Russian Films

Adventures of Mr. West - 1924. 100 minutes. B/W. Silent w/Subtitles. VHS. A prejudiced American visitor, Mr. West, arrives in Moscow expecting to find ruffians and bandits. A gang of Russians assists him to see what he expects. An inteligent and humorous satire on the foolish notions of Western culture, little seen outside the former USSR.

Alexander Pushkin - Interfilm. 1977. 50 minutes. Color. English. VHS. The life and times of this great Russian poet. His influence on Russian literature and culture.

Anna Karenina - Clarence Brown. 1935. 96 minutes. B/W. English. VHS. Tolstoy's classic story of doomed love set during the spectacular reign of Czar Nicholas I of Russia. Greta Garbo stars as the heroine, Anna Karenina.

Autumn Marathon - Georgi Danelia. 1979. 100 minutes. Color. Subtitled. VHS. This comedy presents the emotional predicament of a quiet man of letters who is torn between the love of his wife and that of a younger woman.

Babi Yar - Interfilm. 1978. 40 minutes. Color. English. VHS. The Babi Yar massacre at Kiev, showing the actual sight, living witnesses, and film footage of captured documentary film.

Ballad of a Soldier - Griorgi Chukrai. 1959. 89 minutes. B/W. Subtitled. VHS. One of the most highly acclaimed Soviet films. A young soldier is rewarded with a six-day leave for an heroic act. He makes a difficult journey home, falls in love along the way, and meets his mother only to return immediately to the front.

Bed and Sofa - Russian. VHS.

Big Exchange (The) - Gheorgui Shengheliya. 1989. 75 minutes. Color. Subtitled. Comedy. Adventures of two men as they try to exchange paper currency into coins during the monetary reform in Russia in the 50's.

Birds Are Flying Over Me - Interfilm. 1978. 30 minutes. Color. English. VHS. Film director Dovzhenko of Kiev Studios is shown in depth by examining his techniques, successes, and influence on world cinematography.

Blue Mountains or an Unlikely Tale (The) - VHS.

Bop - VHS.

Brief Encounters - Russian. VHS.

Chronicle of October 1917 - Interfilm. 1986. 30 minutes. Color. English. VHS. Showing events leading to the October Revolution in 1917 with lots of archival film, documents, and historical places as they looked then and now.

Contact 100: 6 Series - SUNY/Soviet TV Project. 1990. 30 minutes. Color. No Subtitles. VHS. A six volume set of 30 minute reportages from Soviet Television.

Contact 200: 6 Series - SUNY/Soviet TV Project. 1990. 30 minutes. Color. No Subtitles. VHS. A six volume set of 30 minute reportages from Soviet Television.

Cranes Are Flying (The) - Mikhail Kalatozov. 1957. 94 minutes. B/W. Subtitled. LD and VHS. One of the most acclaimed Soviet films of all time. Set during World War II, the film is a tragic story of the shattering of youthful ambitions and love by war.

Earth - Alexander Dovzhenko. 1930. 54 minutes. B/W. Silent w/Subtitles. VHS. A great silent masterpiece. This film presents the theme of the life cycle of man developed through constant juxtaposition and intertwining of images of life and death.

Fall of Berlin - 130 minutes. Russian. VHS.

Father Sergius - Yakov Protozanov. 1917. 114 minutes. B/W. Silent with music score. VHS. Intrigue, corruption and weakness in the Court of Czar Nickolai I; the secrets of the famous monk and miracle-healer.

Forgotten Tune For The Flute (A) - 1987. 140 minutes. Color. Subtitles. VHS/LD. A funny and warm romantic comedy. A married man who lives an ordered life falls in love with a young nurse while in the hospital and then discovers his true personality.

Freeze - Die - Come to life - Vitaly Kanievsky. 1992. 85 minutes. B/W. Subtitled. Shows life of Russian prisoners and their families in a Gulag.

Frontline: Russia, Love It or Leave It - PBS. 1986. 124 minutes. Color. English. VHS. A filmcrew accompanies a group of tourists as they journey across the Soviet Union.

Frontline: The Struggle for Russia - VHS.

Girl with the Hat Box (The) - VHS.

Good Luck, Gentlemen - Subtitled. 100 minutes. VHS.

