MC Consensus: Iron Curtain Edition

[Spinal]

Submit your FIVE TO TEN favorite films from 'behind the Iron Curtain' and .... eventually .... I will give you a top TEN TO TWENTY. Films should have one of the countries listed below as a country of origin in IMDb:

Eligible Countries:
Russia/U.S.S.R (as well as Moldova, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Ukraine)
Poland
Czech Republic/Slovakia/Czechoslovakia
Hungary
Bulgaria
Romania
Albania

Ineligible Countries:
East Germany (we already covered them in the Germany thread)
Yugoslavia (and countries formerly a part of Yugoslavia; although Communist, the country is not typically included in the Iron Curtain grouping)

The point system is as follows

1st Place- 10 points
2nd Place - 8 points
3rd Place - 7 points
4th Place - 6 points
5th Place - 5 points
6th Place - 4.5 points
7th Place - 4 points
8th Place - 3.5 points
9th Place - 3 points
10th Place - 2.5 points

(Point system is weighted to give your top film a boost and to minimize the discrepancy between the films in the bottom half of your list.)

There will be no restrictions on short films. A list must have five films to be eligible. If you list more than ten films, I will assume that the top ten films are the ones you want to receive points. If you do not list your films 1-10, I will assign the points from the top on down.

If you decide to edit your ballot, please make a new post indicating the changes. I will give at least 24 hours warning before tallying votes.

If, for some reason, you would like to like to submit your ballot via private message, I will accept those as well. However, your ballot will be revealed after the final results are posted.

You may begin now.

[Melville]

Probably my favorite region.

1. Solaris
2. Andrei Rublev
3. Mirror
4. Ivan the Terrible, Part II
5. Tale of Tales
6. The Devil
7. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
8. Leviathan
9. The Turin Horse
10. The Double Life of Veronique

11. Hedgehog in the Hog
12. A Short Film About Killing
13. Winnie Pooh
14. Werckmeister Harmonies
15. 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days
16. The Ascent
17. Man with a Movie Camera
18. I am Cuba
19. The Cow
20. The Third Part of the Night

HMs: The Old Man and the Sea, My Love, Nostalgia, Come and See, Three Colors, The Dekalog

[Lazlo]

1. The Pianist
2. Son of Saul
3. Three Colors: Blue
4. Fateless
5. Three Colors: Red
6. Ida
7. Come and See
8. Oliver Twist
9. Solaris
10. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu

[Mysterious Dude]

1. Come and See (1985)
2. The Ear (1970)
3. The Red and the White (1967)
4. The Cremator (1969)
5. The Pied Piper (1986)
6. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)
7. Ashes and Diamonds (1958)
8. The Return (2003)
9. Battleship Potemkin (1925)
10. The Joke (1969)

It was painful to leave off these:

11. Freeze Die Come to Life (1990)
12. Ballad of a Soldier (1959)
13. By the Law (1926)
14. The Cranes Are Flying (1957)
15. Strike (1925)
16. The Glass Harmonica (1968)
17. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005)
18. Tale of Tales (1979)
19. October (1927)
20. Somewhere in Europe (1948)

[Dukefrukem]

1. Stalker
2. Solaris
3. The Pianist

[Spinal]

Posted instructions said that you need 10 films to be eligible. I have corrected it. Five is acceptable for this thread. Anything less will not be counted.

[Spinal]

1. The Firemen's Ball
2. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
3. Come and See
4. The Decalogue
5. The Shop on Main Street
6. Witchhammer
7. The Loves of a Blonde
8. Ballad of a Soldier
9. The Cranes Are Flying
10. Closely Watched Trains

Love that Czech New Wave.

[Spinal]

Well, this is interesting. Not very much overlap between the lists posted thus far. Should be a wide open race.

[baby doll]

Red Psalm (Miklós Jancsó, 1972)
Earth (Aleksandr Dovzhenko, 1930)
Ivan the Terrible (Sergei Eisenstein, 1944/58)
The Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975)
The Decalogue (Krzyzstof Kieślowski, 1988)
The Man With the Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
Mother Joan of the Angels (Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 1961)
Ashes and Diamonds (Andrzej Wajda, 1958)
Virile Games (Jan Å*vankmajer, 1988)
Damnation (Béla Tarr, 1988)

I was tempted to include Atom Egoyan's Calendar (a German-Armenian co-production), but anything post-1991 didn't seem Iron Curtainy enough.

