Ночной дозор

I don't really know what to say about this movie to be totally honest and upfront. For me this is one of the more confusing movies we have seen in our class. This movie was like a cross between Star wars, Twilight, Lord of the Rings, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer all thrown into one. This was vary tough to watch and try and follow by the end I did start to figure things out but it took most of the movie to get to that point. Through out the movie we find the Light and the Dark looking for the chosen one who will tilt the tide to one side or the other. At the beginning of the movie we find two armies fighting. the leader of the light comes to conclude that bother sides are equally matched. the sign a truce that the night would watch the day and the day would watch the night until a chosen one will chose a side and tilt the balance. At the end of the movie we find a young boy Yegor choosing the dark side. I believe he chooses the dark side pretty easily because he finds out the anton tries to kill him. I'm going to be upfront I did not really care for the movie. I am curious as to how the others movies will turn out, but this was a tough movie to follow.

Возвращение

Today's film was a real shocker for me! I really enjoyed the whole thing. The whole movie left you wondering what was going to happen next. I also liked that the movie takes after the 2 brothers. Early in the movie their father comes back into their lives unexpected. The father decides to take the two brothers Andrey and Ivan on a camping trip fishing. Ivan and Andrey decide to keep a diary of their trip so they will remember it, and I think this is where I enjoyed the movie. The movie goes through as if it were a diary day by day. I also found it interesting that it seemed Ivan Hated his father for leaving, but that Andrey seemed to idolize his father. We also find out early on the Ivan is afraid of heights. Their father takes them to an island, and shows them an old tower that shows the whole island. Through out the movie the father is vary mysterious and while on the island goes to an old house and digs up a chest. He then takes it to the boat and hides it. I can't help but wonder where he had been all those years and what was in the box that he had hidden in the boat. The whole movie left me wondering what happened? you never find out who the father was, or where or what he was doing all of the years he was gone. It was as if he felt he had to come back and show the boys tough love for a short time and leave again. I found the file vary enjoyable but also leaving me with many questions.

Брат

Today's film was a vary good, although it felt more like a documentary to me. I feel this way because of how the characters acted. I felt like they were more documenting what was going on than acting it out. Danila to me in a round about way is an Honorable man. Through out the movie he never goes back on his word. If he says I will let you live he lets you live. I think if the circumstances had been different he could be a good man living a decent life. Instead his brother gets him caught up in this ring and he ends up having to make decisions to help out his brother. Through out the movie he tells every one he was a clerk during the war. I find this hard to believe. Almost every thing he does seems more like he was in an elite group in the army. I get the feeling he is unhappy through out the movie. He has to tough decision but he never shows any emotion when he does have to kill. This was a movie that made it so you never wanted to look away. I hope every one enjoyed it!

Little Vera

Fridays film I have to say was one of the more interesting films we have seen in class so far. I am not sure how I feel about the film if I lean one way or the other on it. Vera was an interesting character in the film. She is a rebelling teen who falls in love with a man named Sergei. Sergei moved in with Vera family, but he does not care for the abusive father. Twords the end of the Film the father of Vera and Sergei get into a fight while the father is drunk, and the father ends up stabbing Sergei. By the reaction of the class I don't think any one was expecting it to happen. For me it was a tough movie to watch. I think the whole family had issues they had to work on from alcohol to anger. Im curious to see what every one else thinks of this film.

Москва слезам не верит

In the movie Москва слезам не верит (Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears) we find a group of women wanting more. In this movie we learn much about Russian people. To be honest I kind of found that they are proud of their culture but in a way are more like the United States than they will ever admit. We find that this group of friends dream of living a better life of riches and becoming movie or TV stars. Two of these friends Katerina and Atonina go to take care of a dog for a long weekend for family and lying about there status and how they live to 2 men. I found that through out the film all these 2 women wanted was to live I guess what we would call the easy life. Unfortunately Katerina becomes Pregnant and the man she becomes involved with leaves her, and I found it interesting that even in the Russian society at the time that men are still that way. During the 2nd half of the movie Katerina meets a man on the metro and falls in love with him. I found it interesting that they both did not like dirty shoes but fell in love after only a few days. I really enjoyed this movie and am looking forward to the class discussion in the morning.

