|
trained-pianist
|
 |
« on: 16:57:48, 12-09-2008 » |
|
There is very good dramatization of Bulgakov's play The Master and Margarita. I don't know if it is available with English subtitles.
I saw it in Russian and it was very good. I loved it so much (almost more than the book, but not really).
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
opilec
|
|
« Reply #1 on: 22:48:17, 19-09-2008 » |
|
There is very good dramatization of Bulgakov's play The Master and Margarita. I don't know if it is available with English subtitles.
I saw it in Russian and it was very good. I loved it so much (almost more than the book, but not really). t-p, I think this may be the one I've seen recently: a ten-part mini-series? It was directed by Vladimir Bortko, and the date on it is 2005. I agree it's very good: fairly comprehensive and faithful to the novel, in ways that a normal-length film couldn't possibly be. And there are some marvellous performances, notably Oleg Basilashvili as Woland/Satan, Aleksandr Abdulov as Koroviev/Fagot and Anna Kovalchuk as Margarita. But the show-stopping performance for me was the late Kirill Lavrov as Pontius Pilate. Margarita's Ride and Satan's Ball were a bit disappointing, but the Moscow scenes in general seemed well done, even though some of the secondary characters were trimmed back a bit. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stanley Stewart
|
|
« Reply #3 on: 13:46:31, 20-09-2008 » |
|
A real favourite with me is the Maxim Gorky Trilogy: My Childhood, My Apprenticeship and My Universities. I used to see it regularly at the Everyman, Hampstead, in the 1960s. Black and white, in ropey prints. I've kept an eye on European distribution for remastered prints but it has disappeared. Any clues out there?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
trained-pianist
|
|
« Reply #4 on: 14:02:41, 20-09-2008 » |
|
My favourite used to be Gogol's Dead Souls and Griboedov Woe from Wit.
They are a little like Molier (especially Griboedov).
They are satire on conditions in Zarist Russia. I think Inspector Governor is based on the Woe from Wit, but I am not sure.
There are often discussions on TV about significance of different writers.
I heard two programs. In the first they discussed Solzhenitsyn writing. Majority on the panel thought that he lost his significance in Russian literature. Only priest was against that. The other accused him of being bias because Solzhenitsyn loved Russian church. Tolstoy on the other hand is not accepted by church.
The other program was about Mayakovsky (poet). There was more even division with regard to his poetry.
|
|
|
|
« Last Edit: 14:11:19, 20-09-2008 by trained-pianist »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Antheil
|
|
« Reply #5 on: 16:58:14, 21-09-2008 » |
|
A real favourite with me is the Maxim Gorky Trilogy: My Childhood, My Apprenticeship and My Universities. I used to see it regularly at the Everyman, Hampstead, in the 1960s. Black and white, in ropey prints. I've kept an eye on European distribution for remastered prints but it has disappeared. Any clues out there?
Stanley, it (well at least one of them) appears to exist: http://www.russiandvd.com/store/product.asp?sku=30193&lang=engIt is also at Amazon.com but that is Region 1 format only. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
|
|
|
|
Stanley Stewart
|
|
« Reply #6 on: 17:29:09, 21-09-2008 » |
|
Eureka, Anty! Thank you, I'll pursue.
I've also unearthed an off-air copy of a masterpiece: Andrei Tarkovsky's 1966 film "Andrei Rublev", screened by BBC 2, in proper widescreen format, in their BBC 100 'Best' Season, (1995).
Rublev lived in an age of violence unequalled in Russia's turbulent history. As he journeys through feudal Russia, circa 1400AD, his experiences teach him to break away from the tenets of his teacher. While Theophanes the Greek believed art should terrify men into repentance, Rublev's icons radiate profound spirituality and divine grace.
The film is divided into eight episodes and runs to almost three hours and changes from black and white photography to a stunning montage of colour to show Rublev's works. Anatoly Solonitsin plays the 15th century icon painter and, mercifully, the film is in Russian dialogue with English subtitles.
Another 'definite' for DVD transfer from a top-heavy list.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Ron Dough
|
|
« Reply #7 on: 17:36:03, 21-09-2008 » |
|
That's an absolutely superb fim, Stanley - the change from monochrome to colour is almost overwhelming, and there for a reason, unlike the colour sequences in Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible, which occur whenever he could source coloured stock.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Stanley Stewart
|
|
« Reply #8 on: 20:10:00, 21-09-2008 » |
|
# 5 Thank you. A most useful link, Anty. The Russian DVD Co is USA based and Region 1 copies will be no problem as I have a 'Universal - All Region player'. Price range not too bad but I wish they'd transferred the whole trilogy on, say, a couple of DVDs. I'm going to check their shipping charges.
