Ballad of a Soldier

Ballad of a Soldier was a very personal film about young man trying to make it home to see his mother before he has to return to the war. I was a little surprised at how popular it was in the Soviet Union not because I did not think it was not a film worth watching but the whole story that it was accepted by the government when so many other films were shelved. As a film itself I thought it was a cute romance/family reunion film. Even though the beginning with Alyosha shooting down three tanks and Shura telling Alyosha that she meant she loved him was a bit on the corny side. It was also a short, but simple story about how it was probably for a Soviet soldier having to go home.

Brother

I do agree that the location being St. Petersburg in Brother was significant because it was the main area where much of crime was taking place which played a decent role to the movie itself since it was about crime and mafias. My first reaction to the film was that it did not have the feel to a cinema film like the other films we have watched did. It was filmed more like a documentry more then anything else. The background music fit the storyline of the film when Danila keeps returning to the same shop to purchase more music, and keeps asking if there is any music to listen to. I thought it was humorous when he tells the French man at the club like building that him and Kat are at and tells him that his American music is -put lightly, crap. I felt that most of the scenes were short and ended at an abrupt point. It seems though along with this film that the women portrayed are either beaten, raped, or under the influence of alcohol and drugs during the 80's and 90's. My favorite character besides Danila is "German" because of his good nature as a friend to Danila throughout the film.

Little Vera

Little Vera is a film that gives the more brutal side of the Soviet Union in the 1980's. At this time the 1980's for the Soviet's seem a little more chaotic than it was in America, even though it had similar aspects like sex and drugs. A lot of the film seemed to be consisted of Vera and her parents (whom are unnamed) being argumentive. Little Vera seemed to contrast most sharply with the films we have watched up to this point by showing what it was like for the citizens of the Soviet Union and what their personal lives were. The world of this film to the world of Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears is more darker and uses shadows to set the mood of the film. Little Vera and Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears both had happy moments in the beginning and showed the reality of pessimism of the characters actions. The treatment of drinking and alcholism differs in this film from what we have seen before because it's not shown as being even as close as being comical. Alcohol leads to the social problems of abuse, drugs, overdose on anti-depressants, violence and depression. Vera and her mother are the most sympathetic in Little Vera. I think the father is to blame for many of the family and personal tensions and discords that take place in the film.

Burnt by the Sun

Burnt by the Sun was a film I found intriguing to watch even though some parts confused me at first. It seemed like a lot of main male roles at certain parts played a humorous side, which caused me to smile. Some people could see Mitya as a villain throughout the whole movie compared to the general Kotav. I wouldn't say those two characters were equally at fault, but they both played a role. I think Kotav sent Mitya off for personal reasons, one being that Mitya was interested in Kotav's future wife Marussa. Mitya probably believed this and maybe was one of many of the reasons why Kotav and family's fate occurred. The sci-fi looking globe of sun that was shown twice throughout the film could have represented the revolution or Stalin's power during that time. I think the six year old daughter Nadya ( which we found out in Irony of Fate means hope) played a crucial role in keeping the family together, or kept the peace between Kotav and Mitya. The aspect of the movie being based on actual occurrences that took place at that time is what I thought was interesting, but I felt for the family after reading what was to be their fate. One last thought that I question was is why does Mitya commit suicide? Is it because he did not know that the ending result of Kotav's "being take care of" would result in what happened to his family?

Circus

Circus was a film that was pretty entertaining for the fact that it was a musical and was a drama about a circus crew. It made me think of a soap opera in some parts that had different situations occuring with different characters ,but are somewhat all linked together. I can understand why viewers would enjoy it because it's not just a film, but it's a film about a circus that most viewers would not have seen, so in a way you were getting 2 for 1. The whole story line is unique and bizarre all the way down to the characters resembling what a circus would be like. Lastly I enjoyed how they included the illustrations and drawings that would outline a character or play the role of frost on a window covering both characters faces in the film.