[baby doll]

Edited my list to make it numerical.

[Stay Puft]

1. Khrustalyov, My Car!
2. Stalker
3. Tyll the Giant
4. My Friend Ivan Lapshin
5. Andrei Rublev
6. Solaris
7. Blind Chance
8. Fantastic Planet
9. 12:08 East of Bucharest
10. Hard to Be a God

[dreamdead]

1. The Mirror
2. Solaris
3. The Dekalog
4. The Man with the Movie Camera
5. Earth
6. Come and See
7. I am Cuba
8. Fantastic Planet
9. Werckmeister Harmonies
10. Three Colors: Blue

HM: Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Strike, Potemkin, The Ascent, Ivan the Terrible Part II, Stalker

All of these are absolutely amazing. No weak stuff here, o Iron Curtain.

[Peng]

1. Man with a Movie Camera
2. Son of Saul
3. The Pianist
4. 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days
5. Prisoner of the Mountains
6. Beyond the Hills
7. Battleship Potemkin
8. A Short Film About Love
9. Knife in the Water
10. The Double Life of Veronique

[Spinal]

Just as a reminder, Three Colors:Blue and Three Colors: Red both already earned a spot on our list for France. If you've included those films, I'm going to encourage you to select something else. If you choose to do so, please make a new post, quoting your old list and indicating the changes.

[Yxklyx]

1. Hukkle (Pálfi)
2. Andrei Rublev (Tarkovsky)
3. The Loves of a Blonde (Forman)
4. A Short Film About Killing (Kieslowski)
5. Mother Joan of the Angels (Kawalerowicz)
6. Closely Watched Trains (Menzel)
7. I Am Cuba (Kalatozov)
8. Come and See (Klimov)
8. A Short Film About Love (Kieslowski)
10. Night Train (Kawalerowicz)
...
11. King Lear (Kozintsev/Shapiro)

[Russ]

1. Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen (Pálfi, 2012) Hungary
2. Khrustalyov, My Car! (German, 1998) Russia
3. Bibliotheque Pascal (Hajdu, 2010) Romania
4. Szindbad (Huszárik, 1971) Hungary
5. Vortex / Duburys (Luksas, 2009) Lithuania
6. Fehérlófia (Jankovics, 1981) Hungary
7. Hukkle (Pálfi, 2002) Hungary
8. The Stone Wedding (Pita, Veroiu, 1973) Romania
9. The Cremator (Herz, 1969) Czechoslovakia
10. Daisies (Chytilová, 1966) Czechoslovakia

Honorable mention: Vinni-Pukh (Khitruk, 1969) Russia

I almost didn't vote because I haven't seen some of the major players (Stalker, The Mirror, Nostalgia, The Sacrifice). Yeah, I know, what's wrong with me?

[ContinentalOp]

1. Dersu Uzala
2. The Pianist
3. Solaris
4. Battleship Potemkin
5. Come and See
6. Strike

[Raiders]

1. The Ascent (1978)
2. Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)
3. Stalker (1979)
4. The Mirror (1975)
5. Mother and Son (1997)
6. Satantango (1994)
7. The Man with the Movie Camera (1929)
8. The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1992)
9. The Cranes Are Flying (1957)
10. Come and See (1985)

Man, no Sokurov fans here, huh? I know he's polarizing, but surprised to see him completely shut out so far. Feel like I should have added Russian Ark or Faust just because...

[Grouchy]

1. Dersu Uzala
2. The Pianist
3. The Firemen's Ball
4. A Short Film About Love
4. The Hourglass Sanatorium
5. Knife in the Water
6. Battleship Potemkin

[Spinal]

We have a varied, interesting top 10-12 that has emerged, but the vote is still very spread out and a lot can change. There's still time to shake up the list if you haven't added your vote already.

[dreamdead]

1. The Mirror
2. Solaris
3. The Dekalog
4. The Man with the Movie Camera
5. Earth
6. Come and See
7. I am Cuba
8. Fantastic Planet
9. Werckmeister Harmonies
10. Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen (Pálfi, 2012

HM: Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Strike, Potemkin, The Ascent, Ivan the Terrible Part II, Stalker

All of these are absolutely amazing. No weak stuff here, o Iron Curtain.

Swapped out Kieslowski's Blue. Haven't seen Double Life... in too long.

