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ANNA CROSS, THE
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Our Price: $49.95
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The fourth adaptation of an Anton Chekhov work by Ukrainian-born filmmaker Isidor Annensky, The Anna Cross features a marvelous ensemble cast led by the beautiful Alla Larionova. It tells the tale of a young girl who attempts to help her poor family by agreeing to marry a rich older man. Over time, her luxurious surroundings overshadow her former loved ones. Co-starring Vladimir Vladislavsky, Aleksandr Sashin-Nikolsky, Mikhail Zharov, and Aleksandr Vertinsky. In Russian with optional English subtitles. Isidor Annensky---USSR---1954---87 mins.
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BALLAD OF A SOLDIER
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Our Price: $29.95
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Grigori Chukhrai's poetic and elegiac war story is one of the major works of post-war Russian cinema, detailing the odd, bemused moments of a soldier's earnest seduction of a country girl while visiting his mother. The film is also devastating at capturing the dread, pain and humiliation of war, and its effects on the people. "The picture flows in such a swift, poetic way that the tragedy of it is concealed by a gentle lyric quality" (New York Times). With Vladimir Ivashov and Zhanna Prokhorenko. Russian with English subtitles. Grigori Chukhrai---USSR---1959---89 mins.
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CHAPAEV
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Our Price: $39.95
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A stirring account of a beloved hero of the Russian Revolution. Chapayev was an illiterate Russian who served in the Czar's army and, after the Revolution, formed his own forces and fought on the side of the Red Army against the Whites. Full of incredible images, the film was based on the personal experiences of the filmmakers. Also known as Chapaev. In Russian with optional English and French subtitles. Serge Vasilyev/Georgi Vasilyev---USSR---1934---92 mins.
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CHILDHOOD OF MAXIM GORKY
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Our Price: $24.99
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The first film in Mark Donskoi's classic Gorky Trilogy follows the early years of the great Russian writer. Placed into his grandparent's custody, the boy is treated poorly by his brutal grandfather but with kindness and generosity by his grandmother. His experiences help shape his feelings for the dignity of the lower class and his compassion for the underdog. "...charged with a lyric, revolutionary romanticism...This first film has a wonderful spaciousness; the landscapes are vast and serene" (Pauline Kael, The New Yorker). A.k.a. My Childhood. In Russian with English subtitles. Mark Donskoi---USSR---1938---98 mins.
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CRANES ARE FLYING
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Our Price: $29.95
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A film that marked a radical opening for Soviet cinema. The romantic, lyrical story concerns a beautiful young girl (Tatiana Samoilova) caught up in the horrors of war. When her fiance (Alexei Batalov) goes off to war, she marries a man whom she does not love and who raped her, is evacuated to Siberia and, after the war, learns of her fiance's death. But she refuses to believe it and waits for his return. A great international success, which won the Palme d'Or and Best Director and Best Actress honors at Cannes. Russian with English Mikhail Kalatozov---USSR---1957---94 mins.
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END SAINT PETERSBURG/ DESERTER
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Our Price: $24.99
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Two cinematic milestones from Vsevolod I. Pudovkin, who, along with Eisenstein and Dovzhenko, established Soviet cinema as one of the most important centers of international film art. The End of Saint Petersburg (1927, 75 mins.) was commissioned, like Eisenstein's Ten Days That Shook the World to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Russian Revolution. It concentrates on a peasant who comes to St. Petersburg for a visit and becomes "politicized," believing in strike and revolution. Pudovkin focuses on the individual, with the emotional power of the film emerging from seeing the effects of the Revolution on common people. The film is presented with English titles. Deserter (1933, 105 mins.) daringly violated the freshly established law of natural sound with a powerful barrage of aural effects that mirror the film's dynamic style of montage. The story concerns a German dockworker who is led by labor unrest to the Soviet Union, where he is inspired to take up the cause of his fellow man. In Russian with English subtitles. Both features Vsevolod Pudovkin---USSR---1927/1933---180 mins.
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FORTY-FIRST, THE
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Our Price: $29.95
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At the onset of the Khrushchev Thaw, Grigori Chukhrai (Ballad of a Soldier) directed this rare masterpiece set during the Russian Civil War. Oleg Strizhenov (War and Peace) and Izolda Izvitskaya play a Red Army guard and a White Army militant prisoner who are shipwrecked on a desert island. As they learn to overcome conflicting ideologies, they fall for one another. Unfortunately, history is working against their doomed love. Based on a short story by Boris Lavrenyov, with beautiful cinematography by Sergei Urusevsky (The Cranes Are Flying). In Russian with English subtitles. Grigori Chukhrai---USSR---1956---87 mins.
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FORTY-FIRST, THE
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Our Price: $49.00
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At the onset of the Khrushchev Thaw, Grigori Chukhrai (Ballad of a Soldier) directed this masterpiece about doomed love set during the Russian Civil War.
