Earlier quoted context omitted.
Try https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeen_Moments_of_Spring
Can't recommend highly enough, this is a defining movie.
Nowhere close to the Bond-style films though.
Just a fair warning to the uninitiated.
The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies
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Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies
#102any more suggestions would be most welcome
I’d be interested in pointers to Soviet equivalents of the James Bond books or films.
Soviet spy movies are like James Bond written by Checkhov :) For example, there's "The fate of the secret agent" (1970) [1] and while it depicts a spy, it's very much not a James Bond type of guy. E.g. he only gets a single woman in the movie and he actually loves her.
Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
Academy Award Winner “Burnt by the sun” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnt_by_the_Sun
I didn’t think that’s a comedy though. There’s an abundance of serious, existential, often heavy Russian films. I just saw Beanpole and felt excited about a light, genuinely funny Russian comedy. Any recommendations?
Anything by Gaidai [1]. "Kidnapping, Caucasian Style" [2] is probably the most popular or try "Operation 'Y'" [3], a movie that consist from three short novels with the same protagonist. Or, may be a good fit, his rendering of three O'Henry novels [4]: the first is the more serious one, the second is funnier but mostly conversational, and the third is burlesque action.
An example of a modern Russian comedy would be the "Yolki" series with [5] as the first installment.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0301145/ [2] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060584/ [3] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059550/ [4] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056982/ [5] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1782568/
Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies
#104I never quite understood how the Soviet system permitted some of these films that quickly becam e classics of their genre: The Twelve Chairs
The books are very pro-Soviet. The satire is directed toward people who are considered to be "behind the times": a priest depicted to be not much priesty, the former "head of local nobility", and so on. But the main protagonist somehow came out so lively that we totally sympathize with him :)
Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies
#105Strange 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…
Words can have multiple meanings. From a US perspective, this does seem weird, as "political correctness" is largely about not punching down on people who face adversity in our culture. The Russian definition seems to mean punching up; criticizing the government.
We just saw an example of how a joke about mobile game developers going out of their way to addict people was twisted into being a joke about mobile gamers, and therefore somehow directly into being racist and misogynist, and called "punching down", and used to call for boycotts and hate.
I'm sure that Soviets seventy years ago were just as convinced they were right(eous) as you are.
Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can't recommend highly enough, this is a defining movie.
Nowhere close to the Bond-style films though. Just a fair warning to the uninitiated.
For one thing, 17 moments was based on historical events: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sunrise_(World_War_I...
Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies
#107Among 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/ ).…
Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies
#108Strange 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…
Words can have multiple meanings. From a US perspective, this does seem weird, as "political correctness" is largely about not punching down on people who face adversity in our culture. The Russian definition seems to mean punching up; criticizing the government.
Clearly the Revolution and the Party serve the workers, so by challenging them you are threatening the glorious future of the Worker. In exactly the same way, the modern left uses "tolerance" and disadvantaged classes as a weapon against people they don't like.
Political correctness has always been about strengthening your hold on power.
Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies
#109Could anyone recommend comedic Russian novels or short stories? Edited to add the following: Thanks for the recommendations!
Gogol essentially invented the Russian novel, and most of his stories are very comedic. Here's a particular favourite:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_How_Ivan_Ivanovich...
and the story that influenced me to move to Russia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Government_Inspector
Whatever you do, don't miss The Nose, there's even a brilliant pinscreen animation adaptation: https://www.openculture.com/2014/09/animation-of-nikolai-gog...
Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies
#110Earlier 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…
Dude, you're just re-translating what Russian propaganda says on every channel they control 24/7 for years.
But you can't overcome the truth no matter how loud you scream.
It's the Russia who ruin everything around them to gain power and control.
This broken superpower still can't accept its loss and apologize for all evil it has done. It disrespects the world and the truth.