Sokurov's films and Daisies have always been on the to-get-to pile, but haven't ever occurred yet. I suspect that Daisies will happen this year, at least.

[Melville]

Sokurov's films and Daisies have always been on the to-get-to pile, but haven't ever occurred yet. I suspect that Daisies will happen this year, at least.
Daisies is great. Delightfully anarchic. I liked Sokurov's The Sun a lot, and I recall reading it was finally released in the US this year. Recommended (though I suspect you'd prefer Russian Ark).

[Russ]

Dreamdead, have you seen Gytis Luksas' 2009 Lithuanian film, Duburys (aka Vortex)? If not you should try to acquire. It's an epic, generational piece of late-period Soviet life in Lithuania. A hard and at times, gloomy, life, to be sure, but impeccably acted and beautifully lensed. I heartily recommend it.

http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/ff324/astrojester/Duburys_zps912t9m6r.jpg

[Spinal]

Busy work week. Apologies for the delay.

[PURPLE]

May not count, but may as well share the love.

1. The Devil (Zulawski)
2. Celebration in the Botanical Garden (Havetta)
3. Birds, Orphans and Fools (Jakubisko)
4. On the Silver Globe (Zulawski)
5. The Double Life of Veronique (Kieslowski)
6. Days of Eclipse (Sokurov)
7. Mother and Son (Sokurov)
8. Marketa Lazarova (Vlacil)
9. The Temptation of St. Tony (Ounpuu)
10. Visitor of a Museum (Lopushansky)
11. Miraculous Virgin (Oher)
12. Andrei Rublev (Tarkovsky)
13. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Parajanov)
14. Tuesday, After Christmas (Muntean)
15. Werckmeister Harmonies (Tarr)
16. I Am Twenty (Khutsiyev)
17. The Cremator (Herz)
18. The Hour-Glass Sanatorium (Has)
19. Freeze, Die, Come to Life! (Kanevsky)
20. The Second Circle (Sokurov)

[Spinal]

#10

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/VOJQLVTBEP_zpsccp4ah97.jpg
All Russia is rising – do we want to be the last to do so?


Battleship Potemkin

Director: Sergei Eisenstein

Year: 1925

A dramatized account of a great Russian naval mutiny and a resulting street demonstration which brought on a police massacre.

Ranked #11 or higher in every decennial Sight and Sound poll since 1952 ranking the greatest films of all-time.
Named the greatest film of all-time at the Brussels World's Fair in 1958 by an international panel of critics.
Ranked #3 in Empire Magazine's 100 Best Films of World Cinema.

Cinematographer Eduard Tissek, who shot the famous Odessa steps massacre sequence, used the location again the same year for a comic finale in Jewish Luck by director Solomon Mikhoels.

"Great as it undoubtedly is, it's not really a likable film; it's amazing, though--it keeps its freshness and its excitement, even if you resist its cartoon message. Perhaps no other movie has ever had such graphic strength in its images." - Pauline Kael

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/yakov-smirnoff_zpslb5i5rib.jpg
In Soviet Russia, steps walk all over YOU!

[Spinal]

#9

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/khrustalyov-my-car-khrustalyov-mashinu.9235_zpsqt5iegod.jpg
Dude, where's my car? *

* may not appear in all versions of the subtitles

Khrustalyov, My Car!

Director: Aleksey German

Year: 1998

A military doctor is arrested in Stalin's Russia in 1953 during an anti-Semitic political campaign accused of being a participant in so-called 'doctors' plot'.

Nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
Won 6 Nika Awards (Russian film industry) including Best Film and Best Director. Nominated for 3 others including Best Actress (Nina Ruslanova).

The film is based on a true historical incident called The Doctors' plot, considered to be the most dramatic episode of antisemitism in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin's regime. In 1952–53, a group of prominent Moscow doctors (predominantly Jews) were accused of conspiring to assassinate Soviet leaders. Many doctors, officials and others, both Jews and non-Jews, were promptly dismissed from their jobs and arrested. A few weeks after the death of Stalin, the new Soviet leadership stated a lack of evidence and the case was dropped. Soon after, the case was declared to have been fabricated.

