Tsars -- Hanky-Panky at the Russian Palace

Mon May 26 14:41:06 UTC 2003

Yes, you may be right -- although I had a good laugh!  At least she gave us
a good model for the viewing tonight --

>Alessandra Stanley's tongue-in-cheek, in my experience, leaves more blood on
>the gums than this.  I was relieved at what--to me--read like amused
>restraint.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
>[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU]On Behalf Of Charlotte Douglas
>Sent: Monday, May 26, 2003 10:09 AM
>To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
>Subject: [SEELANGS] Tsars -- Hanky-Panky at the Russian Palace
>
>
>Goodness - it doesn't sound like a good review to me -- this is Alessandra
>Stanley at her most tongue-in-cheek!
>
>Here it is:
>
>
>>Hanky-Panky at the Russian Palace
>>
>>May 26, 2003
>>By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
>>
>>When the narrator of "Russia, Land of the Tsars," explains
>>that Ivan the Terrible was prepared to rule with a ruthless
>>hand, "even if it called for blood," the documentary cuts
>>to bright red blood oozing across a stone step.
>>
>>When viewers are told that the Russian Orthodox patriarch
>>condemns Czar Vasily for locking his barren wife, Salomea,
>>in a convent to marry Yelena and prophesies "terror and
>>tears," a lightning bolt flashes across a blackened screen.
>>
>>
>>And Catherine the Great's death by a sudden stroke is
>>illustrated by a woman's hand sliding lifelessly off an
>>open jewelry case.
>>
>>Tonight and tomorrow, the History Channel's four-hour look
>>at the Russian monarchy is one of those rare documentaries
>>that reach the highest level of television entertainment:
>>if it were any better, it would be worse.
>>
>>In this chronicle of czarist tyranny, from the rise of
>>Vladimir, Grand Prince of Kiev in the 10th century to the
>>fall of the Romanovs in 1918, there is always blood on the
>>step or blood on the steppes. Viewers are spared a dry
>>academic survey of history's landscape, with its complex
>>topography of statistic and detail, and its plate tectonics
>>of trend and theory. The History Channel's focus is fixed
>>on the peaks of death, disaster and repression; "Russia,
>>Land of the Tsars," bristles obligingly with pinnacles of
>>bad behavior. It's a pop-up textbook of grisly moments
>>brought to lurid life in heavily costumed and scored
>>re-enactments.
>>
>>Best known for its tireless retelling of World War II -
>>hours of engrossing archival shots of Hitler's last days or
>>the Yalta Conference - the History Channel also generously
>>relives the Kennedy assassination, the Hindenburg disaster
>>and the Lindbergh-baby kidnapping case. (The channel's Web
>>site invites hard-core buffs to "re-examine the Treaty of
>>Versailles.") "Russia, Land of the Tsars" is a departure
>>that is true to the History Channel's raison d'Ítre.
>>
>>Anyone who has sat through all four acts (and a prologue)
>>of Mussorgsky's opera <object.title class="Movie"
>>idsrc="nyt_ttl" value="109809">"Boris
>>Godunov"</object.title> knows that medieval Russian history
>>can be impenetrable. The documentary, blessedly, skips over
>>Boris Godunov altogether. He may be the best known of six
>>rulers who grabbed the throne during the Time of Troubles
>>between 1598 and 1613, but <object.title class="Movie"
>>idsrc="nyt_ttl"
>>value="153770;215129;155330;108553">"Russia"</object.title>
>>chose to showcase the more colorful "False Dmitri," a
>>Polish imposter who, once discovered, was killed and burned
>>and had his ashes stuffed in a cannon and fired back to
>>Poland. (The film cuts to a shot of a cannon firing across
>>a field.)
>>
>>Reform is signaled by a hand scribbling on parchment with a
>>quill pen, conspiracy with a close-up of a card table laden
>>with wine goblets and wreathed in cigar smoke, repression
>>by a wall of flames. (Bloodstained snow is reserved for
>>really major figures who died violently: Pushkin, the
>>assassinated Alexander II and Rasputin.)
>>
>>Even in a lavish, two-part special, the History Channel is
>>commendably frugal. The same shots of fur-hatted horsemen
>>galloping menacingly in slow motion across a sandy shore
>>are used to illustrate warrior invasions, from
>>ninth-century Vikings to the Mongol horde 400 years later.
>>
>>Some viewers may find the reshuffling of the same tableaus
>>too stinting, but it is actually quite fitting in a
>>documentary on Russia, a land where shortages are a way of
>>life; until recently, foreign films in Russia were shown
>>not with subtitles or dubbing, but with a Russian-language
>>narrator whose voice-over delivered the lines of all the
>>characters, from amorous ingÈnues to hard-boiled
>>detectives, in the same uninflected, sonorous tone.
>>
>>The historians gathered to shed light on the czars and
>>their empire include Dominic Lieven, a professor of Russian
>>history at the London School of Economics, and Michael
>>Farquhar, author of "A Treasury of Royal Scandals: The
>>Shocking True Stories of History's Wickedest, Weirdest,
>>Most Wanton Kings, Queens, Tsars, Popes and Emperors."
>>
>>But some of the more wanton details are left out: tales of
>>Catherine the Great's more unorthodox sexual escapades are
>>omitted.
>>
>>So are some of Russian history's most famous anecdotes.
>>Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin is identified as the
>>Empress's lover and adviser (cut to a man and woman
>>reclining on a rumpled bed, powdered wigs tossed aside),
>>but there is no time to explain that the rustic false
>>facades he erected along the route of her inspection tours
>>down the Volga were the origin of the term, "Potemkin
>>village."
>>
>>"Russia," cannot cover everything, but it delivers the
>>greatest hits of Russian history in a punchy, memorable
>>way. The documentary opens, predictably, with Churchill's
>>description of Russia as "a riddle wrapped in a mystery,
>>inside an enigma."
>>
>>But Professor Lieven has a perhaps more down-to-earth
>>explanation for the Russian empire's lasting allure. "It is
>>Europe," he says. "Then again, it isn't quite Europe."
>>
>>RUSSIA, LAND OF THE TSARS
>>The History Channel, tonight and
>>tomorrow at 9, Eastern and Pacific times; 8, Central time.
>>
>>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/26/arts/television/26STAN.html?ex=1054957580
>&ei=
>>1&en=743724eed5e91335
>>
>
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