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Hullumeelsus [Безумие / Madness] (Kaljo Kiisk, 1968)
Sep
15
International Day of Democracy
Windisch (Jüri Järvet) pacing, blending in with a white-clad inmate. DP: Anatoliy Zabolotskiy.
“Stop shooting! Stop democracy!”
– Person Nr. 1
The Gestapo arrives to liquidate the inmates of a mental hospital. Then Windisch, plainclothes Nazi, brings them a letter: there's a special commando hiding amidst the 583 patients. Interrogating them slowly pushes Windisch among them.
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Человечка нарисовал я [Chelovechka narisoval ya / It Was I Who Drew the Little Man] (Valentin Lalayants, Zinaida Brumberg + Valentina Brumberg, 1960)
Sep
1
День знаний
Mesmerised schoolboy Fedya holds up a huge bubble. DP: Elena Petrova.
On September 1, also known as Knowledge Day (День знаний) in Russia, an enthusiastic schoolboy draws a little man on the classroom wall, and causes a whole lot of trouble.
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Soy Cuba [I Am Cuba] (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1964)
Jul
10
The rich and beautiful spend a lazy day at a grand rooftop pool. DP: Sergey Urusevskiy.
Someone in poolside vacation clothing*
“I am Cuba. Why are you running away? You came here to have fun? Go ahead, have fun! Is this a happy picture? Don't avert your eyes. Look! I am Cuba. For you, I am the casino, the bar, the hotels. But the hands of these children and old people, are also me.”
– the voice of Cuba
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Пасифик 231 [Pasifik 231 / Pacific 231] (Mikhail Tsekhanovskiy, 1931)
Jul
2
Musicians superimposed over the locomotive's pistons. DP: Leonid Patlis.
“What I sought in 'Pacific' was not the imitation of the sounds of the locomotive, but the translation of a visual impression and a physical enjoyment through a musical construction. It starts from objective contemplation: the quiet breathing of the engine at rest, the effort of starting, then the progressive increase in speed, to arrive at the lyrical state, the pathos of the 300-ton train, launched in the middle of the night at 120 km/h.”
– Arthur Honegger, Dissonances. Revue musicale indépendante (1925) (via)
Hinted on in Abel Gance's La Roue (1923), composer Arthur Honegger's Пасифик 231 follows the narrative of a stream train ploughing through the night. The conductor's gestures mirror the fireman's and slowly, the machine comes to live. The music becomes abstract, machine-like, in its rendition of pistons and valves. Using double exposure and Soviet montage theory, music and movement become one. The Futurists, if not opposed to the Soviets that is, would have had a field day with this outing.
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Ёжик в тумане [Yózhik v tumáne / Hedgehog in the Fog] (Yuri Norstein, 1975)
Jun
9
Donald Duck – 1934
Fireflies in the fog. DP: Aleksandr Zhukovskiy.
“In the evenings, the little Hedgehog went to the Bear Cub to count stars. They would sit on the log and sip tea, gazing at the starry sky. It hung on the roof, just behind the chimney. To the right of the chimney were the Bear Cub's stars and the stars to the left were the Hedgehog's”
– opening lines
On his way to visit his friend Bear Cub, Hedgehog finds himself in a dense mistbank. Strange sounds, and even stranger creatures, omit from it. And all he wanted was have strawberry jam and tea with his friend.
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Лісова пісня. Мавка [Lisova pisnya. Mavka / A Story of the Forest: Mavka] (Yuri Ilyenko, 1981)
Jun
7
National Trails Day
Mavka (Lyudmila Efimenko) and the Spirit of the Forest (Boris Khmelnitskiy). DP: Yuri Ilyenko.
Mavka, a forest nymph, falls in love with mortal Lukash, who in his turn is punished by the Spirit of the Forest for marrying another mortal instead. Curse upon curse, Lukash is turned into a wolf, and Mavka into a weeping willow.
The colours, mood and impact of the four seasons on mortal and sprite alike is there, not only made visible by Ilyenko's ethereal, spiralling camera, but somewhere blooming deep inside us, observing.
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Снежная королева [Snezhnaya koroleva / The Snow Queen] (Gennadiy Kazanskiy, 1967)
May
25
National Missing Children's Day
Kai (Vyacheslav Tsyupa) under the Snow Queen's spell. DPs: Vadim Grammatikov & Sergei Ivanov.
Oh boy, how to do this one without a spoiler…
Siblings Gerda and Kai are best friends until one day, the Snow Queen's mirror shatters into a million pieces. One shard pierces Kai's eye, the other his heart, and from that moment on, all he can see is evil and his heart is cold. Now taken in by the Queen, and cold to Gerda's affection, the girl tries all to get Kai, the old Kai, back.
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Летят журавли [Letyat zhuravli / The Cranes Are Flying] (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957)
May
8
VE Day
A young woman standing in what was a room in a building, looks out over the ruins of a city. A broken lampshade and a grandfather's clock whisper of other times. DP: Sergey Urusevskiy.
A non-battlefield war movie on VE Day. It had to be a Soviet film, on this date. Thank you, Russia.
“Time will pass. Towns and villages will be rebuilt. Our wounds will heal. But our fierce hatred of war will never diminish.”
– Stepan
When the cranes fly over Moscow, a young couple learns about the war. Now separated, one day, when it is over, if, they'll reunite
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Зеркало для героя [Zerkalo dlya geroya / Mirror for a Hero] (Vladimir Khotinenko, 1987)
May
8
1949
Sergey Pshenichnyy (Sergey Koltakov) speaking to one of the 1940s farmers. DP: Evgeniy Grebnev.
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Распад [Raspad / Collapse / Decay] (Mikhail Belikov, 1990)
Apr
25
1986
A young boy looks over his shoulder into the camera. He's seated at an extended table, set with food for many. A man in the back is on the phone; a woman walks around cradling a newborn child. In the corner of the room a baby cot. DP: Vasiliy Trushkovskiy.