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Envisioning Russia

From September 7 through October 30, the Gene Siskel Film Center presents Envisioning Russia: A Century of Filmmaking. 2008 has been designated the centenary of “serious film production” in Russia. Envisioning Russia concentrates on the output of Mosfilm, Russia’s most powerful and productive film studio. The fifteen films in the series range from the silent era to the first years of perestroika, from established classics such as BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN and THE CRANES ARE FLYING to little-seen gems such as THE NEW MOSCOW and COURIER.

One of the revelations of Envisioning Russia is the diversity, adventurousness, and even iconoclasm of the many of the films--a far cry from polemic-heavy parade of happy peasants, stalwart soldiers, and reliable tractors that one might expect to find in the Soviet era. One can discover in Envisioning Russia equivalents of Lubitschean sex comedy (BED AND SOFA), Keatonesque comedy (HAPPINESS), Marx Brothers lunacy (JOLLY FELLOWS), Nouvelle Vague youthquake (JULY RAIN), spaghetti western (AT HOME AMONG STRANGERS), and New Hollywood anti-establishment comedy (COURIER)--but always with a distinctive Russian twist.

Envisioning Russia is co-presented by Seagull Films and the Film Society of Lincoln Center in cooperation with Concern Mosfilm. Curated by Richard Pena and Alla Verlotsky. Special thanks to Karen Shakhnazarov.

-- Martin Rubin

Sunday double-bill discount!
Buy a ticket for the 3:00 Envisioning Russia film on September 7, 14, or 21, and get a ticket for the second Envisioning Russia film that day at this discount rate (tickets must be purchased at the same time): General Admission $7; Students $5; Members $4.

ALEXANDER NEVSKY
(ALEKSANDR NEVSKY)
1938, Sergei Eisenstein, Russia, 111 min.
With Nikolai Cherkasov

In 13th-century Russia, Prince Alexander Nevsky struggles to alert his countrymen to the threat posed by Teutonic knights (widely interpreted as allegorical stand-ins for Nazi Germany). Eisenstein’s baroque images and Prokofiev’s thundering score set the standard for director-composer collaborations, reaching a peak in the celebrated Battle on the Ice, one of the greatest action set pieces in the history of the cinema. In Russian with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)

Sunday, September 14, 3:00 pm
Tuesday, September 16, 8:00 pm

THE ASCENT
(VOSKHOZHDENIYE)
1976, Larisa Shepitko, Russia, 110 min.
With Boris Plotnikov, Vladimir Gostyukhin

What was allegorical warning in ALEXANDER NEVSKY becomes accomplished history in THE ASCENT, the last completed film by the immensely talented Larisa Shepitko before her untimely death in an auto accident. Under the brutal Nazi occupation, two Russian partisans struggle to survive--but only one will save his soul. The film’s harrowing climax fuses the visceral and the spiritual with a power that evokes Dreyer and Bresson. In Russian with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)

Sunday, September 14, 5:15 pm
Thursday, September 18, 8:15 pm

BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN
(BRONENOSETS POTYOMKIN)
1925, Sergei Eisenstein, Russia, 80 min.

Like CITIZEN KANE and BREATHLESS, BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN is one of those groundbreaking classics that never gets tired, retaining its freshness and excitement in viewing after viewing. Eisenstein’s brilliant editing and compositional strategies prove the perfect vehicle for this dynamic, emotionally riveting recreation of the 1905 mutiny that erupted into a widespread uprising that foreshadowed the 1917 revolution. 35mm. (MR)

Silent film with live piano accompaniment by David Drazin.

Sunday, September 28, 3:00 pm

HAPPINESS
(SCHASTYE)
1934, Aleksandr Medvedkin, Russia, 66 min.
With Pyotr Zinovyev, Yelena Yegorova

The subject of Chris Marker’s documentary THE LAST BOLSHEVIK, Aleksandr Medvedkin was a volatile combination of artistic maverick and party propagandist. With a surreal sense of humor that evokes and exceeds Buster Keaton, HAPPINESS uses the story of a lazy peasant both to celebrate and to satirize collective farming. The film’s double-edged message caused authorities to ban it until the 1960s, when it was embraced by a new generation of Soviet filmmakers. 35mm. (MR)

Silent film with live piano accompaniment by David Drazin.

Sunday, September 21, 5:00 pm

JAZZMEN
(MY IZ DZHAZA)
1983, Karen Shakhnazarov, Russia, 88 min.
With Igor Sklyar, Yelena Tsyplakova

This colorful, bittersweet period piece is set in the 1920s, when red-hot jazz was making its first appearance in red Russia, much to the dismay of party apparatchiks who condemned the music as a product of decadent bourgeois culture. An idealistic young pianist starts up a band in Odessa, where the jazzmen battle official disapproval, lack of funds, and their own uneven talent. In Russian with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)

Sunday, September 7, 5:00 pm
Monday, September 8, 6:00 pm

JEWISH LUCK
(JIDISCHE GLICKN)
1925, Aleksandr Granovsky, Russia, 100 min.
With Solomon Mikhoels, Moisei Goldblat

Based on a series of Sholem Aleichem stories and featuring intertitles written by Isaac Babel, JEWISH LUCK is a priceless artifact of Russian Yiddish culture. Solomon Mikhoels, a mainstay of the Yiddish State Art Theater, plays Mendel, a hustler who tries his hand at several shady trades before venturing into matchmaking. He bungles that one, too, but perhaps “Jewish luck” can save the day. 35mm. (MR)

Silent film with live piano accompaniment by David Drazin.

Sunday, September 7, 3:00 pm

THE LETTER NEVER SENT
(NEOTPRAVLENNOYE PISMO)
1959, Mikhail Kalatozov, 97 min.
With Tatyana Samojlova, Innokenti Smoktunovsky

A geological party of three men and one woman is dropped deep into the Siberian wilderness to search for diamonds. This stirring adventure tale is raised to a nearly mystical, Malickesque level by the team of director Mikhail Kalatozov and cinematographer Sergei Urushevsky (THE CRANES ARE FLYING, I AM CUBA), whose high-powered camerawork climaxes in a spectacular forest fire. In Russian with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)

Friday, September 19, 8:00 pm
Sunday, September 21, 3:00 pm

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