20 Russian films that recommends Harvard

Harvard University recently published a list of the most important in the history of movies, which included 20 domestic films. Everyone who applies for the master's degree in film studies, they should be sure to look at. Film critic Dmitry Karpyuk explained what these pictures are so good and why they are so highly rated at Harvard.

"Kino-eye" (1924) and "Man with a Movie Camera" (1928), director - Dziga Vertov

It is not clear how they can be dealt with separately. Both films are like bottomless cylinder magician - all possible kunshtyukov and technical tricks were invented back in the 20s Vertov, and modern filmmakers admire and borrow them until now.

"Battleship" Potemkin "," director - Sergei Eisenstein (1925)

din of the best if not the best film of all time by many authoritative critics, filmmakers and ordinary viewers. Film experts will certainly be interesting and innovative mounting snapped on quotes shooting scene on the Odessa steps, but one of the most striking and painful images in the film - the awakening of the sailors of the battleship from slavish sleep after they tried to feed the worm-eaten meat. After such a treat if they begin to see the essence of its existence and break out of the cocoon of apathy and obedience. All the rest is history, including the history of cinema.

"According to the law," director - Lev Kuleshov (1926)

In this film adaptation of Jack London's "Unexpected" Kuleshov built Yukon on the Moscow River. The first film is remarkable mix of ragged assembly and long plans, but even apart from the technical nuances, he still looks at least with interest because of a moral dilemma - to arrange the murderer lynching or give it to the hands of the law.

"Mother" (1926) and "The End of St. Petersburg" (1927), director - Vsevolod Pudovkin

The first film - the film adaptation of Maxim Gorky and one of the greatest achievements of the Soviet cinema. Poignant story about a family of reactionary father, revolutionary son and a loving mother dying with a red banner in the hands under the hooves of mounted gendarmes. The second - also a political film about the struggle of the Bolsheviks with the world of capital, the collapse of the empire through the tragedy of the little man. It makes them not only the absence of sound, the call "Sing, revolution!" And fascinating use of multiple exposure, but also an actor, Alexander Chistyakov. In one film, he has played tyrant father Pan beard, and in the other - the worker guiding storm Winter Palace.

"Turksib", director - Victor Turin (1929)

Silent, dynamic and full of energy in the five-part documentary, and with the timing of an hour on the construction of a cotton Soviet way - the Turkestan-Siberian Railway. It is curious that the director Victor Turin during the revolutionary years attended the University of Massachusetts and returned only in 1922, missing the most important time for the country.

"Andrei Rublev", director - Andrei Tarkovsky (1966)

chronicles of the great icon painter is in fact related to the almanac through parables storyline, where you can see and Christian themes, and theme the relationship between power and art. But above all, this movie is showing, from a dirt and blood born art. Burning cow, blinded by the master, in scattered in the woods, Nikulin, choking boiling tar - all turn out a string of icons in color the final black and white film. Each of them can be considered for a long time and find it just a fragment of the scanned picture.

"King Lear", director - Grigory Kozintsev (1970)

"In the troubled years is always a blind man for crazy ..." Not a gram of falsehood in the acting (Juri Yarvet voiced Zinovy ​​Gerdt, especially fine), not a single weak shot - the latest film Kozintseva who has removed, by the way, in front of this excellent "Hamlet "knowingly made the list. The whimsical angles and combinations of light and shade if you want you can see echoes of Ingmar Bergman with Orson Wells and obvious similarities with "Andrei Rublev", but above all it is the best film adaptation of Shakespeare in the history of Russian cinema.

"Earth", director - Alexander Dovzhenko (1930)

Silent film about how during the collectivization of the village brought a tractor, the kulaks did not like it, and they killed a young communist Vasil. In the narration does not sound very exciting, but then there is only one dance Vasil be far from good road at night, as if caught in a picture of the "enchanted place". A montage scenes of peasants working in the field? A funeral of Vasil, which turn into a rally, "without priests and without clerks" with "new songs about the new life"? A frenzied kulak dance background sticking out of the land of crosses? To the bone fusion of poetry and realism, Platonov and Gogol lyrical look at the demolition of the old order and the arrival of the new times.

