Showing posts with label lidija fedosejeva-shukshina. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lidija fedosejeva-shukshina. Show all posts

Monday, August 24, 2009

Pechki-lavochki / Happy Go Lucky


Vasili Shukshin: Печки-лавочки / Pechki-lavochki / Happy Go Lucky (SU 1972).Vasili Shukshin (Ivan Rastorguyev), Lidiya Fedoseyeva-Shukshina (Nyura Rastorgueva), Ivan Ryzhov (train steward). Photo: Dom Kino.

Печки-лавочки / Petshki-lavotshki / Reisebekanntschaften / Rejsekammerater / Terefere / Pogwarki.
    SU 1972. PC: Gorky Film Studios. D+SC: Vasili Shukshin. DP: Anatoli Sabolotski - b&w - Sovscope 2,35:1. AD: Pjotr Pashkevitsh. M: Pavel Tshekalov. ED: Natalya Loginova. CAST: 
    Vasili Shukshin (Ivan Rastorguyev), Lidiya Fedoseyeva-Shukshina (Nyura Rastorgueva), Georgi Burkov (Viktor, a thief posing as a railway engineer), Vsevolod Sanajev (Sergei Fjodorovitsh, professor of folklore), Stanislav Ljubshin (his son), Zinovi Gerot (the arrogant professor), Vadim Zahartshenko (the business traveller). 
    100 min
    Print: Gosfilmofond, e-subtitles in Finnish by Pentti Stranius operated by Tuulia Lehtonen.
    Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki 23 Aug 2009.

A brilliant print. - Shukshin's quirky masterpiece revisited. - This is the strangest of his films, his most self-reflective, both revelling in the lore of the Altai Krai, and parodying it. - The camera style is quite different than in the first three films which were shot by Valeri Ginzburg in a sober, profound style. Now, it's more New Wave and cinéma-vérité (but not Kino Pravda!), hand-held camera for the first time in a Shukshin film, self-conscious 360 grade pans, the camera may waver at times. - The film is launched with familiar scenes of partying and singing in the Altai Krai. The best part of the film is the account of the trip by train to Moscow. There are three juicy episodes with travelling companions: an arrogant businessman, the sympathetic thief, and finally the professor of folklore. - Shukshin himself portrays the hillbilly from the countryside with a great sense of humour. He is an incorrigible storyteller, who is not above making a good story better with his imagination. - The people from the country for the first time in the city. "The rhythm is different here". - The final episode is in Odessa. Ivan has neglected to register his wife to the sanatorium. On the beach of Odessa Vanja and Anja are not in their element. - The final, half-parodistic, half-loving pans in the immense landscapes of the Altai. The final image is a self-reflective wink by Shukshin the actor-director directly to us. - There was applause at the end of the film (a rare phenomenon) in the packed cinema.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Strannye lyudi / Strange People

Strannye ljudi. Tri rasskaza / Странные люди / [Outoa väkeä] / [Udda folk]. SU 1969. PC: Gorky Studios. D+SC: Vasili Shukshin - based on his short stories "Bratka", "Rokovoi vystrel" / "Mille pardons, Madame!", and "Dumy". SC: Valeri Ginzburg - b&w - Sovscope. M: Karen Hatshaturjan with many folk songs. Special song: "Skazanie o dvenadtsati razboinikah" ["The Tale of the Twelve Robbers"] (comp. Nikolai Manykin-Nevstrujev, poem: Nikolai Nekrasov), perf. Fjodor Shaljapin (Chaliapin), rec. 1932. Loc: Vladimir (in the heart of Russia). Cast: BRATKA: Sergei Nikonenko (Vasili Knjazhev, Vashka), Jevgeni Jevstignejev (Vasili's brother), Lidia Fedosejeva (Lidia Nikolajevna), Galina Bulkina (Vashka's wife). ROKOVOI VYSTREL: Jevgeni Lebedev (Bronka Pupkov), Ljubov Sokolova (Bronka's wife). DUMY: Vsevolod Sanajev (Matvei Rjazantsev), Jelena Sanajeva (Lena), Juri Skop (the blacksmith Kolka), Pentelejmon Krymov (the old teacher). 99 min. Print: Gosfilmofond. E-subtitles by Pentti Stranius, operated by Tuulia Lehtonen. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 20 August 2009.

A print with a fine definition of light. - An episodic masterpiece revisited. The fullness of the feeling for life in the songs and the imagery. - BRATKA: the meeting of the brothers at Jalta, Chekhov's home-museum seen in one scene. The song started by Lidia. - THE FATAL SHOT: the hunter's guide's livslögn (life-lie) about the assassination of Hitler, Jevgeni Lebedev's great performance. - DUMY: one of the high points in Shukshin's oeuvre. The deep anxiety of Matvei, the chairman of the village. The bottomless sorrow of his daughter. The history of the Soviet Union. The new dance of the pop era. The electrifying wake-up sound of Shaljapin's song. The blacksmith throws his wood statue of Stenka Razin into the fire.

Nikolai Nekrasov's poem is from Komu na Rusi zhit horosho (Who Is Happy in Russia, 1876), from its chapter O dvuh velikih greshnikah.
http://az.lib.ru/n/nekrasow_n_a/text_0030.shtml
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zapX8PCln9o
http://www.karaoke.ru/catalog/song/4641 (the lyrics of Shaljapin's solo parts)
Thanks to Lauri Piispa for identifying the song and the poem and providing these links.

Nikolai Nekrasov's poem is beyond the jump break: