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The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

thecritic.co.uk

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Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#91

Post by pandaman »

idoubtit wrote: post #22

Among 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…

Allegories were pretty safe in the USSR. The problem with censoring an allegory is that to recognize it as an anti-soviet one is also to confirm the existance of the subject it's exposing. When the official stance is "there is no such thing" you'd be risking an "anti-soviet propaganda" charge yourself.

Edit: The most clear example I can recall is the "Alexander Nevskiy" film (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029850/). It's a historical drama about the early Russia's struggle against foreign invasions. The titular character makes a Bible reference at one point ("Who will come at us with the sword will die by the sword" referencing Mat 26:52) but since it's not a direct quote, somebody censoring this would have to admit reading the Bible and would be in danger oneself. So the quote remained in the film and most people recognize the reference.

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#92

Post by rainydaybook »

pjc50 wrote: post #10

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 ) 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…

I have to disagree a bit, even when I was watching the movie on Soviet TV, when there was nothing else on for weeks or months, I was always bored to tears by 'White Sun of Desert'. To be fair, acting and characters are pretty good, but not very exciting otherwise..

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#93

Post by zhenyakovalyov »

colordrops wrote: post #20

One of my favorite movies of all time is Kin Dza Dza. It's a low budget comedy sci-fi movie with amazing ideas and a surreal aesthetic, and is quite funny and gets better with each watch. It's a subtle criticism of the soviet union in the era before its fall. You'll be saying "Kuuuu" for days after watching it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin-dza-dza ! Edit: just noticed a critic quoted on wikipedia called it "Ma…

i second this. i was looking for a well translated version to be able to share it with my english speaking friends, but the official translations do not seem to convey the idiosyncratic language that is used in the movie.

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#94

Post by rainydaybook »

Spinnaker_ wrote: post #74
cosmodisk wrote: post #30

I 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 eve…

Lol, a simple explanation is always far more likely than an intricately complex one: that censorship is subjective and was enacted by different people with varying tastes and preferences, guided by vague and contradictory directions from above that would shift depending on changes in political direction, membership of the Politburo, etc etc.

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#95

Post by rainydaybook »

tjalfi wrote: post #41

Could anyone recommend comedic Russian novels or short stories? Edited to add the following: Thanks for the recommendations!

12 Chairs + Golden Calf by Ilf and Petroff; A dog's heart and Master and Margarita by Boulgakoff. I've heard Zosh'enko was also considered very funny at the time, but I'm not sure how well his stuff has aged..

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#96

Post by VladimirGolovin »

rektide wrote: post #3

any more suggestions would be most welcome

The article talks mostly about lighter-hearted movies, but I'd still want to recommend my favorite examples of "burdensome beauty" (as they put it) by Tarkovsky:

"Зеркало" (The Mirror): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYZhXm02kN0

"Сталкер" (Stalker): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGRDYpCmMcM

"Андрей Рублев" (Andrei Rublev): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6kqlveBhVY

And, if you're into Slavic cinema in general, I'd also recommend "Life is a Miracle" by Emir Kusturica: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0322420/ -- he's not a Russian director, but he is fantastic.

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#97

Post by ilyagr »

colordrops wrote: post #20

One of my favorite movies of all time is Kin Dza Dza. It's a low budget comedy sci-fi movie with amazing ideas and a surreal aesthetic, and is quite funny and gets better with each watch. It's a subtle criticism of the soviet union in the era before its fall. You'll be saying "Kuuuu" for days after watching it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin-dza-dza ! Edit: just noticed a critic quoted on wikipedia called it "Ma…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYHv8eJrW2Y

This has English subtitles.

At a glance, they seem quite good, which is, in a way, hilarious. English speakers, when you see

"Without gravitsappa the pepelats can only fly like this"

it is a good translation, and you are getting the authentic Kin-Dza-Dza experience.

----

On second look, though,

"Guys, how do you roll out the pepelats without the gravitsappa? Not good."

should really be

"Guys, how do you take the pepelats out of the garage without a gravitsappa? Not good."

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#99

Post by rkantbe »

fuoqi wrote: post #78
rkantbe wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The funny thing is that I'm from Luhansk and you are just parroting russian propaganda, Russia lost control over Ukraine when Yanukovich had run away, and at first annexed Crimea and then started a war in eastern Ukraine, Girkin (Strelkov) himself takes responsibility of starting the war who is russian, but his just a Kremlin's puppet. Anyway, please, stop spreading russian propaganda

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#100

Post by colordrops »

zhenyakovalyov wrote: post #93
colordrops wrote: post #20

One of my favorite movies of all time is Kin Dza Dza. It's a low budget comedy sci-fi movie with amazing ideas and a surreal aesthetic, and is quite funny and gets better with each watch. It's a subtle criticism of the soviet union in the era before its fall. You'll be saying "Kuuuu" for days after watching it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin-dza-dza ! Edit: just noticed a critic quoted on wikipedia called it "Ma…

i second this. i was looking for a well translated version to be able to share it with my english speaking friends, but the official translations do not seem to convey the idiosyncratic language that is used in the movie.

If the translations are losing a lot of meaning, then that just shows how great the movie is, because my native English speaking friends and I love it.
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