"The Cranes Are Flying" (1957) and "Ballad of a Soldier" (1959), director - Mikhail Kalatozov and Gregory wins and

Two beautiful film about love and war, one - a poem in prose, the second - a ballad, as stated in the title. In deservedly received the "Palme d'Or" in Cannes "crane" can be infinitely admire camerawork Sergei Urusevsky and enjoy face Tatiana Samoilova. The film is full of lyricism sixties, romance, part of the clinch with the aesthetics of Italian neorealism. However modest, tender and full of humanism picture Chuhraja about traveling soldier who went on leave to see his mother, and fell on the road, painful wounds and remains at the heart of the viewer longer. However, everything is subjective.

"Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" (1964) and "The Color of Pomegranates" (1969), director - Sergei Paradjanov

"Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" - poignant story of love, which is stronger than death, the novel by Ukrainian writer Mikhail Kotsyubyns'kogo. It can be long talk about the clash in the film pagan and Christian worldviews and folklore motives. But to penetrate, just look at the mask for the final funeral, the stunning murder scene when blood floods the camera lens of the great Yuri Ilienko operator.

"The Color of Pomegranates" - a phantasmagoria, an animated palette of colors, look at the inner world of a medieval Armenian poet Sayat Nova. Here, the plot gives way to form the background, but it does not prevent the transmission of mood. In Parajanov, like no other, it turned out to compose poetry in cinema.

"Alexander Nevsky", director - Sergei Eisenstein (1938)

Yes, the propaganda film, but what! Impressive scenes Sich, "firm" Eisenstein's montage, symbiosis pictures and brilliant music of Sergei Prokofiev. That there is a moment when the horizon appears avalanche of the Teutonic Knights and the sounds of drums and horns replaced darkly majestic, almost ecclesiastical musical theme. But worry is, of course, not necessary - the nature is on our side, and all the Germans will go under the ice.

"Ivan the Terrible", director - Sergei Eisenstein (1944)

It is perfectly all - from a strong image and Nikolai Cherkasov games, costumes and sets up the guardsmen shot in dance color in the second, did not like Stalin and forbidden to show parts of the film (it is strange that only the first part of the film was listed). Now some of the nuances of acting may seem a bit comical, but before the tangible, real hard power of pictures disappear any questions.

"Ordinary Fascism", director - Mikhail Romm (1967)

Masterpiece Romm recommended for viewing not only documentary filmmakers and film critics - a combination of terrible shots, caustic voiceover and bravura music still has a very strong effect.

"War and Peace", director - Sergei Bondarchuk (1967)

The large-scale Soviet film and, as it may belong, certainly a bold attempt Bondarchuk's film a very heavy Russian classic novel.

"Climbing", director - Larisa Shepitko (1976)

a war movie based on the novel by Vasil Bykov "Sotnikov" raises important moral questions, and at some point turns into a biblical parable. Music by Alfred Schnittke, the game Gostyukhin, Plotnikov and Solonitsyn and directing genius of Larisa Shepitko literally removed the soul.

"Nostalgia", director - Andrei Tarkovsky (1983)

"Italian" Tarkovsky's film from a screenplay Tonino Guerra Oleg Yankovsky starring full of classical music, scraps of poetry, gravitas and fog in the literal and figurative sense. It is possible to love or not to love (after all, it is from here was born "tarkovschina" spoil many young film directors), but in this case it is an art, without the quotes.

"Russian Ark", director - Alexander Sokurov (2002)

The film definitely deserves attention because of the techniques that Sokurov makes the cornerstone of the whole structure. Yes, the film is made up of one, without mounting gluing - within half an hour the camera travels through the Winter Palace, "a cultural ark" of Russia, and it is at least nice.