Russian imperial history - films

[Emily Saunders]

Consider also fictional stories in:

Barber of Siberia -- director Mikhalkov (there is a lot of English in  
the movie and Mikhalkov used his own voice to dub it into Russian,  
which I consider to be a serious drawback, but the film does talk about  
the issues of anarchists and imperial power of Alexander III)

Statsky Sovetnik (State Advisor?) -- starring Oleg Menshikov as the  
agent Fandorin and based on the book by Boris Akunin; deals with spying  
and underground terrorist networks and the nature of power of later  
19th century imperial Russia

Regards,

Emily Saunders

On Dec 1, 2007, at 11:37 PM, Prof Steven P Hill wrote:

> Dear colleagues and Prof Powelstock:
>
> Perhaps Eisenstein's "Ivan the Terrible" ("Ivan Groznyi"),  Pt. 1 ['45]
> and Pt. 2 ['58] depicting the 16th cen., would be too early an era
> for this course?
>
> Appx. 1937-38 a Soviet director named Vladimir Petrov made "Peter
> the Great" ("Petr Pervyi"), but it may not exist nowadays on video
> subtitled in English...
>
> A decade or two ago,   there was a huge, multi-part dramatized
> biography made for U.S. television, "Peter the Great," starring
> Maximilian Schell.  As I recall, a goodly number of veteran British
> (and US) actors played small roles.  This Schell version does exist
> on video.
>
> In various film adaptations of Gogol's story "Overcoat,"   the poor
> clerk Akakii attempts,   unsuccessfully,   to deal with various early
> 19th-century tsarist bureaucrats and agencies.
>
> In film adaptations of Gor'kii's novel "Mother," disaffected  
> working-class
> folks c. 1905 come into conflict with the tsarist police state (as  
> Gor'kii
> visualized it).
>
> In many different film adapations of Gogol's stage play "Inspector  
> General"
> ("Revizor"), the entire gang of bureaucrats --  in a fictitious small  
> town,
> to be sure --  are depicted satirically.
>
> A French silent film dating from the 1920s, "The Chess Player," depicts
> a (factual? fictional?) chess-playing robot which allegedly became a
> Russian court favorite around the end of the 18th century.
>
> A very "glamorous" fictionalized biography of Catherine the Great
> (Ekaterina Vtoraia) was filmed in Hollywood in 1935 under the title
> "Scarlet Empress," starring Marlene Dietrich.
>
> Undoubtedly  other contributors   will be able to suggest plenty of
> equally ( if not more )  appropriate films....
>
> Good hunting,
> Steven P Hill,
> University of Illinois.
> ___________________________________________________________________
>
> Date: Sun 2 Dec 00:36:01 CST 2007
> From: <LISTSERV at BAMA.UA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: GETPOST SEELANGS
> To: "Steven P. Hill" <s-hill4 at UIUC.EDU>
> Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2007 20:41:21 -0500
> From: David Powelstock <pstock at BRANDEIS.EDU>
> Subject: Films for Course on Imperial Russian History?
>
> Dear SEELANGers,
> A friend of mine is teaching a course on imperial Russian history
> and asked me for ideas as to films she might show. There are lots
> of film adaptations of 19th-c. literary works, of course, but I'd be
> interested to know which of these SEELANGers think might be
> particularly interesting from the standpoint of imperial history
> beyond costuming. I thought of "Russian Ark," but students would
> need to be very well prepared in order to appreciate it's historical
> dimension. For late imperial I mentioned Bauer's "Child of the Big
> City." I'd be grateful for ideas that I could pass on.
>
> Best wishes,
> David Powelstock
> _____________________________________________________________________
>
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