Иваново детство

In the movie Иваново детство (Ivan's Childhood) we find a young boy trying to be strong under extraordinary circumstances. At the vary beginning of the film we meet Ivan who is with his mother and running around playing as a child should. Soon after this his mother gets killed, and we find Ivan trying to make it through a swamp behind enemy lines. He is soon found and taken to if I am remembering correct a captain of the Russian Army. We soon find out the Ivan has become a spy. Because he is young he is able to get behind the German lines without getting noticed. Through out the rest of the film we find Ivan in some overwhelming circumstances. The men who are having him sneak behind the lines eventually want him to stop and go to a military school, Ivan does not like this idea and makes it vary well known. Ivan feels that he can do a better job at recon than he was doing and if they would not let him he would run away. What I wondered through the movie is what let him to becoming a spy? I may have missed this. We do also find his picture at the end of the movie in one of hitlers bunkers. I am not sure if he was also spying on the Russian's as well? This was a vary interesting movie, for me I still have mixed feelings about it. I hope to read some of the other class blogs and see how every one else felt about this film.

Зеркало

Today's movie Зеркало (The Mirror) for me was a tough movie to try and figure out and to watch. It was interesting but I don't think there really was a plot in the movie. At the beginning we meet a boy who is being examined by a Doctor. The Doctor is trying to make it so that the boy will not stutter. The way she is talking to the boy makes it sound like he is in a trance. I am not sure where this fits into the rest of the movie. Quickly after this seen we find a woman sitting on a fence watching a man walk by. This man comes up and starts to talk to her and introduces himself as a Doctor also. I am not sure if there is a tie between these two scenes or not? This movie also bounces back and fourth between postwar and war time. I have been trying to figure out this film for most of the day. I am hoping that the disscusstion in class will help clear it up.

Баллада о солдате

I would have to say that Баллада о солдате ( Ballad of a Soldier) is my favorite movie so far in class. I also thought it was one of the sadder of the movies also. At the beginning of the movie we meet a young man Alyosha Skvortsov scared and running from a group of tanks. He falls into a fox hole and ends up finding a gun and blowing up 2 German tanks. In the midst of this his general says he is going to nominate him for a medal. Alyosha asks if instead of the medal he can have time to go home and fix a leaking roof for his mother. The General in turn gives him 6 days get home fix the roof and come back. On his trip home we find that Alyosha is a very honorable man.
The first nice thing we see him do is help a wounded solder who is missing a leg carry his luggage and get home to his wife. he then hops a military cargo train where he bribes a guard to ride the train part of the way home. On this train he meets a young girl Shura who he falls in love with. on this trip he makes many stops and helps a lot of people along with Shura. He eventually parts with Shura at a train station and he regrets leaving her. All the rest of the trip he dreams of her. He gets home and only gets to spend a short amount of time with his mother, because he had helped and stopped so many times along the way. It is a sad movie because we never really find out what happens to Alyosha or Shura. I assume he was probably killed. I really enjoyed this movie and I hope every one else did as much as I did.

Утомлённые солнцем

I really enjoyed today's film, I hope every one else did as well! to be honest I did not really know what to expect through out the movie. Each time I thought I knew what was going to happen something different would happen, to me it made to movie much more enjoyable. For me it was not until about the last 15 to 20 minutes that I figured out what was going to happen.
At the beginning of Утомлённые солнцем we meet a character named Sergei, a highly commended Colneral in the russian army. Through out the movie we find out the he is a kind man who loves his family deeply and is loved by the people. Part way in to the movie we meet Mitya, a man who kind of dissapeard for 10 years. It turns out he is НКВД (NKVD). During the movie Mitya we think is this nice man, he plays with Sergei's daughter and teaches her piano and also how to dance. They seem to make him out to be this upstanding man who in turn hurts Sergei's whole family. This movie really makes you think about that time era. It makes you relize that you could not trust any one even the people in your own family. For me the ending was sad when they did take Sergei off in the black car. I am still not totally sure as to why they took Sergei to begin with. I may have just missed that in the movie it is hard to try and keep up reading so many subtitals.

