Color of Pomegranates (avant garde) - Sergei Parajanov
16. Amphibian Man (science fiction) - Vladimir Chebotaryov
15. The Pokrovsky Gate (comedy) - Mikhail Kozakov
14. The Ascent (drama) - Larisa Shepitko
13. Aelita (science fiction) - Yakov Protazanov
12. The Asthenic Syndrome (comedy) - Kira Muratova
11. By the Bluest of Seas (comedy) - Boris Barnet
10. The End of St. Petersburg (drama) - Vsevolod Pudovkin
09. An Unfinished Piece for a Player Piano (romance) - Nikita Mikhalkov
08. Dersu Uzala (drama) - Akira Kurosawa
07. Siberiade (drama) - Andrei Konchalovsky
06. War and Peace (epic) - Sergei Bondarchuk
05. The Cranes Are Flying (drama) - Mikhail Kalatozov
04. Ivan the Terrible (epic) - Sergei Eisenstein
03. Come and See (war) - Elem Klimov
02. Man with a Movie Camera (avant garde) - Dziga Vertov
01. Solaris (science fiction) - Andrei Tarkovsky

Living (Zhit): Film Review

2012-05-14T20:35:00.000+02:00

Three years ago, Vasily Sigarev's debut feature Volchok (Wolfy) won a clutch of festival awards. His follow-up Zhit (Living), which has won the best film and international critics awards at Wiesbaden's goEast festival of central and eastern European films, confirms his emergence as a talent to be reckoned with. Living is in the Russian tradition of high seriousness, its theme the presence of death in life, no less.

Known internationally as a playwright (an early work was produced at London's Royal Court theatre), Sigarev based Wolfy on one of his stage plays. With Living, he starts from cinematic scratch, weaving three stories together, none of them connected though the characters share the same wintry space (a small town in the director's home province of Yekaterinburg, in the Urals).

A man cycles out to a river bank and vanishes, presumed drowned. Artyom (Alexei Filimonov), his young son, longs to see him again. Two young people, post-punk, Grishka (Yana Stoyanova) in white-dyed dreadlocks, Anton (Konstantin Gatsalov) something of a prankster, decide to get married, but after the wedding Anton is savagely beaten up and dies. Galya (Olga Lapshina), a middle-aged woman, is separated from her two daughters who are killed in a road accident as they are being returned to her.

For a film called Living, there's an awful lot of dying going on. Or is there? After the initial devastation, after her railing at the priest who married them - "What's the point of love if we're all going to die anyway?" - the grieving Grishka finds Anton returning to her. At the burial of her daughters, Galya is convinced they are still breathing and returns to the cemetery at night to dig them up. Soon they are supping together around the kitchen table. And by the end of the film, sure enough, Artyom's father is sitting on the landing, waiting for his son to join him. There are moments when Sigarev appears to be flirting with the supernatural visitation genre, but it's clear finally that what interests him is the power of the bereaved to conjure up, at least in their minds, images of the dear departed. The death of those we hold closest is perhaps the greatest trial that we have to bear in life, and what these characters have in common is their struggle to come to terms with their loss.

The film isn't really saying anything new about how we deal with death and audiences may quibble with (or alternatively be impressed by) the overlay of metaphysical brooding, but Sigarev keeps his stories grounded in the realities of provincial life, maintaining our interest until providing catharsis - after a fashion - for his characters.

The harshness of life in today's Russia is presented in the usual bleak terms, though less oppressively than usual, and Sigarev is well served by Alisher Khalidkhodaev's cinematography and an excellent cast.

Director Vasily Sigarev
Cast Yana Troyanova, Olga Lapshina, Alexei Filimonov, Yevgeny Sity, Anna Ykolova
From Hollywood Reporter

Alexander Proshkin: Redemption - Искупление (2001) - Trailer

2012-05-10T21:35:00.000+02:00

Director: Alexander Proshkin
Writer: Fridrikh Gorenshtein
Stars: Karina Andolenko, Sergei Dontsov, Natalia Gandzyuk

Alexander Sokurov's 'Faust'

2012-05-10T21:18:00.001+02:00

Film Review: Alexander Sokurov's 'Faust'

Making its way to UK cinemas eight months on from its Golden Lion win at last year'sVenice Film Festival, Alexander Sokurov's Faust (2011) has lost little of its enigmatic zeal in the interim period. Critical opinion has been somewhat divided on this final chapter in the Russian director's tetralogy (which includes 1999's Moloch, 2000'sTaurus and 2005's The Sun), yet for all its over-ambition and debatable inaccessibility, this unique take on Goethe's classic tale remains one of the most mesmeric, hypnotic cinematic experiences of the last twelve months.

As with Goethe's original text, Sokurov's adaptation centres on the somewhat lowly character of Faust (Johannes Zeiler), a professor and alchemist who craves knowledge, yet finds himself constrained by the limitations of human understanding. It is his own poverty-plagued existence which leads our protagonist to the town's demonic moneylender Mephistopheles (Anton Adasinskiy), a repugnant, overweight creature who quickly agrees to aid Faust in his quest - in exchange for possession of his eternal soul.