"Filmed in high-contrast, deep-focus black and white, in cluttered, claustrophobic interiors and snowy exteriors, often in long takes and with a moving camera, it suggests The Magnificent Ambersons, especially in the way its baroque mise en scene is organized around a subjective camera and various activities in the foreground. But its overall ambiance certainly isn't nostalgic as with the Welles film; it leaves one with a corrosive and unforgettable whiff of the Stalinist era." - Jonathan Rosenbaum

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/yakov-smirnoff_zpslb5i5rib.jpg
In Soviet military, patients make house calls on YOU!

[Spinal]

#8

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/37a5e00155eff7dba6588704d18d30 92_zps6fqlgusa.jpg
Poetry is what's untranslatable.


The Decalogue

Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski

Year: 1989

Ten television drama films, each one based on one of the Ten Commandments.

Won Outstanding Cinematic Series from the National Board of Review.
Won 2 awards at the Venice Film Festival including the FIPRESCI Prize.
Won the Critics Award at the São Paulo International Film Festival.

Stanley Kubrick described it as the only masterpiece he could name in his lifetime.

"I taught a class on The Decalogue a few years ago, using tapes from England, and found that we lost a lot of time trying to match up the films and the commandments. There isn’t a one-to-one correlation; some films touch on more than one commandment, and others involve the whole ethical system suggested by the commandments. These are not simplistic illustrations of the rules, but stories that involve real people in the complexities of real problems." - Roger Ebert

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/yakov-smirnoff_zpslb5i5rib.jpg
In communist Poland, thy neighbor's wife shall not covet YOU!

[Spinal]

#7

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/Zdenek-Ziegler-Dersu-Uzala_zpsppqmsavo.jpg
How can man live in a box?


Dersu Uzala

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Year: 1975

The Russian army sends an explorer on an expedition to the snowy Siberian wilderness where he makes friends with a seasoned local hunter.

Won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Won 2 awards including the Golden Prize at the Moscow International Film Festival.

The film was made when a member of the Russian embassy contacted Kurosawa, asking him to make a Russian film for Russians, saying that Russia lacked, according to the ambassador, good writers and directors for films. Kurosawa had hoped to make the film as early as the 50's, but had trouble adapting the story to a Japanese setting, never thinking that one day he would be able to film it on location in Russia.

"When Akira Kurosawa, the gifted Japanese director, takes the unusual step of making a movie in co-production with the Soviet film industry, and when the first half is delicate and haunting and the second half is numb and ponderous, it is hard not to jump to conclusions about who did what. In any event, Dersu Uzala ... seems to be not so much co-produced as partitioned. Unequally." - Richard Eder, The New York Times, 1976

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/yakov-smirnoff_zpslb5i5rib.jpg
In Soviet Russia, Siberian winds blow YOU!

[Spinal]

#6

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/Andrei_Rublev_Russian_poster_z psqkozm5iv.jpg
I am what I am. You couldn't teach me integrity.


Andrei Rublev

Director: Andrei Tarkovsky

Year: 1966

The life, times and afflictions of the fifteenth-century Russian iconographer.

Won the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes.
Named Best Foreign Film by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics.

For the scene where the cow is on fire, it was covered in asbestos, which protected it from actually being burned. But for the scene where the horse falls down the stairs, it was shot in the head. The horse was acquired from a slaughterhouse where it was due to face a similar fate the next day.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/yakov-smirnoff_zpslb5i5rib.jpg
In Soviet Russia, when you go to movie shoot, they shoot YOU!

"When Tarkovsky made Andrei Rublev, he conceived it as a boldly free-form consideration of the responsibility of the artist (any artist) to himself and to the world that gave him life. It was thus almost inevitable that the completed film would go on to illustrate everything that can happen to an artist, in this case Tarkovsky, when he refuses to mind the strictures of authoritarian rule." - Vincent Canby, The New York Times, 1992

[Spinal]

#5

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/Man_with_a_movie_camera_zpsdug wcor6.jpg
This new experimentation work by Kino-Eye is directed towards the creation of an authentically international absolute language of cinema.


Man with a Movie Camera

Director: Dziga Vertov

Year: 1929

A man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.

Named the #8 film of all-time in the 2012 Sight & Sound poll.
Named the best documentary of all-time by Sight & Sound in 2014.

The pace of the film's editing was more than four times faster than a typical 1929 feature, with approximately 1,775 separate shots.

"It is a disjointed array of scenes in which the producer, Dziga Vertoff, does not take into consideration the fact that the human eye fixes for a certain space of time that which holds the attention ... As a matter of fact it becomes quite tedious and the hour that it lasts seems at least an hour and a half. It is also somewhat confusing." - Mordaunt Hall, The New York Times, 1929

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/yakov-smirnoff_zpslb5i5rib.jpg
In Soviet Russia, man with camera is always watching YOU!

