Piter FM

Today we watched the film Piter-FM directed by Oksana Bychkova's (2006). I do not really know how i felt about this film today. i liked that i showed that you can fall in love with someone with out ever seeing them in person, and how you can walk right past the person you have been looking for and not even know that it was them. This film shows how hard it is for people to meet up in everyday life cause even with a little incident it could throw off the timing of meeting that person, like when Maksim was getting searched by the cop and Masha was standing at the top of the stairs and right after he was done she had already walked away. I feel this film has something to do with fate, if you believe that something is meant to be it will end up working out, like at the end of the movie when he drops the phone into the water but ends up calling the radio station that Masha works at, so i feel that this movie shows that fate plays a role in everyday life and that everything is meant to happen.

The return

Today we watched The return, directed by Andrei Zvyagintsev. I would characterize the father as a very hidden person, and what i mean by that is he doesn't say more than what he needs to say, he also seems like he doesn't like to talk about his past, in the film he also seemed to be kinda mean and like he didn't really like his kids very much. The father seemed like a very negative kind of person when ever his kids would be upset or want to do something he would either just not do it or tell them they are not doing that anymore and that they have to leave to go do something else, without explaining what that other thing is. I feel like he has a very negative effect on the boys, Andrey tried very hard to see the best in this father and to be close with him but he still would be mean and hit him, like when the car got stuck in the mud and Andrey just wanted to get the sticks under there right to impress him but instead his father pushed his face into the car and made him bleed, Ivan never really wanted anything to do with his father and i feel he knew that, so through out the whole movie i felt Ivan just grew more and more angry with him and just wished he never would have came back. I feel like the father has made the boys relationship with each other much stronger, because growing up they never had that person to look up to so they had to figure stuff out and help each other out on there own, and when he finally came back and they saw he wasn't what they had hoped for I'm sure it made them want to stick together and not let people come in between them. I wish that the movie would have gone a little more into why the father toke them to that island, and what was in that bow that he put on the boat? i didn't really like how the movie ended, i just wish it would have explained a little more about the fathers life and why he was gone for so long.

Brother

Today we watched the film Brother, directed by Aleksei Balabanov (1997). I really enjoyed watching this film today. I would characterize Danila as a quiet person but when it comes down to it he will do what he believes is right. Danila view of violence is he will stick up for the ones he likes and will protect himself and his family, he doesn't seem to go around looking for violence but he isn't one to back down from it. Threw out the film Danila shows a lot of different skills he has when it comes to making little bombs and knowing so much about guns, and having such a good shot, but when ever he asks about what he did in the war all he said was he sat in HQ and did nothing? was he just lying so he didn't have to explain everything? it seemed to me that he did a lot more than what he said he did, because a person can not just learn how to do most of the stuff he did... This movie also showed how easy it was for people to get murdered and get away with it, it seemed that people just got use to others dieing around them.

Little Verna

The film that we watched was Little Vera Directed by Vasily Pichul (1988). This film really showed how it was right before the ultimate fall of the Soviet Union. This film was much different from the other films we have watched so far, it showed more of how Russian family's drank and how the children where not secluded from it but more welcomed into drinking with them, witch would lead to them going out and doing it with there friends. Also in this film it showed more of the problems within the family's that I'm sure most Russian family's went through during this time period. I feel that Vera was not sympathetic at all and i honestly though she was pretty selfish and mean, when she broke up with her so called boyfriend for another guy right before he was leaving, she didn't even try to be nice she just said "I'm in love with someone else" and you could tell that it really hurt his feelings but Vera did not care at all, another example of her being selfish is when her new boyfriend started living with them he was very rude to her father and just acted like he was better then them and she didn't tell him to stop or anything she just went along with him being rude. This film really showed the undoing of the Soviet Union and how hard some family's had it.

Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears

Today we watched the movie Moscow does not believe in tears, directed by Vladimir Menshov (1979). This film really showed how people lived in russian, like there love life, jobs, characteristics, their dreams, and just how life was during the Thaw and the era of stagnation. I enjoyed watching this movie, it showed how women worked more in the factory and lower jobs more frequently and the men held the higher end jobs, it also showed how men looked more towards what a women did for a living and who there parents where, to me that was kinda weird how them seemed more interested in what they did for a living and how much money they made a year rather than getting to know them as a person, like when Rudolph found out that Katerina that she worked in a factory rather than what she told him she did he left her even though she was pregnant with his child. this movie really helped show how different russian relationships were in that time period and how much harder it was for single women to find men.

Ballad of a Soldier

Today we watched the movie Ballad of a soldier directed by Grigori Chukhrai's (1959). I enjoyed this movie today. It was a good love story and really told the story of a russian soldier in this time period. The story really showed how hard it was for some to get a train anywhere during the war, it also showed how the public looked at soldiers, when he was walking down to the train people would turn around and look at them like they have never seen a soldier before. another big point i noticed was when Alyosha got to the town to deliver the soap for his friend he just meet, all of his family was so excited to here he was alive and had a lot of questions for him, but you also saw that they havent heard from there son in a very long time and had no idea if he was alive or not, this really made think about how hard it must have been for familys during the war, they would send there love ones off to war and not know if they would ever here from them again or where they even were. The other big point i noticed was that when Alyosha arrived at home and everyone crowded around him you could see that it was mostly all women in the town, i feel that Chukhrai did this on purpose to show how the war took all of the men out of towns and left women basically by themselves. I feel this movie painted a very good picture of how hard the war was on the families of the men and women in this war.

