cinema
Notes: 35
"Bolshaya Peremena" ("The Big Break"): a Cult Soviet TV Film
The line "Bang! And the second shift!" is a direct reference to a famous line from the Soviet TV film "Bolshaya Peremena" ("The Big Break"), spoken…
"Little Tragedies"
"Little Tragedies" is a three-part film by Mikhail Schweitzer, shot at Mosfilm in 1979. It is built on a free interpretation of Pushkin's novella…
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Clint Eastwood
Sergio Leone's 1966 Spaghetti Western and its star, Clint Eastwood — unknown, evidently, to a Soviet-raised film buff more familiar with…
"The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed": a Cultural Phenomenon and Its Catchphrases
"We Need to Do Something, Gleb Yegorych!"
A Feeling of Personal Animosity: the catchphrase from Soviet comedy "Mimino" behind Roman's mood
The famous courtroom line from the 1977 Soviet film "Mimino," delivered by actor Frunzik Mkrtchyan.
Afonya
The hero of the film is Afanasy Borshchev, whom everyone simply calls Afonya, a fourth-grade plumber at a municipal housing maintenance office.
Andrei Mironov: the whirlwind of Soviet comic cinema
Andrei Mironov, the whirlwind Soviet comic actor and screen Ostap Bender, whose sudden death at 46 in 1987 shook the country.
Cooperative Cinema: the low-budget boob-comedy circuit behind Kirill's Hollywood act
The rise and mechanics of Soviet and post-Soviet "cooperative cinema," a genre built on private financing, cheap production, and, often, money…
Dersu Uzala: the real taiga guide behind Roman's bitter joke about "the local Dersu Uzala"
The real Dersu Uzala, the Nanai/Udege hunter and guide who befriended explorer Vladimir Arsenyev and became the subject of Akira Kurosawa's…
Fernandel (Fernand Contandin)
The French comic actor whose enormous, horse-toothed grin was famous enough in the USSR to need no explanation when the novel invokes it.
Hooligan vs. Thug: Lev Prygunov's underworld role and the sociology of Soviet criminal slang
The Soviet film "No Right to Fail," Lev Prygunov's performance as a crime boss, and the sharp cultural distinction Soviet society drew between a…
Indiana Jones
A full article on Indiana Jones, the legendary adventurer-archaeologist. The origin, films, characters, and cultural impact of the famous franchise.
Jurassic Park
The 1993 Spielberg blockbuster that hit Russian VCRs, mostly via pirated tape, as a genuine window onto Hollywood's new special-effects age.
Lavrenty Yemelyanovich Masokha (1909-1971)
Lavrenty Yemelyanovich Masokha was one of the most vivid figures in mid-20th-century Soviet cinema, whose career became closely tied to portraying…
Lev Prygunov: the actor Roman's mother adores, and the Canadian namesake he actually meets
The life and career of Soviet character actor Lev Prygunov, painter, poet, and friend of Joseph Brodsky.
Sherlock Holmes and "English" Tallinn
For Soviet viewers, the image of London was shaped largely by the famous Sherlock Holmes television series, which depicted Victorian London using the…
Manka Obligatsiya: the "Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed" character behind a passing reference
Manka Obligatsiya, the memorable minor character from the classic 1979 Soviet crime drama "The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed."
Oleg Dal: the melancholy face of the Soviet "superfluous man"
Oleg Dal, the melancholy Soviet actor of 'superfluous men,' whose Zilov became shorthand for detached, reflective disillusionment.
Sergio Leone's Film "Once Upon a Time in America"
"Once Upon a Time in America" (Italian: C'era una volta in America) was Sergio Leone's final directorial masterpiece, released in 1984. The four-hour…
Pat and Patachon: the Comic Duo Who Conquered Silent Film
The Danish silent-film comedy duo Pat and Patachon (Fyrtårnet og Bivognen), international cinema's first "tall-and-thin, short-and-fat" double act.
Predator: the 1987 action film behind Zhorik's advice on love
The making and legacy of the 1987 Schwarzenegger film "Predator," referenced in Zhorik's warning about falling in love.
Private Svyatkin and the Film "Aty-Baty, Soldiers Were Marching": Heroes Who Never Saw Victory
"Aty-Baty, the Soldiers Marched" is a 1976 Soviet feature film, the last work Leonid Bykov directed and the last role he played on screen.
Promokashka
The sniveling small-time crook from a beloved 1979 Soviet crime miniseries, invoked to capture exactly how far the fund's once-glossy young landlord…
Scarlet Sails: the Fairy-Tale Novella and Film
The classic 1961 Soviet film the narrator reaches for to describe a stranger's dreamy expression, and why Zhorik immediately shoots the comparison…
The Deputy: Yevgeny Leonov and "Gentlemen of Fortune"
Footnote to the chapter: By the Proma Building.
The War Film "Only Old Men Go to Battle"
A detailed note on the cult Soviet film "Only Old Men Go to Battle" (1973) by director Leonid Bykov — the story of a WWII fighter squadron, the…
The Former State Duma Deputy: from Literary Image to Historical Reality
The history of deputies of Imperial Russia's tsarist State Dumas, and the fate of the character Kisa Vorobyaninov from the novel "The Twelve Chairs"…
"The Assemblers' March" ("We're No Stokers, No Carpenters")
The 1957 Soviet film song "We're Not Stokers, We're Not Carpenters," source of Zhorik's jab about Roman's taste in clothes.
Travis Bickle: a Portrait of Alienation in Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver"
Travis Bickle is the antihero of Scorsese's "Taxi Driver." An analysis of the character, his symbolism, and his influence on cinema. A portrait of…
Widescreen Picture: the Evolution of Cinema
The full history of wide-gauge cinema, from the first experiments of the 1890s to IMAX: the difference from widescreen film, the Soviet NIKFI system…
Woody Allen: the black-and-white filmmaker New York keeps reminding Roman of
The life and career of Woody Allen, the director whose New York became a genre of its own.
Soviet Screen Detectives: Zorin, Tomin, Zheglov
Ivan Sergeyevich Zorin is the protagonist of a trilogy of films by director Andrei Ladynin. The last film, "Colonel Zorin's Version," came out in…
«Гленгарри Глен Росс» — культовая драма о мире продаж
Glengarry Glen Ross — the 1992 sales-floor drama that became a dark-capitalism icon on 1990s Russian pirate VHS
Голди Джинн Хоун (Goldie Jeanne Hawn, род. 21 ноября 1945)
Goldie Hawn — the Hollywood standard of feminine beauty that reached 1990s Russia through the video-rental boom
Знакомство Остапа Бендера с Еленой Станиславовной
Знакомство Остапа Бендера с Еленой Станиславовной - по ссылке