Third-year film recommendations

[Laura Kline]

Dear Seelangers,
In response to several letters requesting the results of the third-year
film query, I am posting the recommendations I received below.
Best,
Laura Kline


Movie recommendations:
1) "Okno v Parizh."  Very conversational. Dialog is within the grasp
(with a little help) 2nd year students. [Recommended by more than one
person.]
2) "Okraina" (1998) - the film by Peter Lutsik, called "the Russian
Western" and "the most scandalous and extremist movie".
http://www.sova.ru/cgi-bin/videobase/query.cgi?action=display&id=2014
3) Brat-2
4) "Strana glukhikh" - a "thriller" that has a lot of up-close shots of
people speaking slowly articulated Russian, too.  For its genre, it's
actually quite good.
5) A good film even for 1st year is "7-Up in the Soviet Union", a
documentary with subtitles about children living in the USSR around 1990.
 It's great and the follow-up "14-Up: Born in the USSR" has been
completed and shown on some public television stations, though apparently
it's not yet available for distribution.
6) "S legkim parom" (ili Ironiia sud'by").  It's an engaging story that
might keep students interested if you had periodic 15-minute viewings
over the course of a school term.
7) Slava Paperno's documentary videos "Michael and Svetlana" (about an
American man trying to marry a Russian woman) and "Deti iz Rossii" (about
adoption of Russian children by westerners).  Each are about 1 1/2 hours
long.  "Michael and Svetlana" has a good deal of English (since the
character Michael doesn't speak Russian), so it's easier to understand.
Either one could be watched in segments.  They also come with a full
tapescript so you'd have a written copy of the text for reference.
They're available from the Lexicon Bridge publishers
<http:///LexiocnBridge.Com>, tel 607-277-3981.
8) Valerii Todorovskii's _Strana glukhikh_, in which two of the main
characters are deaf and so speak very slowly (and one of them -- the
female lead -- very clearly)
9) Aleksei Balabanov's _Pro urodov i liudei_, which is relatively light
on dialogue.
10) The famous (and very funny) scene in Georgii Daneliia's _Osenii
marafon_ (1979)
in which the Danish professor gets drunk with his Russian colleague and
their alcoholic friend, played by Evg. Leonov.
11) Have the students read a scene from a famous play and then watch that
scene in a film version, for example Andrei Konchalovskii's 1971 version
of _Uncle Vania_.
12) Leonid Gaidai's 1960s/70s comedies (_Brilliantovaia ruka_,
Kavkazskaia plennitsa_, _Ivan Vasil'evich meniaet professiu_, _Operatsiia
'Y'_).
13) Excerpts from Gorky's "Na dne," as performed by the Maly Teatr.  Show
it the first time with subtitles.  The film is relatively short, so you
can distribute a script (in Russian only).  After the first time students
-- first-year students! -- watched the film without subtitles.
14) "Dama s sobachkoj" esp. if they have read the story--that gives them
some sense of the plot to work with.
15) Adaptations of novels and/or plays such as the film version of
"Oblomov"
16) Filmed opera - "Boris G." and "Eugene Onegin" - but those do have
subtitles.
17) The film version of "Shinel'"
18) "Moskva slezam ne verit"
19) "Kavkazsky plennik"
20) "A Chef in Love" (Russian/Georgian/French co-production).

Other suggestions:
1) A foreign action/soap opera/etc./movie dubbed into Russian
2) Music videos. They're short enough, and quite entertaining. Plus the
lyrics are generally easy to comprehend and fairly repetitive.
3) Try contacting Ohio State for help with a 3rd year film.  They have
used films successfully in their TELELANGS program to teach students at
remote sites, and have developed workbooks that go with the films.  Leon
Twarog was the principle developer of the courses, but someone else in
the department (since he has retired) may be able to help.

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