Russian Cinema

SPOTLIGHT ON CANNES 2021: UN CERTAIN REGARD — UNCLENCHING THE FISTS —Kira Kovalenko

Articles Blog, Cannes, Cannes Film Festival, Cinema, Culture, Current Affairs, Directors, Film Festivals, Filmmaking, International Cinema, Russian Cinema, Women Filmmakers

June 29, 2021

“High in the mountains of North Ossetia, a small mining town of Mizur nestles between the sheer cliffs. Following certain…

SPOTLIGHT ON CANNES 2021: UN CERTAIN REGARD — DELO —Alexey German Jr.

Articles Blog, Cannes, Cannes Film Festival, Cinema, Culture, Current Affairs, Directors, Film, Film Festivals, Russian Cinema

June 24, 2021

“David, a university professor, takes to social media to criticize his city’s administration. But instead of the mayor’s dodgy dealings…

SPOTLIGHT ON CANNES 2021: IN COMPETITION — PETROV’S FLU —Kirill Serebrennokov

Art House, Articles Blog, Russian Cinema

June 17, 2021

A day in the life of a comic book artist and his family in post-Soviet Russia. While suffering from the…

COME AND SEE — THE CRITERION COLLECTION

Articles Blog, Criterion, Culture, Film, Film Criticism, Filmmaking, Russian Cinema, War

August 18, 2020

“Come and See” won the Moscow Film Festival’s Grand Prize in 1985. Afterward, Klimov was elected as first secretary of…

STALKER — THE CRITERION COLLECTION

Art Film, Capsules Blog, Criterion Collection, FOUR STARS, Podcast, Russian Cinema

June 27, 2017

Jean Paul Sartre’s ‘No Exit’ meets ‘Waiting For Godot” in Chernobyl in this influential filmic think piece from visionary Russian…

THE CRANES ARE FLYING — CLASSIC FILM PICK

Classic Cinema, FIVE STARS, Reviews Blog, Russian Cinema, Video Essay, War, Women's Cinema

May 22, 2017

The cranes of the film’s title refer to the large majestic fowl admired by a couple of Russian working class…

SUPPORT INDEPENDENT FILM CRITICISM

Criterion Collection, Film, FIVE STARS, Reviews Blog, Russian Cinema,

May 20, 2017

This website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel. Groupthink doesn’t live here, critical thought does. Cole Smithey.

SOLARIS — THE CRITERION COLLECTION

Capsules Blog, Criterion Collection, FIVE STARS, Russian Cinema, Sci-Fi, Video Essay

June 16, 2015

Andrei Tarkovsky’s prodigious ability to conceptualize grand-scale narrative structure with a fluid sense cinematic time continues to influence filmmakers even…

THE CRANES ARE FLYING — THE CRITERION COLLECTION

Capsules Blog, Criterion Collection, FIVE STARS, Russian Cinema, Video Essay, War, Women's Cinema

May 21, 2014

“The Cranes Are Flying” benefits greatly from Tatyana Samoylova’s sturdy performance; her youthful beauty shifts from soft to hard over…

COME AND SEE — THE CRITERION COLLECTION

Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, FIVE STARS, Russian Cinema, Video Essay, War

July 23, 2013

One of the most emotionally challenging and brilliant films of all time, Stalingrad-born Elem Klimov’s “Come and See” (1985) is…

THE BEST WAR FILM EVER MADE — ELEM KLIMOV’S “COME AND SEE”

Art House, Articles Blog, Criterion, Culture, Russian Cinema, War

July 19, 2009

Stalingrad-born Elem Klimov’s “Come and See” is an undiluted expression of cinematic poetry in the service of an unspeakably turbulent,…

PERESTROIKA

Capsules Blog, Drama, Political History, Russian Cinema, THREE STARS

April 12, 2009

Writer/director Slava Tsukerman (“Liquid Sky”) examines early post-communist Russia with a determinedly left-handed approach that comes across in the experiences…