[Spinal]

#4

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/Mirror_Poland_MPOTW_zpsavnjfqm v.jpg
And i can't wait to see this dream in which I'll be a child again and feel happy again because everything will still be ahead, everything will be possible


The Mirror

Director: Andrei Tarkovsky

Year: 1975

A dying man in his forties remembers his past. His childhood, his mother, the war, personal moments and things that tell of the recent history of all the Russian nation.

Named the #9 film of all-time in the 2012 Sight & Sound directors poll.

To create the effect of the wind making waves through the crops in the field outside the cabin in the woods, Tarkovsky had two helicopters landed behind the camera and would switch on the rotors when he wanted the wind to start.

"In the way he has created Mirror — using techniques familiar to viewers of Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman pictures, but not to many Soviet moviegoers—Mr. Tarkovsky seems to make it clear that he is unconcerned with the abuse he has taken for some of his earlier films." - James F. Clarity, The New York Times

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/yakov-smirnoff_zpslb5i5rib.jpg
In Soviet Russia, mirrors are two-way. When you look at reflection, reflection looks at YOU!

[Spinal]

#3

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/SOLARIS_300dpi_zpshjbjqsf3.jpg
In this situation mediocrity and genius are equally useless!


Solaris

Director: Andrei Tarkovsky

Year: 1972

A psychologist is sent to a station orbiting a distant planet in order to discover what has caused the crew to go insane.

Won 2 awards at Cannes including the Grand Prize of the Jury.

Although it was the most widely seen of Tarkovsky's films outside of the Soviet Union, Tarkovsky himself considered it the least favorite of the films he directed.

"Tarkovsky doesn't script so much as paint and compose; his work is a collection of living paintings, or visual symphonies, rather than narrative movies. Though Solaris is one of the late director's most plot-coherent and accessible films, its plot is still a mere conduit for mood, atmosphere and philosophy." - Desson Howe, The Washington Post

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/yakov-smirnoff_zpslb5i5rib.jpg
In outer space, citizens of various nations operate under international space law. The five treaties and agreements of international space law cover non-appropriation of outer space by any one country, arms control, the freedom of exploration, liability for damage caused by space objects, the safety and rescue of spacecraft and astronauts, the prevention of harmful interference with space activities and the environment, the notification and registration of space activities, scientific investigation and the exploitation of natural resources in outer space and the settlement of disputes. The United Nations General Assembly adopted five declarations and legal principles which encourage exercising the international laws, as well as unified communication between countries.

The five declarations and principles are ...

The Declaration of Legal Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Uses of Outer Space:
All space exploration will be done with good intentions and is equally open to all States that comply with international law. No one nation may claim ownership of outer space or any celestial body. Activities carried out in space must abide by the international law and the nations undergoing these said activities must accept responsibility for the governmental or non-governmental agency involved. Objects launched into space are subject to their nation of belonging, including people. Objects, parts, and components discovered outside the jurisdiction of a nation will be returned upon identification. If a nation launches an object into space, they are responsible for any damages that occur internationally.

The Principles Governing the Use by States of Artificial Earth Satellites for International Direct Television Broadcasting:
Activities of this nature must be transpire in accordance with the sovereign rights of States. Said activities should promote the free dissemination and mutual exchange of information and knowledge in cultural and scientific fields, assist in educational, social and economic development, particularly in the developing countries, enhance the qualities of life of all peoples and provide recreation with due respect to the political and cultural integrity of States. All States have equal rights to pursue these activities and must maintain responsibility for anything carried out under their boundaries of authority. States planning activities need to contact the Secretary-General of the United Nations with details of the undergoing activities.

The Principles Relating to Remote Sensing of the Earth from Outer Space:
Fifteen principles are stated under this category. The basic understanding comes from these descriptions given by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs -
(a) The term "remote sensing" means the sensing of the Earth's surface from space by making use of the properties of electromagnetic waves emitted, reflected or diffracted by the sensed objects, for the purpose of improving natural resources management, land use and the protection of the environment;
(b) The term "primary data" means those raw data that are acquired by remote sensors borne by a space object and that are transmitted or delivered to the ground from space by telemetry in the form of electromagnetic signals, by photographic film, magnetic tape or any other means;
(c) The term "processed data" means the products resulting from the processing of the primary data, needed to make such data usable;
(d) The term "analysed information" means the information resulting from the interpretation of processed data, inputs of data and knowledge from other sources;
(e) The term "remote sensing activities" means the operation of remote sensing space systems, primary data collection and storage stations, and activities in processing, interpreting and disseminating the processed data.

