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Comment by georgeecollins | Hacker News Reader

If you enjoy classic Russian films, many of the Soviet era are available on YouTube including Stalker, Come and See and other unusual classics.

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Yes, many Mosfilm classics seems to be on YouTube. I recommend Assa https://youtu.be/VOeDP6eUgD0

Such crisp, captivating film making from beginning to end. I do think the Soviet era is sort of mis-characterized in Western portrayals. Compare the Assa and the recent Chernobyl, both depicting about the same era.

Also "Assa" seems like a Soviet mirror image of how Blood Simple depcits the USA.

Another great Mosfilm, Kin-Dza-Dza!. Spaceships run on matchsticks while rusty bolts are required for intergalactic travel.

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

It's much deeper than that... But honestly I don't think Western audience will appreciate the movie. It's such profoundly prophetic look at future of Russia after collapse of USSR.

For many non Russians I know this is the first film that comes to their mind when I ask what Russian/USSR movies they have seen. Kindzadza is not only about particular country. It show wide set of social issues even in modern world.

I love it after stumbling upon it somehow. (Non-ex-USSR-ian here.)

‘Assa’ is about the end of the Soviet era and the coming of Perestroika youth. I haven't seen ‘Chernobyl’ yet, but I doubt I'm gonna see many Perestroika youth among the people at the plant.

There were a lot of movies in the late 80s and the early-mid 90s about the life of lower-class people in the crumbling USSR/Russia of that time: from simple depressing realistic depictions to surrealistic transgressions, simply because all these kinds of expression became permissible. ‘Assa’ is essentially a fantasy about the zeitgeist. USSR functionaries weren't forgotten of course, but their portrayals flipped upside down—there isn't a single point of view on the Soviet time, and ‘Chernobyl’ likely just has a different perspective.

I'm gonna bet, though, that execs in ‘Chernobyl’ are close-ish to Krymov of ‘Assa’, at least as I will see them.

By the way, funny thing: in a podcast by Russian cinema critics on Western films about Russia, someone remarked that no matter how much effort the crew puts into researching details, something always gives away the fictional and foreign nature of the work. In ‘Chernobyl’, one such moment is when a woman goes against a committee of bureaucrats and tells them how wrong they are. (Again, IDK what actually happens in the scene.)

>By the way, funny thing: in a podcast by Russian cinema critics on Western films about Russia, someone remarked that no matter how much effort the crew puts into researching details, something always gives away the fictional and foreign nature of the work. In ‘Chernobyl’, one such moment is when a woman goes against a committee of bureaucrats and tells them how wrong they are.

It all comes down to expecting that another society will obey one's own sensibilities.

George R. R. Martin has talked about how so many fantasy works based on medieval Europe have a scene in which the brave boy and spunky girl sassily talk back to the powerful lord. As Martin puts it, what really would have happened is that the boy would have been killed, and the girl would have been raped then killed.

Tangential, but the "Most Replayed" feature on you tube makes me really not want to watch movies on there. Every-time I mouse over the scrubber a graph shows up that shows me exactly what the most rewatched section is, so for instance I immediately know there's an important scene 20 minutes into Assa.

Well thanks: I haven't paid any attention to that ‘feature’ before, but now I will inevitably notice it sometime.

Hopefully I can kill it with CSS via Stylish.

“Something important happens at 17:81, th-“

Ugh, no spoilers, you’ve ruined the movie for me now…

Couldn't it plausibly just be a confusing scene, or have difficult-to-understand dialog? I can think of several things other than importance that might correlate with users re-playing a scene.

Another good one:

Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears: https://youtu.be/NTWA_7-ld_U

> Yes, many Mosfilm classics seems to be on YouTube

This seems to vary a lot. I just checked and there were several Moscfilm films available (including Stalker) but I'm pretty sure I checked this about 6 months ago and there weren't many available - some were available for rent, but not free view.

That's because they have 2 accounts a russian and a global english one.

Russian https://www.youtube.com/c/MosfilmRuOfficial

Global https://www.youtube.com/c/Mosfilm_eng

Usually both channels have subtitles but generally the global one is burnt-in while the russian one is selectable from the Youtube interface. Also the russian channel has much much more uploads.

And movies differ too to some extent. For example, Solaris is a single title in the global english channel (restored vesion) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8ZhQPaw4rE

Whereas it's 2 part title as it was originally back then (2 reels)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-4KydP92ss

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXa6XpaxBS0

Last but not least check geoblocking https://polsy.org.uk/stuff/ytrestrict.cgi For example Solaris is geoblocked in the US, both versions

https://polsy.org.uk/stuff/ytrestrict.cgi?ytid=https%3A%2F%2...

Another great resource is rutracker.org, which has active torrents of media dating all the way back to shortly after the turn of the century.

If somebody is looking for a wonderful series, 17 Moments of Spring (Семнадцать мгновений весны) is an amazing series about the end of WW2 and the international tug-of-war largely between the USSR and USA to determine the fate of Germany, from the perspective of an individual who inside of Germany at the time. One of the few series I've watched multiple times.

How historically accurate do you think it is?

Enough to spark a historical curiosity, certainly not enough to sate it. The broad strokes storyline is accurate, and most of the main characters (excepting the protagonist) are also generally historically accurate. It also has some interesting allusions to characters like Müller who disappeared at the end of the war and remains the highest ranking Nazi whose fate was never determined. However the storyline and details of such are fiction.

The real beauty of the show is simply in the people and the dialog and discussions. It hits on issues that are timeless in such a concise and elegant way. This [2] is one of my favorite dialogues/scenes from the series. And it's that which makes it such a great series. The pacing is excellent, the story is great, and all of that. But the series just provides such amazing dialogues, even absent all context, over and over.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_M%C3%BCller_(Gestapo)

[2] - https://youtu.be/SfSW14ZVn8o?list=PLA6274B0CEF58CEB0&t=294

I thought a lot of the Soviet classics got taken down when Youtube deleted a bunch of Russian accounts earlier this year. Am I imagining things?

$1000 reward to anyone who can get my eyes on the uncut Andrei Rublev.

Criterion has both the The Passion According to Andrei clocking at 3:25:55 and Andrei Rublev at 3:03:12, this last being the closest to Tarkovsky’s preferred version.

I haven't heard of Andrei Rublev being cut. Which part was cut?

"I made some cuts myself. In the first version the film was 3 hours 20 minutes long. In the second — 3 hours 15 minutes. I shortened the final version to 3 hours 6 minutes. I am convinced the latest version is the best, the most successful."

It's the pre-cut original version shown to the CCCP we'll never see. Had they approved it first pass we would have had a wildly different movie.

I’m not sure why you’re not crediting the uncut original 1966 version of the film titled as The Passion According to Andrei which is available in The Criterion Collection released in 2018 in both DVD and Blu-Ray. It is also available in The Criterion Channel. Are you saying that The Passion is not the pre-cut version and if so, can you provide a reference?

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