From its magnificent opening shot, tearing through the atmosphere to gaze down from the heavens before reappearing inside a human cadaver, Sokurov's latest work demands to be seen writ large on the big screen. The sheer scale of the existentialist subjects at hand can easily overwhelm, and those not 100% willing to follow the modern Russian master in his dreamlike voyage may well find themselves lost and seemingly abandoned within the opening half an hour. However, those willing to dedicate a little time and patience to the painterly Faust will, like the character of Mephistopheles, find themselves richly rewarded. ...

Vasily Sigarev

2012-05-09T01:03:00.001+02:00

Vasily Sigarev by Giuviv Russian Film Blog:

The award of main prize in the Wiesbaden GoEast festival to Vasily Sigarev's second film Жить (Living) comes after Rotterdam's overlooking this rather new and uncomfortable voice in Russian cinema. If some like Sergei Loznitsa have moved from documentary to feature films, Sigarev's move has been from theatre. This is not unique in these times - both Kirill Serebrennikov and Ivan Vyrypaev - have moved from theatre to cinema (although not permanently). Time will tell whether Sigarev will make the move more permanently. Undoubtedly in theatre he established an international reputation: in the UK alone his play Plastiline was produced at the Royal Court and he also won an Evening Standard Thetrae award. An article way back in 2003 in the Guardian already established his reputation as a powerful voice in theatre http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2003/feb/03/theatre.artsfeatures .

His move into film was not greeted by everyone. In fact a storm of outrage surrounded the award of best film at the Sochi Film Festival for his film Волчок (Wolfy). He was accused of sensationalism and returning Russian cinema to the bad old days of chernuka. It seems as though this director from the Urals ignored this criticism and according to Novaya Gazeta's film critic Larisa Maliukova has only increased the doses of radical defiance of convention present in his first film http://www.novayagazeta.ru/arts/50703.html Wolfy itself offers a harsh blow to the viewer uncompromising in its bleak portrayal of the absolute indifference of a mother for her child. Whether as Lipovetsky and Beumers argue that this film reproduces patriarchal forms of thought through its sense of horror of female freedom (and freedom as such) or that the film should be read in some other way (as a discourse on the loss and acquisition of innocence as Zara Abdullaeva does) it remains one of the most striking films of the last few years.

Sigarev's new film has also divided critics fiercely. While the president of the Wiesbaden jury Cristi Puiu (the director of 'The Death of Mr Lazarescu') stated that the film was not just a film but a personal experience, another member of the jury was said to have declared that he or she was ready to give the award to any film of the festival other than to Sigarev's film. This divided opinion between fierce support and fierce antagonism but no indifference is indicative of reactions to Sigarev's work. Hopefully, though, Sigarev will be one of the voices that will become more known to a wider cinema going audience outside of Russia in coming years so that viewers can see for themselves. The accusations of being a pale imitation of Von Trier's work as well as a narrowly 'sociological' reading of the films may not die away as yet but it seems that Sigarev has proved other critics wrong in their misreading of his powerful works.

Sergei Loznitsa: In The Fog - В тумане (2012)

2012-05-09T00:52:00.001+02:00

"IN THE FOG" BY SERGEI LOZNITSA IS NOMINATED FOR THE PALM D’OR

Director: Sergei Loznitsa
Writers: Vasili Bykov (novel), Sergei Loznitsa (adaptation)
Stars: Vladimir Svirskiy, Vladislav Abashin, Sergei Kolesov

The talent: Amid a sea of unfamiliar actors -- some of them Russian workhorses, but many of them first-timers -- two names stand out, though both of them are in supporting roles. Romanian actor Vlad Ivanov made a striking impression (and scooped an LA Critics' award) as the surly abortionist in "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days"; veteran Russian actress Nadezhda Markina's stunning turn in the title role of "Elena" earned a European Film Award nod last year, and will hit US screens next week.

As on his last film (and first narrative feature) "My Joy," Loznitsa wrote the script, while that film's editor Danielius Kokanauskis, production designer Kirill Shuvalov and cinematographer Oleg Mutu are all on board. Mutu, in particular, is a name to note: he's been a key figure in the recent Romanian new wave, having shot "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu," "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" (which he also produced) and "Tales From the Golden Age." This is one of two Competition credits for him this year: he also lensed Cristian Mungiu's latest, "Beyond the Hills."

The pitch: Two years ago, celebrated documentarian Loznitsa's fiction debut "My Joy" proved one of the delayed critical successes of the lineup: consensus was slow to emerge, and no prizes were forthcoming, but a number of estimable English-speaking eventually latched onto his brooding, free-form vision of human corruption and barbarism in contemporary Russia. International distributors didn't rush to it (it finally hit US screens last autumn), while the Russian media accused it of Russophobia. His follow-up sounds, on paper, an easier sell. Picking up on the World War II flashbacks of his last film, "In the Fog" is a full-scale WWII drama set in the German-occupied Western frontier of the USSR. After a train is derailed by resistance fighter, innocent rail worker Sushenya is arrested by German officers, only to be set free -- prompting suspicions of treason among his compatriots. Sounds robustly classical enough, with arthouse-crossover potential -- but perhaps Loznitsa has a more radical treatment up his sleeve.