The Principles Relevant to the Use of Nuclear Power Sources in Outer Space:
States launching space objects with nuclear power sources on board shall endeavor to protect individuals, populations and the biosphere against radiological hazards. The design and use of space objects with nuclear power sources on board shall ensure, with a high degree of confidence, that the hazards, in foreseeable operational or accidental circumstances, are kept below acceptable levels.

The Declaration on International Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for the Benefit and in the Interest of All States, Taking into Particular Account the Needs of Developing Countries:
States are free to determine all aspects of their participation in international cooperation in the exploration and use of outer space on an equitable and mutually acceptable basis. All States, particularly those with relevant space capabilities and with programs for the exploration and use of outer space, should contribute to promoting and fostering international cooperation on an equitable and mutually acceptable basis. In this context, particular attention should be given to the benefit for and the interests of developing countries and countries with incipient space programs stemming from such international cooperation conducted with countries with more advanced space capabilities. International cooperation should be conducted in the modes that are considered most effective and appropriate by the countries concerned, including governmental and non-governmental; commercial and non-commercial; global, multilateral, regional or bilateral; and international cooperation among countries in all levels of development.

Forgive me, I just got rolling there. But it's a complex, intricate topic and I wouldn't want to just resort to broad, simplistic generalizations.

[Spinal]

#2

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/pianist-poster_zpsbxlzfkec.jpg
Thank God, not me. He wants us to survive. Well, that's what we have to believe.


The Pianist

Director: Roman Polanski

Year: 2002

A Polish Jewish musician struggles to survive the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto of World War II.

Won 2 Academy Awards including Best Director, Best Actor (Adrien Brody) and Best Adapted Screenplay. Nominated for 4 others including Best Picture.
Won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
Nominated for Best Motion Picture - Drama and Best Actor - Drama (Brody) at the Golden Globes.
Won Best Film and Best Director at the BAFTA awards. Nominated for 5 others.
Nominated for Best Actor (Brody) at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Won 7 César Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Brody). Nominated for 3 others.
Nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Motion Picture by the Directors Guild of America.
Won 4 awards from the National Society for Film Critics including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Brody) and Best Screenplay.
Won 8 Polish Film Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. Nominated for 5 others.

Winning at the age of 29, Brody remains the youngest Best Actor Oscar winner of all-time.

"The Pianist is the product of an extremely knowing cinematic mind. As Szpilman goes from one hiding place to another, much of the action is seen from his perspective, as he looks out a window. Polanski resists the temptation ever to move in for a close-up of what Szpilman is looking at. In one scene, a bomb explodes nearby, and on the soundtrack we hear a high-pitched whistling that simulates what Szpilman is hearing. Polanski puts us into Szpilman's room, then puts us into his head. It's a nerve-shattering experience." - Mick LaSalle, The San Francisco Chronicle

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/yakov-smirnoff_zpslb5i5rib.jpg
Look, I don't know. Maybe I should not touch this one. I mean, I think it can be valuable to find humor in dark circumstances. After all, this is how I build career. But some things are just too horrible for words. And who am I to make light of Holocaust? I've built up a good thing in Branson and would not want to disrupt it by getting in stupid Twitter controversy just for the sake of adding levity to movie list on pathetic internet message board. Who still uses this method of discussion, anyway? I mean, come on, people. Time to stop living in past. You Americans have 500 better ways to piss away your short time on Earth just by picking up cell phones! What a country! You can finish list without me. Smirnoff is out! In Soviet Russia, you do not drop mic, Mikhail drops in on YOU!

[Winston*]

Hmm. Didn't realise The Pianist was held in such high esteem. It's not even my favourite Polish Holocaust film.

[Spinal]

#1

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Rub shit all over him ... Ain't got enough. We're too poor.


Come and See

Director: Elem Klimov

Year: 1985

After finding an old rifle, a young boy joins the Soviet resistance movement against ruthless German forces and experiences the horrors of World War II.

Won 2 awards including the Golden Prize at the Moscow International Film Festival.

