Russian Films With Subtitles

[Emerenciana Mcgreal]

Justwanted give a shout-out to a series of webinars run by Columbia University covering some modern Russian films. Might be of interest for anyone looking to expand their cinematic horizons:

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Thank you! Just thought it would make sense to have it all in one place. I'm thinking of wrapping it up with a list of prominent Soviet and post-Soviet war movies, just haven't had time to put all the links together :-).

So yes, to kind of round it off I also wanted to mention several post-Soviet movies that some people would be quick to discount as "propaganda". I don't necessarily agree: they are all solid movies, with some good (and sometimes very good) acting and historic accuracy. It's the subject matter that matters here...

Battle for Sevastopol (Незламна), 2014. The title is quite misleading, it's actually a decent-quality biopic on Lyudmila Pavlichenko, one of the better known female snipers of WWII.

The whole "propaganda" negative bias against them is something that I have a bit of a hard time finding a logical explanation for. For space films, for instance, if you take a patriotism/propaganda scale of one to ten, with an Attenborough-style BBC documentary on space race at 1, something uber patriotic (if not jingoistic) and cliched like Armageddon at 10, and "healthily patriotic" and technically and historically accurate Apollo 13 at, say, four, -both Russian movies would probably end up somewhere smack in the middle.

I wonder if it's the fact that other nations' patriotism is almost always bound to be perceived as alien and less worthy than your own? Or could it be due to the fact that most Russian movies open up with credits to the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation? That much is true, but it is also true for all the movies from my previous post, which are very markedly anti-establishment. It's just a fact of life - Russian government annually earmarks about $100 million in grants, interest-free loans, and subsidies to support the domestic film industry, and there are many, many takers.

For war movies, though, it's a bit more complicated. It would seem that the Great Patriotic War legacy offers an easy pathway to boosting post-Soviet national pride, and the government does try to use the memory of the war for nation-building purposes. This resulted in a plethora of barely watchable high-CGI low-IQ blockbusters, but the three examples I quoted above are actually quite decent action films. The problem is, the bar for war movies has been set quite high by Soviet filmmakers, and, with very few exceptions, the best Soviet war movies are best described as "movies about war/anti-war propaganda", rather than "action films/entertainment":

... and in case you haven't seen it (and not quite in the "movie" category, but close enough) - here's a link to two very short tongue-in-cheek mockumentaries about rural life and challenges on a Russian collective farm:

Ivi is an online streaming service that users can subscribe to to access movies and other great video content, like TV and cartoons. It even works on an array of devices, including smart TVs and iOS devices.

Plus, watching Russian movies with Russian subtitles can help you better make out individual words. Listening to native speakers can be challenging, particularly since words can seem to run together, making it difficult to tell where each word starts and stops. Subtitles can help you quickly distinguish between words and help train your ear to hear these cutoffs.

Finally, watching Russian movies with Russian subtitles can give you both reading and listening practice. Feel like reading? You can focus on just the subtitles. Prefer a little listening practice? Ignore the subtitles if you want. But why settle for working on just one skill when you can practice both simultaneously?

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

Adventures of Mr. West - 1924. 100 minutes. B/W. Silent w/Subtitles. VHS. A prejudiced American visitor, Mr. West, arrives in Moscow expecting to find ruffians and bandits. A gang of Russians assists him to see what he expects. An inteligent and humorous satire on the foolish notions of Western culture, little seen outside the former USSR.

Anna Karenina - Clarence Brown. 1935. 96 minutes. B/W. English. VHS. Tolstoy's classic story of doomed love set during the spectacular reign of Czar Nicholas I of Russia. Greta Garbo stars as the heroine, Anna Karenina.

Autumn Marathon - Georgi Danelia. 1979. 100 minutes. Color. Subtitled. VHS. This comedy presents the emotional predicament of a quiet man of letters who is torn between the love of his wife and that of a younger woman.

Ballad of a Soldier - Griorgi Chukrai. 1959. 89 minutes. B/W. Subtitled. VHS. One of the most highly acclaimed Soviet films. A young soldier is rewarded with a six-day leave for an heroic act. He makes a difficult journey home, falls in love along the way, and meets his mother only to return immediately to the front.

Big Exchange (The) - Gheorgui Shengheliya. 1989. 75 minutes. Color. Subtitled. Comedy. Adventures of two men as they try to exchange paper currency into coins during the monetary reform in Russia in the 50's.