Mirrior

The film we watched today was Mirrors by Andrew Tarkovsky (1932-1986).  This film was a hard and confusing film to watch. i was not able to figure out the plot of the movie or why some of the scenes where even put into the movie. Some things i did find interesting was that this film had a lot of color in it, and how Tarkovsky was able to input black and white scenes into the film. To me this film reminded me more of a montage of different scenes rather than a movie, i felt there was not really a plot for the movie or anything for the audience to build up to or to hope for.

Ivan the Terrible

Today we watched another one of Eisenstein’s later sound films, Ivan the Terrible (1944).  Throughout Eisenstein life he was fascinated with Japanese Kabuki theatre, When you watch Ivan the Terrible you see that this film uses the same aspects of Kabuki theatre. Kabuki theatre is composed of all different types of elements that help it form its picture, some of these else are, Dramatic Content, Dance, Costume, Make-up, Theatre Design, and Actor/Audience Relationship. Kabuki plays are about historical events, love relationships, and a combination of dramatic dialogue and dance. Ivan the Terrible used a lot of the same aspects as Kabuki theatre and you can see that Eisenstein used dramatic costumes, make up, hair styles, and all different types of bazar outfits to make the actors stick out. Even though this film style of acting resembles Kabuki theatre, to me this film resembled how acting was in silent films, the reason why I say that is because Eisenstein has the actors using over dramatic actions, facials expressions, movements etc. He also used the lighting in this movie to paint a picture for the audience without the actors even having to say a word. This film was a great film, and uses a lot of different types of methods that I was surprised to see in such an early time period.

Grigory Alexandrov's Circus

The film we watched today was Grigory Alexandrov's circus (1936). This film was not one of my favorites. the film is about Marion Dixon trying to hide that she has a black baby, and toward the end of the movie people find out about her baby and she thinks everyone is going to hate her and disown her but instead they all pass the baby around and show her that it does not matter what skin colour the baby is. Then it shows a clip of them marching and saying how you can not be as free anywhere else. To me this film came off a little anti America and seemed like it was just suppose to show how Russia is better than every other country just because they do not care about skin color.

Chapaev

   The film Chapaev was created in 1934 the first Soviet blockbuster movie. The film was directed by the Vasilev brothers. This film deals with General Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev and the war that occurred between the Red Army and the White Army during the Civil War that took place from 1917-1923. As we started to watch this film i was relieved to hear that it had sound, witch could be a good reason why this film was such at hit when it came out, because sound was a relatively new thing for the film industry at this time period. While watching this film i feel that this is the closes film that we have watched that can relate to american cinema, the reason why i say that is because the way the generals portray themselves and how there followers react to them it makes you think about the american army and how similar they are. Throughout the film it shows Petka talking to general Vasily about running a army, the general starts to teach him stuff and begins to show his softer side as the movie goes on. This was a great film that showed exactly how the war between the Red army and the White army happened and would help anyone understand the difference between them and what they stand for.

Man with the movie camera

This film showed different images and camera views in a soviet city in a fast paced montage. All the different views of the city showed trains running, people walking, busses driving, etc. it showed what the life of a normal person in that time period usually did on a daily bases. This film was a great documentary and showed how hectic and fast past life can be, this film can even relate to people know a days, because even though the film had no sound and less technology, it still showed how if a minor kink (the accident in the film) it can slow everything else down and make other peoples jobs harder, witch is still how it works today.

silent movies

while watching the silent movies in class it made me realize how much cinema has evolved over time, from having no sound, to \s 3d movies and having everything powered by computers. These films showed how much harder acting was in there time period, in stead of talking and expressing everything with words people had to express them with there body language and facial expressions. these films where a great way to start off class and to show everyone how cinema has evolved

Irony of fate

After finishing the movie Irony of fate, it made me realize that Russian cinemas are much different then American cinemas. through out the movie they did not change the scenery much if at all, the hole movie toke place either in Nadyas home or outside of it. In American cinemas they try to stay away from having just one scene, they try to make it seem like the actors are going to different places in short amount of times.  Another big thing you will notice in the difference of Russian to American cinema, American cinemas use more of a non diegetic music, but with Russian cinemas them seem to stray towards diegetic music. All in all i feel that the movie was a good movie, a little different then what I'm use to, but it still caught my attention.

Irony of fate

   So far the movie Irony of fate has shown a couple ways that Russian cinema differs from to common American movie. With Irony of fate it seems like there comedies are not focused on making you laugh threw out the hole movie, but with American movies it seems that they are more concentrated on trying to have to audience laughing throw out the hole movie.
   This film shows a lot of Russian culture or more so how they live, it shows how easy it is for someone to get lost because all of the buildings look the same in every city. Irony of Fate also shows how in Russia they do not concentrate some much on Christmas but they look forward more to the new year.
  Even though this film seems to have a lot of differences in it than American comedies, it also as a lot of the same. threw out the film it shows Zhenya falling into the pressure of drinking with his friends, witch then cause him to be put on a plan with out him knowing, then ending up in what he though was his apartment. what i am trying to get at is in American comedies people like to see others making fouls of themselves and having the chance to compare it to there life's.