House Under The Starry Sky (The) - Sergej Solovoyv. 1992. 90 minutes. Color. Subtitled. Mystery. Action. Focuses on a Jewish scientist, whose family is being haunted by a mysterious stranger.

Incident at Mapgrid 30-80 - Michail Tumanshvili. 1983. 90 minutes. Color. Russian subtitles. VHS. While the Soviet naval squadron is perfoming routine sea exercises, a flagship suddenly picks up a distress call from an American submarine. The Soviet salvage plane is prevented from boarding the sub, which maintains a secret nuclear arsenal, and the U.S . captain refuses aid. Meanwhile the submarine's computer malfunctions and the order is given for the cruise missiles to be launched.

Is It Easy To Be Young? - Abram Klyotskin. 1990. 80 minutes. Color. Russian/English and subtitles. Documentary film about russian youth of the late 80s.

Jazzman - Karen Shakhnazarov. 1983. 80 minutes. Color. Subtitled. VHS. A young Jazz enthusiast leaves music school where his musical interests could not be pursued. He forms a jazz band with two colorful street musicians and a saxophonist left over from the Czar's marching band.

Lady with a Dog (The) - 1960. 89 minutes. Black and white. Enflish subtitles. VHS. Anton Chechov's classic story about a bored, middle-aged, married banker from Moscow who meets a young married woman while on vacation in Yalta at the beginning of the century. They drift into an affair that turns into true love, yet the conventions of society and the couple's need to feel respectable force them to return to their old lives.

Legend of Suram Fortress (The) - 89 minutes. Color. Georgian Dialog. Subtitled. VHS.

Lesson (Russian) - 4 video series. VHS.

Little Vera - 1989. 101 minutes. Color. Subtitled. VHS. LD. The film that took Russia by storm. A sultry teenager is torn between her brooding husband and her bitter parents in a dead-end town.

Live from Moscow - 50 minutes. Russian. VHS.

Live from the U.S.S.R - Worldview, Inc.1989. Color. No subtitles. VHS. Excerpts from Soviet T.V. and readings from the Soviet Press.

Lozanov - 25 minutes. Russian. VHS.

Maxim Gorky - Interfilm. 1977. 30 minutes. Color. English. VHS. The life of Maxim Gorky, his life in Capri, his youth and his eventual return to the U.S.S.R. are presented. Lots of archival film footage.

Meeting of the Supreme Soviet - SCOLA. 1985. 60 minutes. Color. No Subtitles. VHS. Soviet Television presentation of the meeting of the Supreme Soviet.

Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears - Vladimir Menshou. 1980. 150 minutes. Color. Subtitled. VHS. Winner of Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. The funny, charming story of the trials and tribulations of three young women who come to Moscow to make good.

Oblomov - N. Mikhalkov. 1980. 145 minutes. Color. Subtitles. VHS. A beautiful adaptation of the famous Ivan Goncharov novel. Oblomov owns 350 serfs he's never met and just lies on his back in an apartment eating, sleeping, watching his finances dwindle and whining at his servant that he is not sensitive enough.

Overcoat (The) - 1962. 73 minutes. B/W. Subtitles. VHS. Nickolai Gogol's comic story about a clerk whose life is changed with the purchase of a new overcoat.

Peers - 3 video series. VHS.

Pirates of the 20th Century - 1986. 85 minutes. VHS. Color. Subtitles. The story of one of the russian commercial ships being captured.

Portrait of the Soviet Union-Siberia - (unknown). 1989. 60 minutes. Color. English. VHS. Portrays everyday life in Siberia. Introduces culture, geography and history of the coldest region of Russia.

Private Life - Edgar Ryazanov. 1983. 112 minutes. Color. Subtitled. VHS. Focuses on an executive who loses his position in the bureaucracy and finds out what his family and friends really think of him. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.

Promised Heaven - Eldar Ryazanov. 1992. 90 minutes. Color. Subtitles. VHS. Portrays a small community of homeless people outside of Moscow. Critiques contemporary Russian life.

Russian Bear - 1989. 60 minutes. Color. English. VHS. Documentary film about Turkmenia, one of the former Soviet Republics.

Russian Language and People - Films Incorporated. Episodes 1- 20. 25 minutes. Color. Russian/English. VHS. Very engaging instructional videos which introduce the Russian language, people, and culture.