More here.

Countdown To Cannes: Loznitsa

2012-05-07T00:51:00.001+02:00

SERGEI LOZNITSA

Background: Ukrainian; born in Baranovitchi, Belarus 1964.

Known for / style: My Joy; a career that has primarily (until recently), consisted of documentaries; director of the first Ukrainian film to debut in Competition; extremely long takes with minimal cutting

Film he’s bringing to Cannes: V tumane (In the Fog), a Russian-language period drama that takes place in 1942, on the German-occupied frontiers of the Western USSR. Sushenya (newcomer Vladimir Svirski) is wrongly accused of collaboration, and in order to save his dignity, he must resolve a difficult moral quandary. The largely-unknown cast also includes Vlad Ivanov, who was in Cristian Mungiu’s Palme-winning 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days.

Notable accolades: The majority of Loznitsa’s awards are from his documentary work. Loznitsa is a

three-time winner of Leipzig DOK’s Silver Dove (2002’sPortrait and The Settlement; 2000’s The Halt), and has won Cracow’s Golden Horn (2008’s Revue) and Golden Dragon (2006’s Blockade). Loznitsa’s fictional debut, 2010’s My Joy, won top prize at two small Eastern-European film festivals.

Previous Cannes appearances: 2010’s My Joy was Loznitsa’s first film at the Festival, playing in Competition. It was the first-ever Ukrainian film to debut in Competition.

Sergei Loznitsa, by Ray Pride.

Could it win the Palme? In the Fog is Loznitsa’s second narrative film, but at this point his golden prospects aren’t great. My Joy’s reception at the 2010 Festival was decent at best, falling off the awards radar almost instantly. And while Loznitsa is an accomplished documentarian, fiction-features are a different beast entirely. Therefore, in order for Loznitsa to win the hearts of the international press (and solidify his new career as a fiction director), In the Fog has a lot of catching up to do. Luckily, the casting of Ivanov should prove helpful in the long run.

More here.

Prima Ballerina Diana Vishneva May Appear in Alexey Uchitel's New Film

2012-05-04T20:30:00.002+02:00

The prima ballerina of Mariinsky Theater Diana Vishneva may play the lead in the new film by famous director Alexei Uchitel.
The feature film under the title Mathilde Kschessinska will be dedicated to the life of the renowned Russian ballerina.
Kschessinska graduated from the Imperial Theatrical School in St. Petersburg in 1890 and then danced on stage of the Mariinsky Theater until the revolution of 1917, when she immigrated to France. Kschessinska died in Paris in 1971 at the age of 99.
Alexey Uchitel's last work was the film The Edge released in 2010. The Edge was nominated to Oscar from Russia; however, it was not included in the short list of the American prize.
RIC

"White Tiger": a battle with a phantom

2012-05-03T17:12:00.003+02:00

The World War II action drama “White Tiger” by Russian director Karen Shakhnazarov will hit Russian screens on May 3rd, a few days before V-Day celebrations. The director describes his “White Tiger” as a war film with elements of mysticism and fantasy. The Voice of Russia’s Rita Bolotskaya reports.

The film is set during the Second World War and tells about a fierce confrontation between a Soviet tank man who miraculously survived and a German tank-phantom known as the White Tiger. The crewless tank-phantom mysteriously appears out of nowhere and vanishes into nowhere, killing soldiers and sowing panic. A Soviet tank man challenges the phantom. The director, Karen Shakhnazarov, who has never made war films before, says that there is something exciting about a man going into battle with a phantom.

Karen Shakhnazarov shared his opinion in an interview with a Voice of Russia correspondent.

"For me, to start filming about war was far from easy. You have to tap a nice story, a story which appeals to you, in the first place, if you want to make it into a film. I found Ilya Boyashev’s war story “Tank Man, or the White Tiger” exciting. It’s a fantasy story within the framework of a war. In order to be able to film about war, one should have this inner feeling that one is prepared for such work. I never filmed about war before. I acted as a producer for Nikolai Lebedev’s film “The Star”, which told about Soviet intelligence agents operating in the Nazi rear. But that was different. Now, I felt I was ready for a war film as well. Also, I want to pay tribute to the memory of my father and his comrades-in-arms who fought against the Nazis."

World War II provides an endless number of plots for film scripts, Karen Shakhnazarov says, and directors will continue to make films about it, even though battle scenes are becoming more and more difficult to mount if you don’t use computer graphics. Most “White Tiger” battle scenes were made without computer graphics thanks to the unique facilities of the Mosfilm Studio. Karen Shakhnazarov, who heads the Mosfilm Studio, says that the studio’s wartime equipment is in good condition and that former military experts are taking good care of it. Many of the studio’s tanks are 70 years old but they never fail and are always put into motion if necessary.

Russia at Cannes Film Market 2012

2012-05-01T00:32:00.002+02:00

The Russian movie production support fund is presenting a number of Russian films at Cannes Film Market 2012, which will run parallel to the Cannes Film Festival, from the 16th to the 27th of May 2012. The Voice of Russia’s Rita Bolotskaya reports.

Three Russian films will go on display at Cannes Film Market 2012: the screen version of the book “Dukhless” by Sergei Minayev (the story of a cynical executive at a large multinational corporation who like many other 30-year-olds loses moral values and faces spiritual vacuum); a psychological thriller by prominent director Pavel Lungin which was made on the basis of “The Queen of Spades” by Alexander Pushkin; and the 3D animated comedy “Baba Yaga”, which is a joint production made by France, Russia and Belgium.

Even though these productions have nothing in common in terms of storyline or technology, each is appealing as a creative piece of motion picture arts. Producer Yevgeny Gindilis comments.

"Creative potential is crucial for a film to be successful. Naturally, it all begins with projects and scripts which might attract producers and audiences. The energy which is released as a result of this process breaks down all existing barriers and leads to the appearance of joint projects. If the project draws talented people who are eager to work, it will successfully get off the ground."

The Russian movie production support fund plans to promote Russian films abroad. Yevgeny Gindilis has this opinion.

"Unfortunately, Russian-made films used to be under-represented at international film forums because of problems related to the acquisition of screening rights. These problems are currently our top priority."

Apart from showing Russian films, the fund’s leaders are planning to present a new international project titled Red Square Screenings. Yevgeny Gindilis, who is one of the organizers, says that Red Square Screenings invites foreign film producers and distributors to see the best film projects of Russia and countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Moscow will play host to the participations of the project in October 2012. According to experts, the projects initiated by the Russian movie production support fund have good chances for success because they lean on the experience of countries that have succeeded in promoting their films on the international film market. These include Rumania, Korea, France and countries of Latin America.
VoR

Sergey Bodrov, Ivan Passer: Nomad (The Warrior) - Кочевник (2006)

2012-04-28T00:30:00.001+02:00

Directors: Sergey Bodrov, Ivan Passer
Writer: Rustam Ibragimbekov
Stars: Kuno Becker, Jason Scott Lee and Jay Hernandez

Never before have Kazakh people waited so long for the arrival of a national film. The press and television reported on the progress of this mega-project during the two years that it was being made. At last, Nomad has been finished. For the first time a Kazakh film has such powerful Western distributors as Wild Bunch for Europe and Miramax for America. These companies are preparing for the film’s broad release worldwide. What else could we wish for? After the film’s premiere in Kazakhstan in July a negative, rather than positive, opinion was formed, although the majority of spectators have still not seen it yet. Why is Nomad being criticized? Has this project been successful?

For 14 years we have lived in an independent Kazakhstan as it was creating its statehood. Nobody will contest that this has been a historically important period in terms of nation-building. We have not only raised our economy and built an effective management structure, but we have also been creating the image of this new country. What is the contribution of Kazakh cinema in this context? Which domestic films have influenced the formation of our national consciousness? Many such films have been made and I would classify them according to three categories:

- films that designate the transition from the Soviet era to independence: basically the early - - films of the Kazakh “New Wave” by Serik Aprymov, Rashid Nugmanov, Amir Karakulov, Abai Karpykov, and Darejan Omirbaev;
- historical films that have opened dramatic markers of our history, such as films by Ardak Amirkulov, Damir Manabaev, Bolat Sharip, and Satybaldy Narymbetov;
- films about our present day that reflect the reality of our daily life. As a rule, these films offer a critical view on reality: Shanghai (1996) by Alexander Baranov, Killer (1998) by Darejan Omirbaev, Zhylama (Don’t Cry, 2002) by Amir Karakulov, or Shizo (2004) by Gul'shad Omarova, and others.

It is hard to overestimate the significance of all these films: they not only reflect our views on life today, but they also fill in important cultural codes about what has happened to us and what the present and future hold in store.

Moreover, during these years several films have been made that carried out the task of nation building to the full. For example, when Bolat Sharip’s Zamanai (1998) appeared, it had all the prospects of becoming a genuine national film because it told the story of the Kazakh people’s return to their homeland. But probably it appeared at an unsuitable moment, in 1998, when there was no operative system for film distribution. The film was lost and has not been seen by audiences. The same thing happened with such films as Serik Aprymov’s Aksuat (1999), Slambek Taukelov’s Batyr Bayan (1993), Satybaldy Narymbetov’s Leila’s Prayer (Molitva Leily, 2002), and many others. As a result, spectators formed a false belief that Kazakh cinema was exclusively aimed at festivals, even though it was the lack of access to a domestic film distribution network that deprived national audiences of our national cinema. ...

Reviewed by Gulnara Abikeyeva© 2006 in KinoKultura

Living takes top prize at goEast

2012-04-27T01:31:00.001+02:00

Living (Zhit), the second feature from Russia’s Vassily Sigarev picked up the Golden Lily for best film and the FIPRESCI prize at this year’s goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film in Wiesbaden on Tuesday night (April 24). Produced by Koktebel Film Company, Living presents three intertwined tales of existential loss and mourning. The international jury headed by Romanian film director Cristi Puiu gave the prize for best direction to Bulgaria’s Konstantin Bojanov for his debut Ave, while the Federal Foreign Office’s award ‘for artistic originality which creates cultural diversity’ went to Kirghiz film-maker Aktan Arym Kubat’s Mother’s Paradise, based on a screenplay by Mohsen Makhmalbaf. ...

