Russian Cinema
Early films from the then Soviet Union had a shaky start due to the First World War and the October Revolution in 1917, but Lenin himself and later Stalin recognised the propaganda uses of the medium. At first, with the infrastructure in tatters and virtually no cinemas in which to screen films, shorts expounding communism were carried from place to place often accompanying live speakers. Once Moscow's first cinema was opened at the end of 1921, newsreels became common. But in 1924 Sergei Eisenstein's 'Strike' became the first true Soviet feature. The following year his 'Battleship Potemkin' was launched to great acclaim, highly propagandistic and towing the party line.
Tight restrictions on content continued up until Stalin's death in 1953 and it wasn't until the '60s and '70s that seminal Russian film makers like Andrei Tarkovsky, Sergo Paradjanov and Nikita Mikhalkov began to find their own voice.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the largely state-funded film industry all but disappeared and is only now beginning to find its feet once more. A few gems found their way to Alice's shelves from this period, such as 'Burnt By The Sun' (1994), 'Prisoner of the Mountains' (1996), and our one and only Estonian film is to be found in this section, for want of a better home, the darkly humourous 'Darkness in Tallinn' (1993). 2002 saw the release of 'Russian Ark' (pictured), shot in one take, it is the longest unedited film ever made.
Greed (1925)
7.9/10
Director: Erich Von Stroheim
Starring: Gibson Gowland, Zasu Pitts, Jean Hersholt
One of the wonders of film, this miracle of filmmaking made against the most impossible of odds, stars Gibson Gowland as a dentist who marries the dau... Read more
Alexander Nevsky (1938)
7.7/10
Director: Sergei Eisenstein
Starring: Nikolai Cherkassov, Nikolai Okhlopkov, Dmitri Orlov
Sergei Eisenstein's magnificent battle-epic stars Nikolai Cherkassov as Prince Alexander, the leader of the people of Novogorod, defending Russia agai... Read more
The Complete Works of Yuri Norstein ( Tale of Tales, Hedgehog in the Fog, Heron and the Crane, Fox and Rabbit ) (1978)
Director: Yuri Norstein
Yuri Norstein is a world renowned Russian animator, whose painstaking attention of detail and craft have become legendary. On this Disc are collected... Read more
Night Watch ( Blu-ray ) (2004)
6.5/10
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Starring: Konstantin Khabensky, Vladimir Menshov, Valeri Zolotukhin, Mariya Poroshin
In 14th Century Russia two warring factions of vampires called a delicate truce. Overshadowing this peace is an ancient prophecy, one that foretells o... Read more
Day Watch ( Blu-ray ) (2006)
6.5/10
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Starring: Konstantin Khabensky, Mariya Poroshin, Vladimir Menshov, Dmitry Martynov, Alekse...
The long-awaited sequel to Russian fantasy flick, 'Night Watch', this bombastic goth-horror is equally entertaining and illuminates many of the myster... Read more
Beanpole (Blu-ray) (2019)
7.1/10
Director: Kantemir Balagov
1945, Leningrad. WWII has devastated the city, demolishing its buildings and leaving its citizens in tatters, physically and mentally. Two young women... Read more
Beanpole (2019)
7.1/10
Director: Kantemir Balagov
1945, Leningrad. WWII has devastated the city, demolishing its buildings and leaving its citizens in tatters, physically and mentally. Two young women... Read more
The Mirror (1974)
8.1/10
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Starring: Margarita Terekhova, Philip Yankovsky
Effortlessly blending past and present, dreams, subjective reminiscence and a wider overview of 20th Century Russian history, Andrei Tarkovsky creates... Read more
Stalker (Blu-ray) (1979)
8.1/10
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Starring: Aleksandr Kaidanovsky, Anatoly Solonitsyn
An extraordinary sci-fi film about an expedition into 'the zone', an eerie no-man's-land created by a meteor strike and depicted as a warped version o... Read more
Storm Over Asia (1928)
7.3/10
Director: Vsevolod Pudovkin
Starring: Valeri Inkizhanov, I Inkizhanov, L Dedintsev
Director Vsevolod Pudovkin's epic is set on the Soviet Asian frontier and tells of a rebellious young Mongol trapper who is set up as a "puppet leader... Read more