Here is a 1975 movie “They Fought For their Motherland” by Michael Sholokhov that tries to depict the harsh realities of WW2. The action is set in 1942 as one small group of Russian soldiers is fighting against the advancing NAZI Germany and it stops them at Stalingrad…
The name of this comedy is “DMB” which stands for the end of the soldiers contract in the army. Ironically, this movie shows three young guys who just got recruited there. Sadly this movie doesn’t come with English subtitles, but the story is simple. Three young guys are recruited into a Russian Army, that’s where their hilarious story begins. Movie is a bit rated R so don’t watch it if you know it might offend you.
This is a 1967 Soviet horror movie called “Viy”, written after a famous Gogol story. Originally a word “Viy” means an old man that brings death. He has huge eyes with eyelashes that reach the ground, and he can only kill if someone raises his eyelashes so he could make a direct eye contact with the person. In this particular movie we have a young priest who had killed an old woman who was a witch. Soon after a very powerful and rich father invites this priest to do a 3 night wake services for his daughter who had passed away. Only when the priests starts doing the wake service, he realizes that the dead young woman he is praying for at the church at nights, is in fact that same witch he had killed who now tries to kill him…
The chalk circle that is around the priest is the only thing that keeps him safe, and invisible - while looking into the Viy’s eyes is the only thing that will make him visible to them, and will allow them to cross the borders of a circle.
P.S. If you don’t understand Russian, then just skip to (1hour 4mins 30seconds) to see one of the scariest, and most memorable movie endings in Soviet cinema…
Here is a famous Soviet comedy from 1972 about a kindergarten director who looked a lot like one major criminal and was put into his crew trying to find the missing golden Helmet… My apologies for the absence of English subtitles, but for those of you who speak Russian, enjoy…
Here is another classic Soviet comedy from 1965. Directed by Leonid Gaidai, this movie follows all of the funny adventures which a naive and nerdy student Shurik seems to get himself into…
Afonya was a Soviet film directed by Georgi Daneliya in 1975, this movie became an instant blockbuster in USSR. The main character in the movie works as a plumber whose drinking made his wife leave him and made his boss almost fire him, watch what happens as one nurse changes his life around… (apologies for the absence of English subtitles)
Here is a brilliant comedy by a brilliant director Ildar Ryazanov called Romance at work from 1977. The movie is in two parts, my apologies for the absence of english subtitles…
This is a famous Russian comedy directed by Gaidai from 1967. A kind, yet naive, student named Shurik goes to a place in the Caucasus to learn the ancient customs of the locals. He falls in love with a girl called Nina, her uncle sells her as a bride without her knowledge and arranges to have her kidnapped by the eccentric trio: Coward, Fool and Experienced. After a failed attempt, the uncle decides to trick Shurik into helping with the kidnapping - telling him that it is a traditional custom and that it was Nina’s own wish. Shurik goes through with the kidnapping, and does not figure out what has really happened at first, but with the help of a friend he manages to rescue Nina from her captors.
via wikipedia.org
The “new section brainstorming” got me somewhere, so today opens up a new movie section of RussianFun, it will mostly be classic old Russian movies, but I’ll try to pick only the best ones. This movie is of course the Ildar Ryazanov’s classic comedy “Unbelievable Adventures of Italians in Russia” it was made in 1974, even though its quite old it still is funny even today. My apologies for the absence of English subtitles…