Ludmila Savelyeva - Russian Audrey Hepburn

2012-04-26T02:31:00.000+02:00

Lyudmila Savelyeva is a Russian actress and and ballerina known as Natasha Rostova in epic film "War and Peace", a powerful adaptation of the eponymous masterpiece by Leo Tolstoy by director Sergei Bondarchuk.

Ludmila Mikhailovna Savelyeva was born on 24 January 1942, in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). From 1950 to 1962 she studied acting and ballet at the prestigious Vaganovskoe College of Ballet, graduating in 1962 as ballerina. That same year she became member of the Kirov Ballet at Mariinsky Theatre in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). She made her film debut in "Sleeping beauty" (1964). She was making a successful career in ballet when Sergei Bondarchuk's assistant noticed Lyudmila Savelyeva.

Having no experience as an actress she however was invited to Moscow to take part in casting for the film "War and Peace". Savelyeva was screen tested for the role of Natasha Rostova among other Soviet actresses as Anastasiya Vertinskaya, Natalia Fateeva and Natalia Kustinskaya.

"War and Peace" was produced over seven years, from 1961 to 1968. In the beginning her acting career Lyudmila Savelyeva was performing in ballet as well but finally had to leave the theater as it became impossible to combine both acting and dancing.

She was often asked about this choice as Savelyeva's career in ballet was very promising. She always replied that the character of Natasha Rostova became a part of her life and this made her choice.

And finally Savelyeva shot to fame as Natasha Rostova after the film was released. The image of Natasha Rostova became one of most favorite female characters created in Russian cinema.

Ludmila Savelyeva's natural beauty and effortless style won her numerous accolades from international critics. She was chosen by the Soviet Union's communist government to represent the country at various film festivals across the world. In 1969, Savelyeva was sent to the Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood to represent "War and Peace" (1967) which won the 1969 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. A few days later, when Savelyeva brought the Oscar back to Moscow, she was met by members of the Soviet government who took the Oscar away from the filmmakers.

After co-starring in a few less successful movies, Savelyeva disappeared from public view during the 90s. She re-emerged after a ten-year hiatus appearing in "Tender Age" (2000) and later appeared in "Anna Karenina" (2009 TV mini-series).

Outside of her acting career, Lyudmila Savelyeva is known as a collector of rare books, having amassed a significant private library. She has been married to fellow actor Aleksandr Zbruyev, and the couple is living in Moscow, Russia.

...

Vladimir Mishukov's Photos of Zviagnitsev's 'Elena' at the Moscow Photobiennale

2012-04-24T00:07:00.001+02:00

Vladimir Mishukov's Photos of Zviagnitsev's 'Elena' at the Moscow Photobiennale:

Having missed the photoexhibition at the Moscow Photo-biennale of the photographs of Sokurov's 'Russian Art', I made sure that the Mishukov exhibition on Zviagintsev's 'Elena' was something that wouldn't be missed. The Mishukov photos are something more than a mere record of the shooting of the film 'Elena' and have an artistic power to them in their own right. Mishukov managed to take his photographs at those moments of rest and preparation but some of the photographs of the leading characters capture some simply splendid moments and they give themselves to new readings that may or may not have been in the film. One of the really fascinating exhibitions of the Moscow Photobiennale.

Sergey Ursuliak: Long Farewell - Долгое прощание (2004)

2012-04-22T00:25:00.001+02:00

Director: Sergei Ursulyak
Writers: Yuri Trifonov (novel), Sergei Ursulyak,
Stars: Polina Agureyeva, Andrei Schchennikov, Boris Kamorzin

Awards :
Best actress Polina AGREYEVA , Open Russian Film Festival Kinotavr, Russia, 2004
Best actress Polina AGREYEVA , Annual award of the Guild of Historians of Cinema and Film Critics, Russia, 2004
Best Actor in a Supporting Role Boris KAMORZIN , Annual award of the Guild of Historians of Cinema and Film Critics, Russia, 2004
Prize Miron CHERNEKO Sergey URSULIAK , Annual award of the Guild of Historians of Cinema and Film Critics, Russia, 2004
Best directing Festival Russian kino 'Moscow Premier Screenings', Russia, 2004
Best actress Polina AGREYEVA , Festival Russian kino 'Moscow Premier Screenings', Russia, 2004

Sergei Ursuliak (1958- ) describes himself as a “retro-director” [retro-rezhisser]. Indeed, his earlier work—of which the best-known are Russian Ragtime [Russkii regtaim, 1993], Summer People [Letnie liudi, 1995], Composition for Victory Day [Sochinenie ko Dniu Pobedy, 1998]—repeatedly turns to the thematics of the era gone by. A graduate of Moscow’s prestigious Shchukin Theatrical Institute (1975-79), where he studied acting with Evgenii Simonov, Ursuliak became affiliated with the Satirikon theatre for more than a decade (1979-91), then turned away from acting to begin the profession that—in retrospect—he had always wanted to pursue.

