Tsars -- Hanky-Panky at the Russian Palace

Mon May 26 15:24:07 UTC 2003

Yes indeed!

>Maybe it will help with recruitment.
>
>-----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 10:41 AM
>To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
>Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Tsars -- Hanky-Panky at the Russian Palace
>
>
>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=105495758
>0
>>&ei=
>>>1&en=743724eed5e91335
>>>
>>
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