"Little Vera" & "Lenin v oktiabre"

[Maryna Vinarska]

Alina Israeli <aisrael at AMERICAN.EDU> wrote:

You are missing the point. The question is not whether those who already have seen it 20 years ago would like to watch it again, now, but rather whether it is representative of some important period and conveys some worth while ideas and is worth showing in foreign language culture course.

............................I am sorry, but the film is not representative of the period when it was released at all because the reality in that film is deliberately distorted. How can "chernukha" film reflect the reality at all if it is in the category of „chernukha“?
The film is representative only as an ideological tool, but then you should combine it with studying "Lenin v oktiabre" or smth of the kind and explain to students that all these films belong to the same category. The only difference is that "Lenin v oktiabre" was supposed to inspire optimism after the revolution, and "Little Vera" was created to inspire cultural pessimism before the revolution, called "perestroika". Besides, you have to tell the truth to students: the film didn‘t have any effect on our people at all. It was forgotten very quickly. If not the media and teenagers, no one would even notice it. This is the truth, but, sure, if the truth matters...
 
Sorry, but I myself don‘t see any Russian culture elements one can present to students with the help of this film…
Are you going to say that this is how the whole country lived? Sorry, but it is not true. The family depicted in that film is in no case typical, but belonging to a marginal group. This automatically means that the lifestyle is also not typical. Atypical things can‘t be representative either of a country‘s culture in general or of any period in its history, especially because these „atypical“ elements are actually universal. Poverty, alcoholism or bad living conditions is not smth intrinsic exclusively to the former USSR.  I saw all this in other countries too...


"Little Vera" is not about sex, even though it has it. The most memorable line from it was "Cel' u nas odna - kommunizm". Considering that that goal is no more, and spoofing it makes little sense, it's not surprising that your friends don't want to watch it.

.................................The fact that no one of my friends will ever watch that movie again has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that communism is no more the goal, but because it is a second-rate movie. 
As to the slogan, sorry, but who treated it seriously at all? Maybe only Americans… I don‘t know what smart guy invented it at all considering that the word „cel“ has more meanings than one…
The education I and my friends got was based on factual knowledge and on a lot of reading. If you have facts in your head, you have no another choice then, you have to process them in your head. It goes automatically, actually. So who treated the idea of communism seriously? At my time nobody. Every society plays this or that role. Once it may be imposed, and then it simply rolls on further on its own. Who cares? Your task is to follow the rules if you either don‘t want to have problems or you can afford having them, and that is all. And it is the same in absolutely every society. Western democracies are no less hypocritical than any other society. And it is actually inevitable. 

So sorry, but I myself don't see any difference between "Lenin v oktiabre" and "Little Vera"... 

Regards,
Maryna Vinarska
 
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