This biographical detail oddly replicates a core concern of Ursuliak’s most recent film, the melodrama Long Farewell, based on Iurii Trifonov’s 1971 novella, the third of the latter’s Moscow trilogy. The patterns and aspirations of human experience over a lifetime, their inaccessibility and resistance to preliminary stocktaking, if I may cite another of Trifonov’s titles [1], leave the characters of both the writer’s novellas and Ursuliak’s film in a state of permanent suspension.

A young actress at the Moscow Drama Theatre, Lialia Telepneva (Polina Agureeva), makes a career for herself that leads to a love triangle involving her common-law husband—the intelligent, but unproductive historian-writer Grisha Rebrov (Andrei Shchennikov)—and a mediocre, but increasingly successful, older playwright Nikolai Smolianov (Boris Kamorzin). For the viewer unfamiliar with Trifonov’s work, it would appear at first as if this were Telepneva’s story. As the film develops, it increasingly becomes the story of Grisha Rebrov’s emancipation. And finally it becomes—“all along,” as it were—a story about the unreliability of any preliminary appraisals in life. [2] Lialia breaks off her relationship with the playwright Smolianov; Grisha leaves her (and Moscow) for a new life, and a disjuncture of twenty-odd years finds them passing in the street without recognizing each other. [3] By now, Lialia—Liudmila Petrovna—has been forcibly retired from the theatre; she is a middle-aged ex-actress with a husband and son. Her life resembles that of her mother, Irina Ignat'evna, with its queues, domestic gossip, and materialistic pragmatism. Grisha Rebrov has become a successful scriptwriter, a fate that in some respects echoes one stage of Trifonov’s own career. [4] Life had rendered this couple unrecognizable to each other, or perhaps they had never recognized each other from the outset.

In this respect, Ursuliak aptly captures Trifonov’s interest in change both through time and through layers of psychological depth, these two categories being consistently interwoven in Trifonov’s work. Ursuliak likewise shares Trifonov’s curiosity about the ways in which—organically, without any discernible change—humans and the sites they inhabit are inevitably rendered foreign to the eye. The city of Moscow, in this manner, becomes a global metaphor for the human psyche over time: where, in earlier years, a rich variety of dahlias were tended in greenhouses, advanced pragmatism dictates that high-rise apartment buildings will be planted. As in Trifonov’s work, Ursuliak’s film is uninterested in the political events of his 1952 setting. [5] Their common focus instead is the flow of time. For this task, Lialia and Grisha are a perfect couple: she has an extended, live-in family, but no history; Grisha has no one left in the world, yet he is a historian, moreover, a historian with a deep and nuanced memory of his own family history. Accused by his rival Smolianov of having no roots [pochva], Grisha refutes this implicit ethnic slur with his own civic account of pre-revolutionary and revolutionary roots: a Polish grandmother exiled to Siberia; a serf great-grandfather; a St. Petersburg music teacher; a young rebel-student, expelled from the tsarist-era university for political activities; a kantonist [6]; a Civil War veteran, and so forth—an honorable catalogue of resistance to imperial rule.

Reviewed by Nancy Condee©2005 in KinoKultura

Russia in Tribeca Film Fest

2012-04-20T17:28:00.000+02:00

A Russian film maker, Alexei Fedorchenko, has flown to New York, where the international 2012 Tribeca Film Festival opened on April 18th . He wants to present his new work to the New York audience.

Fedorchenko has already taken part in the world film forums. Moreover, his films, including the mystic film “Pervye na lune” (“First on the Moon”) and the ethno-psychological drama “Ovsyanki” (“Silent Souls”) were awarded medals at the Venice Film Festival. To become a participant of the Tribeca Film Festival, the Russian film director had to pass a serious contest regarding the selection of ideas. The organizers, after they decided to draw up a special project - an international almanac - sent a certain concept to many film directors in many countries. Although the concept was that of hooliganism and extravagance, it served as an attraction for film makers, Alexei Fedorchenko said in an interview with the Voice of Russia several minutes before flying to New York.

"The authors of the above-mentioned concept have put forward about 30 proposals, and some of them were very funny. For example, one character is named Mickey Mouse, and another one wears shoes for step dancing. And one more thing here. In accordance with this concept, the main character should lack one tooth. All these clauses are funny but they give boost to your fantasy," Alexei Fedorchenko says.

Thus, having used his fantasy - extraordinary at times, judging by his former works - in full measure, Alexei won the contest! By the way, American Harmony Korine and a film maker from Poland, Jan Kwiecinski, have also become the participants of the international almanac “The Fourth Dimension”. They both have presented their 30 to 40-minute short stories. Fedorchenko’s short story is titled “Khronoglaz”.

"This is a short story about a scientist who has invented a time machine - the so-called “eye of the time”, or “khronoglaz”. Besides, there is a love story there – the personal love story of that scientist."

Fedorchenko shows us an evident looser who is trying to find a day in his past when he was happy but his attempt proves a failure.

In this year’s programme of the Tribeca Film Festival Alexei Fedorchenko is the only Russian taking part. There is one more film - “Russian Winter” that was made by a Swedish film maker, Petter Ringbom. It is about the concert tour of the well-known American singer John Forte in Russia.

