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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

#111

Post by throw11711 »

ojnabieoot wrote: post #12

The “political incorrectness” angle is really an unnecessary and very stupid aside that tarnishes an otherwise decent piece: > Nor could [Office Romance] be much less politically correct. One can only imagine what a modern HR-manager would make of Office Romance, of its “power-imbalances”, “problematic” attitudes and “inappropriate” behaviour. That said, the same HR-manager should at least pause to wonder what, in do…

Yeah you are correct and as usual on HN when it comes to these things, you got downvoted. These kinda coercions by people in power are rampant. Just as an example, here is something from Silicon Valley's crown jewel Google.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/technology/google-sexual-...

https://qz.com/work/1326942/sergey-brin-started-google-with-...

It's the victims that suffer because they report.

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#112

Post by throw11711 »

Here are the official free YouTube links to most of the films mentioned in this thread, all have english subtitles:

'Sauna Blues' aka 'The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath! (1975)': Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVpmZnRIMKs

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TmGPeowN-0

Other good films: Kin-dza-dza! (1986): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYHv8eJrW2Y

Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession (1973): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a50qT9bW2Qo

Welcome, or No Trespassing (1964): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-r9XNmqQHk

Bootleggers (1961) (doesn't have dialogue, so no subs): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_-ehagcrBg

The Most Charming and Attractive (1985): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7PbeasXUbM

All have english subtitles.

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#113

Post by throw11711 »

andrei_says_ wrote: post #69
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…

Could you point to the IMDb link for Sayna Blues? Curious to see it but the name doesn’t match anything.

You can watch 'Sauna Blues' aka 'The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath! (1975)' for free with subtitles on YouTube here:

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVpmZnRIMKs

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TmGPeowN-0

Other good films: Kin-dza-dza! (1986): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYHv8eJrW2Y

Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession (1973): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a50qT9bW2Qo

Welcome, or No Trespassing (1964): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-r9XNmqQHk

Bootleggers (1961): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_-ehagcrBg

The Most Charming and Attractive (1985): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7PbeasXUbM

All have english subtitles.

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#114

Post by throw11711 »

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…

You can watch 'Welcome, or No Trespassing' (1964) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-r9XNmqQHk

Kin-dza-dza! (1986): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYHv8eJrW2Y

'Sauna Blues' aka 'The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath! (1975)': Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVpmZnRIMKs

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TmGPeowN-0

Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession (1973): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a50qT9bW2Qo

Bootleggers (1961): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_-ehagcrBg

The Most Charming and Attractive (1985): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7PbeasXUbM

All have english subtitles.

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#115

Post by SiempreViernes »

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…

Well, political correctness in that context is a term deployed by people opposing greater respect for minorities and such, so the pejorative association is intended. Nobody uses that term to describe their own work.

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#116

Post by osacial »

option wrote: post #81
rkantbe wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool, canadians and australians understand each other quite well too, what's your point?

my point is that those aren’t completely different languages by any stretch of imagination

These languages have similar grammar, because they all have evolved from Old Church Slavonic, but Russian had different path of evolution, where it has gained a lot of Turkic vocabulary among others.

I know Russian on native level and have visited friends in Lviv. Sure it is possible for me with Russian language to understand some things and with what I know it would be very easy to LEARN Ukrainian, but I don't live among Ukrainians, so I can't understand 90% of anything when I am watching something on yt when Urainians start to talk in moiva. I think, that there is a bigger chance for Polish people to understand Ukrainians, that for speakers of Russian.

It looks like your observation applies to Russians, who are already living in Ukraine and have some grasp of Ukrainian.

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#117

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

option wrote: post #60
HDMI_Cable wrote: post #57

Earlier 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

This is not the case at all. Russian speakers can understand stock Ukrainian phrases used in jokes and the Ukrainian-Russian mixed language known as surzhyk, but when Russians are presented with samples of purer Ukrainian, like Shevchenko's poetry, intelligibility drops significantly.

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#118

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

osacial wrote: post #116
option wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

my point is that those aren’t completely different languages by any stretch of imagination

These languages have similar grammar, because they all have evolved from Old Church Slavonic, but Russian had different path of evolution, where it has gained a lot of Turkic vocabulary among others. I know Russian on native level and have visited friends in Lviv. Sure it is possible for me with Russian language to understand some things and with what I know it would be very easy to LEARN Ukrainian, but I don't live…

They didn't evolve from Old Church Slavonic. OCS was an artificial South Slavic literary standard based on the language from around Thessaloniki, as spoken by Cyrill and Methodius's mission. Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian are East Slavic languages, a different branch of the family. Indeed, they all have a common ancestor in Proto-Slavic, but the relationship of Russian etc. and OCS is one of cousins, not parent-child.

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#119

Post by JoeAltmaier »

woobar wrote: post #75
moron4hire wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It was a satellite, under Soviet dominion and dominated by Soviet politics. But sure lets split hairs.

Re: The blissful political incorrectness of Soviet comedies

#120

Post by JoeAltmaier »

moron4hire wrote: post #46
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #45

Comrade 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.

And marketed it as a 'lost Soviet era series' for some reason. I wonder why folks feel the need to do things like that.
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