Live ammunition was used in the film. In interviews, actor Aleksey Kravchenko has described actual bullets passing approximately 10 centimeters above his head.

"Produced to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Russia's triumph over the Germans in WWII, Elem Klimov's searing Come And See paints a real historical event as an expressionist nightmare, full of abstract horrors and heightened surrealism. In this way and others, it's the Russian cousin to Apocalypse Now, but Klimov's episodic journey of the soul is framed instead as a coming-of-age story, told through the widened eyes of a teenage boy who wakes to the existence of evil in the world." - Mick LaSalle, The San Francisco Chronicle







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[Spinal]

1. Come and See (36.5)
2. The Pianist (33)
3. Solaris (32.5)
4. The Mirror (29)
5. Man With the Movie Camera (24.5)
6. Andrei Rublev (21)
7. Dersu Uzala (20)
8. The Decalogue (18)
9. Khrustalyov, My Car! (18)
10. Battleship Potemkin (17.5)

Ties are broken when possible with the film receiving the most number of mentions getting the top spot.

[baby doll]

Disappointed (but not surprised) to see The Pianist so high on the list, since watching the film again recently, it felt like Polanski went out of his way to make the most conventional movie he possibly could. (This certainly has none of the audacity of Verhoeven's Black Book.)

[Spinal]

I'm disappointed we couldn't get a single Czech film in the top 10. Baffling.

[baby doll]

I'm disappointed we couldn't get a single Czech film in the top 10. Baffling.Probably not enough chicks on this board. When I've shown Daisies to lady friends, they tended to laugh more than I did.

[baby doll]

I also just realized that Stalker didn't crack the top ten. Then again, it's not as though Tarkovsky were unrepresented.

[PURPLE]

I'm disappointed we couldn't get a single Czech film in the top 10. Baffling.Too much good stuff, that's clearly the problem. This list was dominated by the votes of those who have seen the least, though, it seems to me, as the love got spread quite thing amongst a huge selection of amazing films. I would take any of the individual lists from those who have seen a lot of films from the area over the overall list any day.

[Melville]

The Pianist at number two is really weird. I'd be interested in hearing what people love about it.

Fun presentation. Learned a lot about the UN's policies on space exploration.

[Russ]

Just watched Zulawski's astonishing On the Silver Globe. Definitely would've made my list.

[Grouchy]

Well, I will for one defend The Pianist. I think it's the best Holocaust film ever made, bar none. It's deprived of all sentimentality until the very end and I feel the narrow focus really helps it feel testimonial, unique and true. Also, Spilzman's character is compelling for precisely the reasons that might seem wrong to some. Since he's basically apolitical and passive for most of the film, he generates a kind of violent urgency on me as an audience. I feel like he should be doing something although I'm not really sure what at any given moment.

The two most glaring omissions on the list for me are The Firemen's Ball and The Hourglass Sanatorium.

[Melville]

Well, I will for one defend The Pianist. I think it's the best Holocaust film ever made, bar none. It's deprived of all sentimentality until the very end and I feel the narrow focus really helps it feel testimonial, unique and true. Also, Spilzman's character is compelling for precisely the reasons that might seem wrong to some. Since he's basically apolitical and passive for most of the film, he generates a kind of violent urgency on me as an audience. I feel like he should be doing something although I'm not really sure what at any given moment.
Fair enough. I haven't seen it since its release, but I remember it falling pretty flat for me. Rather than bringing something distinct to the genre, it just felt like a litany of predictable horrors. I think, as far as testimonials go, Shoah would be more affecting for me, though I haven't seen it. Walking through Anne Frank's house, or the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, was certainly a lot more affecting. That might seem like an unfair comparison, but because the Holocaust has been presented so many times in so many ways, it can end up feeling too familiar, which it never should, and while something with the real-life immediacy of Anne Frank's house breaks through that familiarity, The Pianist, for me, ended up reinforcing it.

[Winston*]

Well, I will for one defend The Pianist. I think it's the best Holocaust film ever made, bar none. It's deprived of all sentimentality until the very end


I think the right turn into sentimentality in the third act is what kills the film for me. It turns a story about impotence and loss into a story about the triumph of the power of art or some bullshit.

[Winston*]

Walking through Anne Frank's house, or the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, was certainly a lot more affecting.

I went to Auschwitz-Birkenau last year. That was rough.