The Tribeca Film Festival came into being 11 years ago, and over the past 11 years Russian film makers have never been the winners. However, Russian film goers show a great deal of interest in the Tribeca Film Festival – the festival of author’s cinema – that was established by the prominent Hollywood actor and film director Robert De Niro in commemoration of the September tragedy of 2001 in New York. The almanac “The Fourth Dimension” will be shown at the Moscow International Film Festival this summer. ...

Internet gives Russian cinema a bigger audience

2012-04-18T23:38:00.000+02:00

April 2012 marked the third time that the Double Dv@ Internet Film Festival, organized by Rossiyskaya Gazeta, has given first-time film directors a chance to make a name for themselves. Eight debut features by Russian directors will be available online on the Rossiyskaya Gazeta website from April 11 to 18. Each day of the festival will focus on a new film, which will appear on the site at 3 p.m. Moscow time (7 a.m., U.S. East Coast) and will be available for viewing for 48 hours. The online audience will be able to rate the films on a scale of one to 10 and share their opinions directly with the filmmakers.

According to the festival’s organizer, Rossiyskaya Gazeta film critic Valery Kichin, more than 70 directors have made their debuts in the festival over the past two years, yet many pictures have gone unnoticed.

This is not a new trend: many of the films produced during the post-Soviet era have not received the publicity they deserved. The main reason for this failure is that distributors were not sure that independent films of this kind would generate profits. As a result, few prints of the films were made and these were shown only in Moscow.

“When large distributors gave up on us, we became more audacious,” said Sergei Loba, director of “Shapito-show,” which is taking part in the competition program of Double Dv@.

“We issued 50 copies and earned more than $1 million. If we have two or three experiments of this kind, our distribution system will become more flexible. We are working on the idea of funding from individual donors, anticipating our cinema possibly finding itself in a severe crisis. Independent authors need this festival very badly in order to build up their popularity. They need to make use of any chance they have to communicate with the viewer, using any channel possible.”

This year’s Double Dv@ debuts come from directors of different generations. In addition to the competition program, which shows films made by up-and-coming directors, this year’s festival featured the debut films of such great Russian directors as Andrei Konchalovsky, Vladimir Menshov, Sergei Solovyov and Karen Shakhnazarov.

“We are making films for our viewers – there is no other way for us. The main problem for Russian cinema is currently not the viewer, but the lack of cinemas – an independent film has no chance of getting into the cinema. There are almost no cinemas willing to show non-blockbusters,” said Sergei Oldenburg-Svintsov, director of the film “Golubka,” which was shown in the competition program. “However, viewers have been changing for the better owing to the Internet. There are movie blogs, film discussions… People listen to what others have to say. Some Russian viewers told me that they saw “Golubka” after their British friends advertised the film. It turned out that they showed my film in the UK with English subtitles. I knew nothing about it.”

In the 1990s, the few movie theaters that were still operating in Russia were empty, but Russia is currently one of the key markets for many film distributors. “I guess the main reason is that people are becoming sincere and sensitive, they need someone to talk to, they are tired of the lies on TV – so, as soon as directors started making films suiting their mood, people went back to the cinema. This Internet festival is exceptionally important for development of young cinema,” said actor Alexander Korshunov.

People are hardly likely to trade the big screen for isolated viewing on their desktops, yet Internet exhibitions and live Internet shows make it clear that young Russian cinema needs to develop new platforms in order to survive. ...

Russian film to be screened at Tribeca Film Fest

2012-04-18T11:57:00.000+02:00

The film Chronoeye by Russian director Alexey Fedorchenko is part of the program of the Tribeca Film Festival which is opening in New York on Wednesday.

Chronoeye is the story of a Russian time traveler whose expectations for seeing the past stifle his ability to live in the present.

Among 89 films on the program is The Russian Winter by Swedish director Petter Ringbom, which chronicles a concert tour of Russia made by American singer John Forte after he served a 7-year sentence in prison for storing drugs.

The Tribeca Film Festival which was founded in 2002 by actor and director Robert De Niro to stimulate the recovery of Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks has acquired widespread popularity and become an annual event of particular significance on the world cultural calendar. TASS

Lenfilm on the rocks

2012-04-16T20:33:00.000+02:00

Cinema has a prominent place in Russian history. As icons and frescoes communicated stories and lessons of the Orthodox Church to largely illiterate worshippers before the revolution, so film presented the ideology of the Soviet government to its citizens as the new technology was harnessed for the purposes of political propaganda.

At the core of the rising art form were the storied film studios Lenfilm and its slightly younger Muscovite brother, Mosfilm. Lenfilm – founded on the basis of pre-revolutionary studios in Petrograd in 1918, finally adopting its current name in 1934 – is now facing its most difficult period, on the edge of financial collapse. Its governing body, the social council, says 2 billion rubles ($136 million) are needed to put the state-controlled studio back on its feet. While rescue plans are under discussion, the debates are taking a sharp tone as struggles between creativity and profitability grow more acrid.

“These rooms were all occupied back in the studio’s heyday,” a Lenfilm spokeswoman said, walking past empty offices. “The crew of each film had its own room, a workplace for a director and his team.”