Цирк

I would have to say that I really enjoyed the movie Цирk (Circus) today in class. I thought I would point out something that most people might over look in the movie. At the beginning of the movie we are introduced to a character whom we should all know, but they do not say by name. He's a quiet man who tends to get himself into mischief. The person or character I am refering to is Charlie Chaplin. He appears as Marion is about to be shot out of the cannon. He then grabs the cannon and is hanging in mid air; it kind of reminded me of Harold Lloyed hanging from a clock tower in Safety Last. These 2 characters are 2 prominent actors in the United States and I think this was Soviet Russia's way of making fun of western movies at the time. Right after Marion is shot out of the cannon you can see Charlie in the background, as if he is trying to steal the show. He is also in the scene where the villian Von Kneishitz is getting ready for the show, and he is blowing up this under suit that Von Kneishitz is wearing. I can't help but wonder about the role that this character might be playing and what deeper meaning that it might portray.
I also, at the end of the movie, laughed to myself when they say that only in Russia do you have these freedoms, as they are marching in Reds Square.

Чапаев

Todays movie for me was a little harder to follow than the other movies. It was a good movie, but hard for me to get into. One of the things that really stood out for me though was Anka. I know in history, Russia was one of the first countries to really use women in combat. For as early of a movie as this is, I found it really interesting that they would have her manning a machine gun. I think this would have been a big deal even in the USSR at the time. I am kind of curious to see what the reaction might have been to this when it first appeared on the silver screen. When the man she is manning the gun with dies she takes it apon herself to hold off an attack from the white army. It, in sorts, makes her a kind of a hero of the moment.
One of the other things I noticed me being the person that I am, there is not a huge musical score in this movie. There are some marches and some music here and there, but I found a lot of the music comes from the actors themselves. I did notice they tend to sing throughout the movie.

Man with the Movie Camera

again one of the things I noticed in the movie was the music, I know it was not the piece that would have been played at the time. I think it added a lot to the movie though. if I remember correct though prof Isham said it was written according to notes to the movie. with the music it added almost a metronome effect to the movie. it was like it moved the movie along the camera would flash what the Soviets thought was good like, where the women were covered. then it would flash to another woman where she was topless and putting on makeup showing off her body. time also seems to slow for a wedding, but after the wedding every things seems to go awire, and its as if the camera is showing that the wedding only leads to divorce. this movie was hard to follow but it was a vary interesting movie.

3 silent films

I kind of want to talk about something different about the silent films that I don't think will get covered a whole lot in class. After watching the 3 films I began to notice differences in the music that was being played. I was a Music Education major up until last semester so I tend to notice weird things like these. In the first movie we watched, A Child of the Big City, the whole thing was played by piano and the mood nor the tempo really changed throughout the movie. I really want to point out that in the 3rd movie we watched with the ballerina Gizelle, every time she appeared a theme was played. I am sure many of you have heard it at some point in your lives; for me I have even played it a few times. It is entitled Le Cygne (1866) by Camille Saint-Saens, but most people will know the piece as "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" rewritten by Andrew Lloyed Webber for The Phantom of the Opera. Almost every time Gizelle appeared in her ballerina outfit this movement would play. I found it very interesting that movies this early were already using this kind of music. Music adds a lot to a movie and can help to interpret how a person might be feeling. The music will be sad and slow when some one is unhappy, or for instance when Gizelle dances the music is somber. Other times music can set the mood for agitation or great joy. From the three movies as a whole, this was the most interesting aspect that stood out to me.

Irony of Fate Part 2

I would have to say comming into this class I did not really know what to expect from it. I was pleasantly surprised with this first movie. It had a lot of dry humor but was still vary funny. the whole movie was like a revolving door. it seemed as if every few minues some one was comming in the door to the apartment. In the 2nd half of the film they really portray that Zhenya was really starting to fall for Nadya, but also that she was still really hesistant twords letting her feelings out. At the end of the movie I did find it fun that Zhenya's friends did not have any idea what was going on, and how they looked at eachother puzzled that he was with a different women than they thought. I really enjoyed this movie. I have some friends in Russia and I am going to see if they can track this movie down and mail me a copy.

Irony of Fate part 1

In Irony of Fate: Part One I have been very surprised. Knowing what I do about the Cold War and this time frame, this is not the type of movie I thought we would be watching. I was surprised to find this movie to be a comedy of sorts. The doctor, Zhenya, goes to a bath house with his friends to clean up for the New Year, and they end up getting drunk. Following these events he ends up in Moscow in a stranger’s flat he believes to be his own. Upon her return to her apartment, Nadya comes to find Zhenya passed out in her bed. They begin to argue back and forth on who is in the wrong place and who is not. To me this is not the type of film I would picture taking place during the mid 1970s. I had always pictured their movies during this time to be more aimed toward propaganda films rather than comedy.