Russian drama on video

[Prof Steven P Hill]

Dear colleagues & Prof Monnier:

If you plan to include any WESTERN adaptations of Russian 
stage plays, in addition to the great Russian-produced plays 
already recommended on this list-server, the following four 
might be of considerable interest and/or entertainment value
 to your students:

1.  "Three Sisters" (Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates, Joan Plowright,
in serious 1970 all-British version, highly praised);

2.  "Uncle Vanya" (Olivier, Michael Redgrave, Plowright, Rosemary 
Harris,  in 1963 all-British version,  photographed as if actual 
stage play);

3.  "Inspector General" (Danny Kaye [Kaminskii] & Walter Slezak 
in farcical 1949 American musical);

4.  "Lower Depths / Les Bas-fonds" ('36 French adaptation of 
Gor'kii, dir. by Jean Renoir, adapted by Evgenii Zamiatin, designed
by "Gene Lourie" [Evgenii Lur'e], starring Jean Gabin, Louis Jouvet, 
Vladimir Sokoloff).  With English subtitles.

#1, 2, and 3 may be readily available on EBay.Com, Half.Com, 
and Amazon.Com.  If you can't find the rarer #4, let me know
-- I think I can look back and find the source where I got it.

P.S.    I hate to say it,   but I found  "Vanya on 42nd Street" 
extremely disappointing.  My impression is that it's probably 
of real interest to advanced theatrical students and theatrical 
professionals working on "Vanya" and/or Chekhov.  But this 
"off the cuff" film is hardly what I would use to introduce 
American undergrads to Chekhov.  Quite  the contrary!

Good hunting,
Steven P Hill,
University of Illinois.
__________________________________________________________

Date: Fri 17 Aug 00:59:57 CDT 2007
From: <LISTSERV at BAMA.UA.EDU>  
Subject: Re: GETPOST SEELANGS 
To: "Steven P. Hill" <s-hill4 at UIUC.EDU> 

Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 12:40:24 -0500
From: Nicole Monnier <monniern at MISSOURI.EDU> 
Subject: Russian drama on video 

Dear SEELANGTSY,

I'm teaching a course on Russian drama and would love to be able to show 
my students (or make available to them) as many productions of them as
possible. However, beyond "Vanya on 42nd St." (!) my university is
apparently woefully lacking in both videorecordings of stage performances
and film adaptations.

I would be most grateful for both recommendations of specific 
performances
AND sources (i.e., where I can buy, rent, beg or steal them). The preference
is, of course, for English (alas, it is primarily an undergraduate course),
but subtitled and/or straight up Russian versions would be welcome as 
well.

And oh, the course contains the usual suspects: Fonvizin, Griboedov,
Pushkin, Gogol, Ostrovsky, and Chekhov (with some Blok, Mayakovsky, and
Kharms thrown in at the end).

Grad students taking the course will also be reading Lermontov,
Sukhovo-Kobylin, Turgenev,  Tolstoy, Gorky, Bulgakov.

Dramatically,
Dr. Nicole Monnier
German & Russian Studies
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211
phone: 573.882.3370
_______________________________________________________

Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 09:00:54 +1000
From: Karen Vickery <karen.vickery at NIDA.EDU.AU> 
Subject: Re: Russian drama on video 

Hello Nicole, I have picked up a couple of film versions of Ostrovsky's
work from R.U.S.C.I.C.O.   Check out their website.  The films are
adaptations of the plays, one is called 'A Cruel Romance' which is a
version of 'Bespridannitsa'.  There is also 'Snegurochka'.  With Chekhov
there are lots of English versions available on film, but always I
recommend 'An Unfinished Piece for Player Piano' directed by Mikhalkov
which is an adaptation of 'Platonov'.  It truly gives students a feel
for Chekhov's finely tuned style and tone.   Good luck, and please
contact me directly if I can be of help.
Regards,  Karen
Karen Vickery
Theatre Studies Manager
National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA)
tel 61 2 96977600 / fax 61 2 9662 7415
____________________________________________________________

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