The greatness and genius of old Russian and Soviet cinema is still felt at Lenfilm, with its old-fashioned interior and dedicated people.

“If you had come here before everything started to fall apart, things would be humming,” film director Vyacheslav Sorokin said. “There would have been a lot of actors, crew, and directors here.”

The studio’s financial decline, however, has led to the departure of many artists and crew, either to private film companies or to other careers. Having produced many famous, award-winning films such as “Chapayev” and “The Amphibian Man,” and the 1980s television series “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson,” Lenfilm now has four projects on hold due to lack of personnel and a lack of money to pay them. Controversial plans Plans to revive Lenfilm are not lacking, but instead of yielding positive results, they have simply caused more controversy. Studio veterans have greeted the prospect of a public-private partnership with suspicion, since they fear private financing would mean moving the soundstages outside the city and incorporating Lenfilm inside a larger private production company.

Members of the social council, including Sorokin, the director Alexei German, Sr., and the screenwriter Svetlana Karmalita, among others, consider that the only interest of potential investors is the valuable land the studio occupies in the center of St. Petersburg, nearly 3 hectares.

The investment company Sistema is among those who have offered their assistance, but unsuccessfully, due to opposition from the council. Sistema declined to comment, but a source familiar with the discussions told The Moscow News that the company is waiting to see what develops, and has not ruled out the possibility of future participation in the project. For Sistema and other potential investors, only a combination of private and state funding can rescue the studio. ...

Kira Muratova: Passions - Увлеченья (1994)

2012-04-13T21:07:00.001+02:00

Director: Kira Muratova
Stars: Svetlana Kolenda, Renata Litvinova, A. Skarga

Selected in the following festivals :
- Odessa International Film Festival, Odessa (Ukraine), 2010
- Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF), Moscow (Russia), 2009
- Berlin International Film Festival : Berlinale, Berlin (Germany), 1994

The blonde’s name is Lilia, the brunette’s – Violetta. The girls are fascinated by the horse races. Young racers are attracted to the girls. Sporting intrigues interlace with love affairs. Horses are taking the racers to the finish, and the winner gets it all… The precisely depicted atmosphere of horse races and a whole world of bizarre, touching, idiosyncratic characters are unveiled in one of the best films directed by Kira Muratova, which became classics of the European cinematography. After its premiere in February 1994, “Passions” have received critic and public acclaim at many European film festivals.
The film was awarded with Jury Prize and Critics Prize at Kinotavr (Russia), and with two Nikas (Russian Cinema Academy Prize) – “for the best director” and “as the best of the year”. ...

Tarkovsky exhibition opens in Moscow

2012-04-11T17:44:00.000+02:00

A large-scale exhibition dedicated to life and work of Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky is opening in Moscow today.

Being held for the first time ever, the Tarkovsky exhibition is timed for the 80th anniversary of his birth and features an impressive collection of books, photos, sketches and posters. Visitors will also see all films by Andrei Tarkovsky, recordings of theatrical productions directed by him, and videos.

Andrei Tarkovsky died in 1986 at the age of 54.

His first feature film – Ivan’s Childhood – earned Tarkovsky international acclaim and won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1962.

The Tarkovsky exhibition will be open until May 20th .

TASS

"Women's Stories"

2012-04-10T20:41:00.001+02:00

Two Russian films have won the National Film Award for 2011 (April 8th). Both of them are dedicated to the fates of two women: one of them is a historical drama, and the other one is a family drama.

“Zhyla-byla odna baba” (“Once Upon a Time There Lived a Woman”) is the work of a well-known film director Andrei Smirnov and the other one is the film of Andrei Zvyagintsev “Yelena”.

Andrei Smirnov says that his film is meant for the Russian audience. That is why he did not present it to international film forums. I did not want it to take part in the contest for the Nika award either, Andrei Smirnov says. However, taking into account the results of secret voting, we should mention here that nearly 700 members of the National Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Russia that chooses the best works for the Nika award praised Smirnov’s creation, which received prizes in 6 nominations!

The film director addresses a very serious historical theme that has not been shown properly in former Russian films: the resistance of the Russian peasants to the power of Bolsheviks in the 20s of the last century and peasants’ riots. In the Soviet-era times this was a taboo. . “As regards the plot, I made my choice when it became clear that censorship had become abolished”, Andrei Smirnov says.

"The idea came into being in 1987, and in 1990 I began writing a script, which I did with long breaks, Smirnov says. While I was engaged in scriptwriting, the Russian cinema was undergoing changes. Thus, I understood that the audience had changed too. New filmgoers were brought up by Hollywood. When my film was still in the making, I understood that the main character should be a woman. An ordinary Russian woman who had survived the nightmare of both the civil war and the social perturbations that followed."

The second winner of the Nika prize is the film “Yelena” by Andrei Zvyagintsev. Last year the jury awarded it a special prize at the film festival in Cannes. It received other awards too.

… A simple story of today: a former nurse decides to kill her husband, who is a rich businessman so that her idling children from the former marriage would be able to inherit what her husband would leave her. Zvyagintsev is turning a simple story of today into a universal tragedy. It seems to me that the ideas of humanism are gradually disappearing from our life.
The Voice of Russia