The Archives

• 08.18.08
  Georgia on their minds
  Depuis qu'Otar est parti, Kavkazskaya plennitsa, Kin-dza-dza, Mimino (1)

  The conflict in Georgia got me thinking about Russian movies that feature Georgians. Are there any insights to be gained about Russian attitudes towards the people? Mimino is a big one. The main character is Georgian. He is played as a good-hearted country bumpkin -- he talks loudly on the phone, is quick-tempered, carries on an honorable feud, and is an all-around good guy. But now I wonder how the Georgians feel about this movie. The Georgian characters are treated sympathetically. Or is it condescension? It can be hard to tell the two apart in my own culture, so I wouldn't ...
  
  
• 08.11.08
  Belyy Bim Chornoe Ukno – police
  Belyy Bim, Kin-dza-dza, Moskva slezam ne verit, Movies (0)

  This segment of Black Bim White Ear reminds me that I've been somewhat surprised by the portrayal of people's interactions with police in movies from the Soviet era. I wasn't surprised that in Moskva slezam ne verit, Katerina tells her daughter that they shouldn't call the police about some bullies who have been harassing her boyfriend, that they should handle the situation themselves. That's kind of what I would expect in a police state. Even in the U.S. people sometimes have the idea that you should never talk to the police -- which is not quite the same ...
  
  
• 02.07.08
  Yuri Yakovlev
  Movies (1)

  Ha. I wouldn't have guessed that on my own. Yury Yakovlev, who plays Bi in "Kin-Dza-Dza" is the same person who played Ippolit in Ryazanov's "The Irony of Fate." I had immediately recognized Yevgeny Leonov, the actor who plays Uef, as the same guy who had played the old retired military officer who rescues our hero in Mimino. But I hadn't recognized his sidekick at all. Goes to show he has a bit of range to his talents. Contrast that to someone like Nikita Mikhalkov, who plays the same character no ...
  
  
• 02.03.08
  Can we ask them?
  Movies (1)

  I wasn't sure what in the movie Kin-dza-dza would have made it a difficult one to get past the Soviet censors. Maybe this scene near the end would have been seen as subversive. It certainly would be subversive of a lot of what we're getting from the most fascist elements (i.e. the leading elements) in our own political parties now. Our protagonists are trying to get back to earth, but don't want to abandon to a terrible fate the two characters from Pluk who've been with them for most of the movie. The sensitive, compassionate head honcho ...
  
  
• 02.02.08
  Kin-Dza-Dza
  Andrei Tarkovsky, Georgi Daneliya, Russia, Solaris (2)

  Here's a movie that goes Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris one better. Solaris itself was somewhat of a reaction against Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. 2001 featured gleaming high-tech on a massive scale. In Solaris, the space vehicle is somewhat run down and the protagonist goes around in a soiled shirt. But that's nothing compared to Kin-dza-dza, which came out in Russia in 1986. Two of the interplanetary space travelers are pictured above. (It's a photo of the VHS cover. I cobbed it from Wikipedia.) And here is their spacecraft. (Photo cobbed from the ...
  
  

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