Russian news # 1 - SCOLA. January 1992. 120 minutes. Subtitled. VHS. Cultural, political, international, domestic, and economic news from the popular Russian TV program newsÓ, which is presented every day at 9 p.m.

Russian news # 2 - SCOLA. October 26, 1990. 120 minutes. No Subtitles. VHS. Cultural, political, international, domestic, and economic news from the popular Russian TV program newsÓ, which is presented every day at 9 p.m.

Russian Revolution: October 1917 (The) - 1978. B/W. English. VHS. An excellent documentary presentation of the events of the October Revolution - from the defeat of the Czarist armies and famine in Russia to the overthrow of Nicholas I and the assumption of power by the Communists. Also discussed are the effects of the Revolution in Western Europe.

Russian School (The) - 1981. 180 minutes. Color. English. VHS. Introduces the Russian School of Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont.

Russian Stage 2 - 60 minutes. Russian. VHS.

Russian Stage 3 - Russian. VHS.

Russian TV - December 24, 1989. Presentation of popular Russian TV programs.

Russian TV - 1993. 180 minutes. TV programs: History of Moscow, Vysotski's life story (about a popular Russian singer), and the TV show Field of MiraclesÓ.

Sacrifice (The) - Andrei Tarkovsky. 1986. 145 minutes. Color. Swedish/ subtitles.LD. A dark and complex drama about redemption and the nuclear holocaust. When a middle-aged intellectual in retirement on an island in the Baltic Seas witnesses signs of what he believes to be a nuclear holocaust, he offers to make the ultimate sacrifice in return for the salvation of mankind.

Satan - Victor Aristov. 1992. 80 minutes. Color. Subtitled. VHS. A young man murders a little girl who is the daughter of his ex-lover, a high official in the local government. The movie offers insight into crime and corruption in contemporary Russian life.

Scarecrow - Rolan Bykov. 1985. 130 minutes. Color. Subtitled. VHS. A haunting and touching film about a little girl who is ostracized by her cruel classsmates. She learns about mob psychology the hard way.

Seagull (The) - Yuri Karassik. 1971. 99 minutes. Color. Subtitled. VHS. A sensitive, exquisitely acted version of Chekhov's great play, set in provincial Russia, a penetrating study of the languid melancholia of the residents of an isolated country estate.

Slave to Love (A) - Nikita Mikhalkov. 1978. 94 minutes. Color. Subtitled. VHS. A self-centered actress is swept up in the turmoil of the 1917 Russian Revolution while shooting a movie on location in the southern Crimea. As the actress falls in love with the crew's cameraman, she is drawn towards the revolutionaries and transformed from vanity to commitment.

Soviet Television - SCOLA. 1989. 365 minutes. Color. No Subtitles. VHS. Broadcasts from Soviet T.V. recorded on December 24, 1989. Features news from the U.S.S.R.

Soviet Television - SCOLA. 1989. 271 minutes. Color. No Subtitles. VHS. Broadcasts from Soviet T.V. recorded on December 22, 23, and 24, 1989. Features news from the U.S.S.R.

Summer to Remember (A) - Daneba/Talankin. 1960. 78 minutes. Black and white. Subtitled. VHS. A small, intimate portrait that recounts the adolescence of a young boy growing up in southern Russia, recalling the relationship with his mother and stepfather, and evoking an innocence and atmosphere he cannot reclaim.

Ten Days that Shook the World - Sergei Eisenstein. 1927. 120 minutes. B/W. Silent. VHS. Eisenstein's famous recreation of the October Revolution during which the Bolshevik's overthrew the Kerensky government.

TV USSR - October 26, 1990. VHS.

Twelve Chairs - Leonid Gaidai. 1970. 160 minutes. Color. No Subtitles. VHS. A comedy. Jewelry was hidden in one of a set of twelve chairs, which have been sent to the four corners of the Soviet Union by the government. An odd trio of con-men set off on an adventurous search to track down the chair concealing the jewels.

V.I. Lenin - Interfilm. 1977. 30 minutes. Color. English. VHS. An in-depth study of Lenin, his thoughts, activities, travels, and his leadership in the Great October Revolution.