Birds Are Flying Over Me - Interfilm. 1978. 30 minutes. Color. English. VHS. Film director Dovzhenko of Kiev Studios is shown in depth by examining his techniques, successes, and influence on world cinematography.

Chronicle of October 1917 - Interfilm. 1986. 30 minutes. Color. English. VHS. Showing events leading to the October Revolution in 1917 with lots of archival film, documents, and historical places as they looked then and now.

Cranes Are Flying (The) - Mikhail Kalatozov. 1957. 94 minutes. B/W. Subtitled. LD and VHS. One of the most acclaimed Soviet films of all time. Set during World War II, the film is a tragic story of the shattering of youthful ambitions and love by war.

Earth - Alexander Dovzhenko. 1930. 54 minutes. B/W. Silent w/Subtitles. VHS. A great silent masterpiece. This film presents the theme of the life cycle of man developed through constant juxtaposition and intertwining of images of life and death.

Father Sergius - Yakov Protozanov. 1917. 114 minutes. B/W. Silent with music score. VHS. Intrigue, corruption and weakness in the Court of Czar Nickolai I; the secrets of the famous monk and miracle-healer.

Forgotten Tune For The Flute (A) - 1987. 140 minutes. Color. Subtitles. VHS/LD. A funny and warm romantic comedy. A married man who lives an ordered life falls in love with a young nurse while in the hospital and then discovers his true personality.

House Under The Starry Sky (The) - Sergej Solovoyv. 1992. 90 minutes. Color. Subtitled. Mystery. Action. Focuses on a Jewish scientist, whose family is being haunted by a mysterious stranger.

Incident at Mapgrid 30-80 - Michail Tumanshvili. 1983. 90 minutes. Color. Russian subtitles. VHS. While the Soviet naval squadron is perfoming routine sea exercises, a flagship suddenly picks up a distress call from an American submarine. The Soviet salvage plane is prevented from boarding the sub, which maintains a secret nuclear arsenal, and the U.S . captain refuses aid. Meanwhile the submarine's computer malfunctions and the order is given for the cruise missiles to be launched.

Jazzman - Karen Shakhnazarov. 1983. 80 minutes. Color. Subtitled. VHS. A young Jazz enthusiast leaves music school where his musical interests could not be pursued. He forms a jazz band with two colorful street musicians and a saxophonist left over from the Czar's marching band.

Lady with a Dog (The) - 1960. 89 minutes. Black and white. Enflish subtitles. VHS. Anton Chechov's classic story about a bored, middle-aged, married banker from Moscow who meets a young married woman while on vacation in Yalta at the beginning of the century. They drift into an affair that turns into true love, yet the conventions of society and the couple's need to feel respectable force them to return to their old lives.

Little Vera - 1989. 101 minutes. Color. Subtitled. VHS. LD. The film that took Russia by storm. A sultry teenager is torn between her brooding husband and her bitter parents in a dead-end town.

Maxim Gorky - Interfilm. 1977. 30 minutes. Color. English. VHS. The life of Maxim Gorky, his life in Capri, his youth and his eventual return to the U.S.S.R. are presented. Lots of archival film footage.

Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears - Vladimir Menshou. 1980. 150 minutes. Color. Subtitled. VHS. Winner of Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. The funny, charming story of the trials and tribulations of three young women who come to Moscow to make good.

Oblomov - N. Mikhalkov. 1980. 145 minutes. Color. Subtitles. VHS. A beautiful adaptation of the famous Ivan Goncharov novel. Oblomov owns 350 serfs he's never met and just lies on his back in an apartment eating, sleeping, watching his finances dwindle and whining at his servant that he is not sensitive enough.

Portrait of the Soviet Union-Siberia - (unknown). 1989. 60 minutes. Color. English. VHS. Portrays everyday life in Siberia. Introduces culture, geography and history of the coldest region of Russia.

Private Life - Edgar Ryazanov. 1983. 112 minutes. Color. Subtitled. VHS. Focuses on an executive who loses his position in the bureaucracy and finds out what his family and friends really think of him. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.

Russian Language and People - Films Incorporated. Episodes 1- 20. 25 minutes. Color. Russian/English. VHS. Very engaging instructional videos which introduce the Russian language, people, and culture.

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