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ILYA MUROMETS
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Our Price: $39.95
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Alexander Ptushko's 1956 classic is Soviet filmmaking on an epic scale: the first widescreen feature ever produced in the USSR, Ptushko's fantasy adventure also set an all-time world cinema record by employing 106,000 extras and 11,000 horses in its battle scenes. Boris Andreyev plays the questing title character, a mythical Russian hero of the Middle Ages who challenges fearsome monsters including Nightingale the Robber and Gorynych the Serpent. Spectacular both in scope and execution, Ptushko's film is an enduring classic. In Russian with English subtitles. Alexander Ptushko---USSR---1956---94 mins.
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LADY WITH THE DOG, THE (DVD-R)
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Our Price: $29.95
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Based on the Chekhov short story of the same name, The Lady with the Dog (Dama s sobachkoy) is a forgotten masterpiece from a tense period during the Khrushchev thaw. Told with little dialogue and minimal action, this romantic drama is a bittersweet portrait of a doomed love affair between Dmitri, a bank official, and Anna, a well-to-do young woman. The two fall in love while on vacation in Yalta around the turn of the century, but because each is already married, they can only see one another once a year. Director Iosif Heifitz not only adapts the events of the Chekhov story but captures the legendary writer's restrained tone and atmosphere of desperation. Nominated for the Golden Palm at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival. In Russian with English subtitles.
Josef Heifitz---USSR---1960---89 mins.
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LANDMARKS OF EARLY SOVIET FILM
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Our Price: $69.99
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From Flicker Alley comes this collection of eight groundbreaking films from the Soviet silent era, including films by Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, Victor Turin, Esther Shub, Boris Barnet, Mikhail Kalatozov, and Lev "The Effect" Kuleshov. With new musical scores and original Russian intertitles with English subtitles.
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LE PRINTEMPS ( SPRING ) BECHA
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Our Price: $39.95
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Lyubov Orlova (Volga-Volga) stars with Nikolai Cherkasov (Ivan the Terrible) in her husband Grigori's popular musical comedy about two look-alikes--one a reserved female scientist, the other a lively singer--who swap identities in order to find love and happiness. Won for Best Original Score and was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 1947 Venice Film Festival. Also known as Becha. In Russian with French subtitles. Grigori Alexandrov---USSR---1947---104 mins.
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LES MARINS DE KRONSTADT
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Our Price: $39.95
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Acclaimed internationally when first released, We Are From Kronstadt is one of those classic films that all-too-few people have actually seen. It depicts a 1919 naval detachment that fought off invading White Army forces during the post-revolution Russian Civil War. While clearly possessing propagandist qualities, the film is often quite poetic visually, stepping away somewhat from the naturalism prescribed by authorities at the time. The film was honored at the 1937 Paris World's Fair. In Russian. Yefim Dzigan---USSR---1936---88 mins.
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LETTER NEVER SENT (CRITERION)
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Our Price: $19.95
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The director and cinematographer of The Cranes Are Flying traveled deep into Siberia to tell this adventure story about an expedition of geologists who get stranded.
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OUTSKIRTS / GIRL WITH HATBOX
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Our Price: $24.99
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Two classics of Soviet-era cinema from legendary director Boris Barnet. Long unavailable in the United States, The Outskirts (1933) looks at the relationships and loyalties between a German prisoner of war and his captors in a remote village during WWI. The fast-paced silent film, The Girl with the Hatbox (1927), features Anna Sten as a working girl who is given a seemingly worthless lottery ticket instead of her wages by her unscrupulous employer. The ticket wins her a fortune, and a madcap chase ensues to possess the ticket--and Anna's love. In Russian with English subtitles. Boris Barnet---USSR---1933/1927---164 mins.
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QUIET FLOWS THE DON
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Our Price: $39.95
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Filmed during a revival in Soviet cinema that accompanied the Khrushchev Thaw, literary adaptations like Quiet Flows the Don, based on Mikhail Sholokhov's Nobel Prize-winning novel, were both prominent and powerful. This sprawling social realist epic is about the Russian Revolution as told through the tender relationship of two young lovers in a small village and the mammoth upheavals that surround them. Marketed as "the Soviet Gone With the Wind," Gerasimov's production is bolstered by breathtaking color photography and Yuri Levitin's luxuriant score. In Russian with optional Sergei Gerasimov---USSR---1957---330 mins.
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STONE FLOWER/ KAMENNY TSVETOK
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Our Price: $49.95
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Alexandr Ptushko's ostentatious film based on Pavel Bazhov's fairy tale about an inquisitive stone-carving apprentice who is lured away from his village bride by the Queen of Copper Mountain. J. Hoberman of The Village Voice describes the fairy queen's colorful grotto as "a garish yet modest Melies-like underworld." Won the award for Best Color at the first Cannes Film Festival thanks to its German Agfacolor film stock. In Russian with English Alexander Ptushko---USSR---1946---83 mins.
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