I never quite understood how the Soviet system permitted some of these films that quickly becam e classics of their genre: The Twelve Chairs
Humor is a harmless pressure valve, why should those in power be worried by it?
The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies
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Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Californian and Texan accents might be mutually incomprehensible, but they' re not completely different languages like Ukrainian, Russian, and Belorussian.
if you know one pf the three russian/ukraininan/belorus languages you will be able to understand 99% of what is said in the other two. Source: I grew up in Ukraine
Not true. Russians can’t understand Ukrainians even 50%.
Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies
#73I wish some soviet era standup comedian material was translatable to English. The jokes were layered in the way that made them funny, even to people who only grasped the surface layer.
Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies
#74I never quite understood how the Soviet system permitted some of these films that quickly becam e classics of their genre: The Twelve Chairs
I forget the source of this, but I read that it was by design. It was understood that inconsistent censorship and oppression was actually more effective than the consistent type.
Knowing exactly what you are not allowed to say can be comforting: You trust in the rules and there is no reason to be afraid.
Add in inconsistencies and suddenly this comfort is removed. It adds an extra layer of uncertainty and fear to everything. Two people can say the same thing and only one disappears. No one knows where the line lies. It's a nasty psychological game and quite sick and twisted actually.
Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies
#75Comrade Detective - my favorite old Soviet series. On YouTube now.
It's not real. They filmed it with modern actors and wrote a script that was supposedly "in the theme of" Soviet-era crime dramas.
Also, it is "Romanian" not "Soviet". While Romania was a part of the Warsaw pact they were more open to western countries than the rest of the soviet block.
Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies
#76Strange how the meaning of "political correctness" has shifted, since it was coined to cover the deployment of "political officers" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_commissar ) enforcing adherence to communism within the Soviet military and wider society. All of these films were made under a strict political censorship system. (Russian cinema is legitimately great, though; why not watch the traditional pre-l…
It's very much a deliberate metaphor.
Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies
#77Among the Russian films with a strong political innuendo I've seen, "Welcome, no trespassing" was the sharpest and one of the most enjoyable. It's about a scout camp where the the director oppresses the children with stupid formal procedures, patriotic ceremonies, and abuses of power. I could not understand why this film was allowed, since the camp is an obvious metaphor of the USSR. I'm also surprised one of the mos…
Could you point to the IMDb link for Sayna Blues? Curious to see it but the name doesn’t match anything.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073179/
Here you go
Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are infinitely less difference between Russians, Ukrainians and Belorussians than, for example, between those Americans who live in California and Texas.
Ukraine has democracy, fair elections and also currently at war (hybrid war if you like) with Russia, so I wouldn't put it in that list.
"Democracy" in which the president has closed 3 popular TV channels with a single executive order, applies sanctions against leader of the second largest political party, and has tried to pass a clearly unconstitutional law to disband the сonstitutional сourt. "Democracy" in which the main security agency uses far-right nationalist forces to terrorize opponents [0] and fabricates a moronic political case [1] against a blogger who dares to harshly criticize the president and who is a leader of a rising political party.
"War with Russia" in which Ukrainian citizens fight against Ukrainian citizens. If you don't trust my word, just look at the lists of the latest prisoner swaps, not a single Russian citizen there. The war which has started with clearly unconstitutional use of military forces against its own citizens and in which the freshly installed government has targeted administrative buildings in the center of Lugansk with no armed rebels in it using a military plane (they have tried to launch a stupid fake about an exploded AC, but recently they have officially confirmed that it was indeed a warplane target).
Note that I do not deny Russian involvement in the Ukrainian civil war, but you do not call the Syrian civil war a "Syria-American war", do you? Foreign involvement in civil wars is more of a rule, not an exception.
[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVbe3vGOm1Q [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk2fYkPeWy4
Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies
#79Strange how the meaning of "political correctness" has shifted, since it was coined to cover the deployment of "political officers" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_commissar ) enforcing adherence to communism within the Soviet military and wider society. All of these films were made under a strict political censorship system. (Russian cinema is legitimately great, though; why not watch the traditional pre-l…
>Strange how the meaning of "political correctness" has shifted, since it was coined to cover the deployment of "political officers" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_commissar )
What makes you say that? I did a word search on your link and don't see "political correctness" in there anywhere.
Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies
#80Among the Russian films with a strong political innuendo I've seen, "Welcome, no trespassing" was the sharpest and one of the most enjoyable. It's about a scout camp where the the director oppresses the children with stupid formal procedures, patriotic ceremonies, and abuses of power. I could not understand why this film was allowed, since the camp is an obvious metaphor of the USSR. I'm also surprised one of the mos…
Production started during an era that was a slight relaxing of censorship in general in the USSR. Obviously any criticism of the Soviet system, law, government, policy, leaders, etc. was absolutely right out, but you do start to see hints of social criticism in that era. There are a rash of novels in the late 50s and 60s in that style. In fact, just the year before, Krushchev had personally ordered the publication of…
Khrushchev may have intended for the people to view this as life under his predecessors. He did believe Stalin's reign had been problematic and probably saw himself as ushering in something new. From Wikipedia[0]:
> Khrushchev believed that once the stain of Stalinism was removed, the Party would inspire loyalty among the people.[129] Beginning in October 1955, Khrushchev fought to tell the delegates to the upcoming 20th Party Congress about Stalin's crimes. Some of his colleagues, including Molotov and Malenkov, opposed the disclosure and managed to persuade him to make his remarks in a closed session. > […] > Khrushchev told the delegates:
> "It is here that Stalin showed in a whole series of cases his intolerance, his brutality, and his abuse of power ... he often chose the path of repression and physical annihilation, not only against actual enemies but also against individuals who had not committed any crimes against the party or the Soviet Government."
Sounds to me like someone who expected to be seen as ushering in a brighter future. I don't expect he would have allowed the film's release if he expected people to equate it with his own leadership. But that's just a guess.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Khrushchev#Leader_(1953...