Ivan the Terrible by Eisenstein Part I

For a sound film being made in 1944 Ivan the Terrible was a pretty intelligent film. What I noticed at first about the film that I could think were pretty accurate were the props, and costumes of the actors and extras who either played part of the royal family, religious figures, the Boyars, and warriors. Eisenstein in one scene used a huge shadow of Tsar Ivan's head to show what power or what fear Ivan instilled in others, and other shadows to help enforce what kind of characters they were or what scene was taking place. A coincidence that I noticed in Ivan the Terrible which was in Battleship Potemkin was the never ending lines of people. I think why Eisenstein used this again in Ivan the Terrible was for the same reason as he did in Battleship Potemkin to show what impact that number of people (whether they were extras or not)makes in a scene with a martyr or a Tsar. In Ivan the Terrible I understand how Ivan got his nickname. He was pretty much unliked by a lot of his comrades from the start of being crowned Tsar, even by his own cousin. When it came to Ivan falling ill after the battle of Kazan, was his "death" faked or was he really cured? And if it was faked was Anastasia (his Tsarina) the only one in on it? The part of the film after Ivan's fake death, when Anastasia lets slips that Ivan isn't dead to Prince Andrei Kurbsky, I don't know if it really shows that there was any affection from her to Andrei. It seems very opposite and one sided with Andrei proclaiming that he will protect Anastasia if the Boyars shall attack. The Boyars themselves seemed to be the voice of the Russian people thoughout the movie. I was surprised though that Stalin would allow such a movie about a Tsar like Ivan the Terrible to be released but later on I could see why, since a lot of the attributes that Ivan had so did Stalin.

Chapaev

Chapaev may have succeeded with the Russian public was because it portrayed what Russians wanted Soviet Russia to be like. Russians could have also liked it because it had Chapaev the main character being a leader of the Red Army that they could root for throughout the film. The fact that it was the first Soviet blockbuster movie with sound could also played a role. Battleship Protemkin was a propaganda film that showed only one side of what Soviet Russia wanted Russians to see. Chapeav you see both armies, and it's not just focused on fighting and gore, there's also a love story, and friendships shown as well. It has more of a storyline. Various ways that Chapaev making use of sound is the reality that you can hear the speech between the characters, the use of weapons being used, and gathering of sound during a battle scene. An aspect of the film that could not have been presented in a silent format could be the singing at the end of the film, and the emotions between characters as well. Chapaev wouldn't have done as excellent as it did if it was a silent film.

Man with the Movie Camera

The begininng of The Man With the Movie Camera started like a Twiligh Zone episode would being in black and white, with out of this world background music, in a deserted ghostlike town. The film was shown in a variety of angles like a black and white photograph could be shown. The beginning shots were of everyday life and then those first shots were told into a story when more shots eleborated the purpose of why the shot were taken in the first place. It seemed to me that the shots were taken in a certain order in a sequence that had similarities with the frame before. Examples like a hose spraying water out of it and the next frame a woman bathing or flowers to a tree. A unique and cool aspect of the movie was when the frames were put in slow motion or stilled. The music also playes a role. The more upbeat the music the faster pace the film rolled. What I thought was puzzeling was why was there christmas music playing for when there was a couple going through the process for a wedding registration? The fact that there were no actors made the film unique and unpredictable. The "man with the movie camera" carrying around his camera everywhere and not letting anyone take his camera reminds me of when Jack Black plays a director in King Kong who won't part with his camera even when his life is in danger.

Ending reflections on Irony of Fate

Pretty much Irony of Fate ended the way I thought it was going to with the Zhenya and Nadya being together with each other in the end. I thought Ippolit was a stich since he played the humorous character, especially when he's showering with his hat and coat on in Nadya's shower. I wasn't quite sure what Zhenya's mother thought of Nadya when she sees Zhenya and Nadya hugging in her living room apartment. It must have been more approval then what she had for Galya. Overall it was what I think a romantic/comedy film would be if both of the genres were put together.

Three short films/ and some reading

The two films I could follow the most closely with was Child of the Big City and the The Dying Swan. The 1002nd Ruse I wasn't sure exactly the point of it was besides the fact that it was of a husband whose trying to follow this book of rules of what to look out for when it came to his wife who was cheating on him. A silent film carries certain potential advantages over sound by not being blunt on what exactly is happening on the screen by having speech that is heard. The actors have to express more body language and facial expressions in a silent film then they would in a film with sound. A challenge a director faces in creating a silent film is portraying the message clearly enough for the audience to understand. A challenge a viewer faces is being able to understand the storyline clearly and read the actions of the characters enough to understand the purpose of the film. My viewing strategies that have changed are reading further into the characters emotions and using clues to follow the storyline.

Mostly in reading Early Soviet Cinema I was a bit surprised how first Russian cinema never really had a chance to reach a highpoint in success because of political change and government. Then again without the challenge of the Civil War there would not have been shown the "forceful, distinctive, and revolutionary visual style of Soviet cinema."