Further, I see that the Russian 1969 'Tchaikovsky' is also available on 2 DVD.s - and Innokenti Smoktunovskij (Hamlet in the Russian film version) is in the cast. Smouldering! Re the Ken Russell film, "The Music Lovers" (1970), on the life of Tchaikovsky, I'll quit this thread and contribute separately.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
trained-pianist
|
|
« Reply #9 on: 20:18:26, 21-09-2008 » |
|
Smoktunovsky was a very good Hamlet. Vysotsky was also food Hamlet. They both were very popular. http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=QJVsuq0tt24This is "to be or not to be". |
|
|
|
« Last Edit: 20:24:04, 21-09-2008 by trained-pianist »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Stanley Stewart
|
|
« Reply #10 on: 21:33:29, 21-09-2008 » |
|
Thank you, t.p. I hadn't seen Visotsky's work before and have a hunch that he is probably a compulsive actor on stage and film. I saw traces of Nicol Williamson who has a similar intensity.
I did see Smoktunovsky a couple of times as Hamlet in the film version at London's Academy Cinema and remember his vivid performance. Seeing it in a language I do not understand, although familiar with the play, stretches the mind in terms of flexibility. A stark performance in a black and white film.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
trained-pianist
|
|
« Reply #11 on: 21:55:11, 21-09-2008 » |
|
Mr Stanley Stewart, Now you understand how I am listening to Shakespeare. I understand English a little, but when I listen to Shakespeare I usually just have an idea what it is about. Some times I even appreciate the beauty of the language. It surprises me. But to listen to something that you know well in another language is interesting. Vysotsky was very compulsive person in general. He had such a sensitive soul. He always had problem with drinking. At the end he had problem with drug addiction. He was very sick at the end, but kept performing. He persuaded doctors to let him go from the hospital. Theater was on tour and he joined theater for performance. One can say that he died on stage. Marina Vlady came to the funeral and here she is back at his grave again. She was his second wife (I know he had one wife and a son and Marina Vlady was his second wife.) She tried to help him. http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=hCAYChZ62MUThe words in the song say that she is going to sing all the words to the end. Smoktunovsky is a very popular actor, but Vysotsky is a cult in itself. May be there is DVD where he plays with English subtitles. |
|
|
|
« Last Edit: 22:07:29, 21-09-2008 by trained-pianist »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Stanley Stewart
|
|
« Reply #12 on: 23:14:12, 21-09-2008 » |
|
Thank you so much, t-p. Isn't Marina Vlady fabulous? A mix of Marlene Dietrich, Vanessa Redgrave and Melina Mercouri! A heady mixture.
Indeed, I empathised with you when watching the magnetic Visotsky - our roles were reversed.
Grateful, too, for the background notes you provided.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Reiner Torheit
|
|
« Reply #13 on: 09:18:13, 22-09-2008 » |
|
I can't say I'm a great Vysotsky fan, although I seem to know most of the songs  I often think that in a strange way he "emerged" from what Vertinsky (another of Russia's social outcasts) was doing in the 30s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeM5TDXR3hUThe music of my mispelled youth  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUDv9DEfxAcAnd the same in a mad Balkanised cover by cult Moldovan folk-rockers Zdob-Si-Zdub: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PF6P66UpUII suppose Vystosky is the "way in" for the "blatnie pesny" ("criminal songs") of singers like Mikhail Krug, who picked-up Vysotsky's themes of the grim underside of soviet life and ran with them... fusing ironic cheerful nightclub tunes with ghastly stories of robbery, violence, and imprisonment. (Ironically Krug himself was murdered by exactly the kind of criminals he'd sung about). I suppose we ought to mention "BG" too... |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
|
|
|
|
trained-pianist
|
|
« Reply #14 on: 09:50:13, 22-09-2008 » |
|
I am not Vysotsky great fan too. In fact it took me many years to try to listen to his songs. My mother and her brother listened to recordings that were made on old recording machine. The sound was awful. I had aversion to his voice. I think I know most of his songs now. I can not find the one about the wolf who is surrounded by hunters. I can not find English translation of the song. Vertinsky was an immigrant. My grandmother knew him and she used to sing some of his songs. This is how I know him. The song on the site is the one she liked to sing. "Where is that summer? ...." He returned to the Soviet Union and I don't think he was killed. He had two beautiful daughters and both were famous actresses. Do you know them? I don't know others singers. They are too new for me. Zdob is not bad. Thanks, Reiner. Who is BG? I can not guess. There is adaptation of Pushkin Ruslan and Ludmila with English subtitles. I can not find the first segment. Also I found this with English subtitles. http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxdp_QygoNY&feature=relatedI don't know it myself. I am rushing today. I have a rehearsal soon. |
|
|
|
« Last Edit: 09:59:28, 22-09-2008 by trained-pianist »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
