RE: [microsound] Russian/Soviet film

["ian stewart" <artsonics@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Apart from Tarkovsky I greatly admire Paradjanov's "Red Pomegranates."  I 
>haven't seen any of his other films but Pomegranates is truly beautiful.  
>Does anyone have any good recomendations beyond Tarkovsky and well-known 
>stuff like Eisenstein? <

The four main Paradjanov films (Shadows of our Forgotten Ancestors/ Horses 
of Fire, Colour of Pomegranates, Legend of the Citadel Souram, Ashik Kerib) 
are visually breathtaking and absolutely unique. Can't recommend them highly 
enough, even if the costumes and acting seem a bit ridiculous at first. The 
visual choreography in Alexei Guerman's Khroustaliov my Car! is also 
stunning, although the narrative is extremely difficult to make sense of. 
Still an extraordinary experience. There are also the very slow, nearly 
dialogue-free films of Lithuania's Sharunas Bartas, which one either finds 
extremely powerful or unbearably dull- I've only seen Freedom, not said to 
be his best, but people I trust praise him to the skies. Less avant-garde, 
Tenghiz Abuladze's comic and grotesque political satire Repentance is 
excellent. And the imagery in Vitali Kanevski's bleak Freeze-Die-Come to 
Life! is unforgettable. These are just films from the past 20 or so years- 
if you go back further, there are dozens of rewarding films from the 
ex-Soviet Union (Kalatazov, Dovzhenko, Dziga-Vertov, etc, etc). best,

Ian

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