Russian Ark

I could easily tell that this was a copy off of Tarkovsky. Mirror gave me motion sickness at the end of it. This film gave me motion sickness halfway through it. The filming was similar. It was more like cameraman was dreaming therefore it was thrown around a bit, which caused me to get nauseated.
I did recognize the focus on hands. That theme was also viewed in Mirror. The elements were present; water in the form of snow, the plants. There was also the sense of being lost in time. There seemed to be a time line but it would be tossed back and forth between current times and past times. It also had an eerie feel to it. In Mirror, the eeriness came from the fact that the mother seemed to age but the children stayed young. In Russian Ark, the eeriness came from the fact that we weren't sure what this traveling was suppose to mean. It could have been his mind forming a dream before he died so that the transition was easier for him. The only reason I'm led to believe this is because at the very end he finds that doorway that leads to the water. It's almost as if he had been on a quest the entire time trying to find this passageway into a new realm.

The Return. . .Not of the King but the Father

There were definitely "visual quotes" in this film from Tarkovsky. The elements were clearly apparent. The kids and father end up on an island with no other people. The island was sandy but had many trees. They spent most of their time on the beach. Throughout the film, there were long scenic shots of birds, wind, water, fire, trees, and fields of long grass. The shot that I believe to be the most like Tarkovsky is the last scene where the camera where it pans toward the water and then slowly pulls aways into the trees. This reminded me of the last scene in Mirror where he's following the mother with the kids and then pulls back into the trees. The Return, at this moment, has the same distancing feeling like Mirror.
I also enjoyed the characters facial expressions and the the close up shots of them. Throughout the movie, Ivan constantly looks mad. He has the same facial expression on his face and you know how he's feeling. I found that Andrey had more of a worried expression on his face. The boat scene when the kids are bringing their dead father back is my favorite scene for this. Even though Ivan should seem guilty for the death of his father, he still looks angry. Andrey, on the other hand, carries a worried and sad expression on his face. There isn't very much smiling from the kids seen throughout the movie. I think the most smiling you see is at the very end when they are showing the photos that had been taken. That's the only time you actually see them smiling for a long period of time. Otherwise it is just short glimpses of smiles and then the kids are back to their original expression.
I thought that there was good foreshadowing in this movie. The best one that sticks out in my mind is when Ivan is told he has to clean the dishes because he's the last one done eating. He gets angry and throws his father's bowl into the lake and it sinks. At the end when they finally get back to mainland, Ivan is the last to get out of the boat and the father ends up slowly sinking just like the bowl. There was also the scene with Ivan fishing earlier in the morning by himself. He had caught a couple of fish and ended up letting them go but the one they had caught the night before had been eaten. I think this is similar to how the two boys survived the trip to the island and the father did not. Also, Ivan's fear of heights at the beginning can make one believe that he won't jump at the end. He was too terrified even if he was mad at his father. If there was water there before and he wouldn't jump, why would he jump when there was no water?

Commisar

This movie had millions of questions floating through my head. First, I wondered whether or not the family where Vavilova was staying would accept her when they found out she was pregnant. When Maria realized that she was I was happy to see how her attitude toward her changed and how she was being nice but very blunt with her about children. Then I wondered what was going to happen to her when she was having the baby. Those memories/visions were a bit scary. Also, when the children were playing and they attacked the oldest I was afraid she might really get hurt. They seemed so violent toward her. I'm amazed she made it out without bleeding. Then at the end when they were in the bomb shelter, I was wondering if they would make it. The dancing led me to believe that they would survive. Dancing, to me, is just something that symbolizes being free and happy. As long as they weren't afraid of what was going to happen everything would turn out fine. Then when Vavilova decided to leave her baby behind, I wondered what was going to happen to him and why did she just now decide to go back and fight. So many questions that kept me wondering what was going to happen next.
Vavilova's childbirth gave her memories/visions. I believed this to be how she would explain childbirth to someone if they ever asked her what it was like. I know that women nowadays will give a whole variety of answers so I figure that's what the flashbacks were for. She knew nothing else so she thought of trying to push a canon through sand. I imagine that would be very hard and that it would put a lot of stress on the body. I really liked this scene for that reason. I think very few women today would say that giving birth is like trying to push a canon through the sand.

No Crying Here, Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears

I really enjoyed this film. It seemed more down to earth and easier to relate too. I also enjoyed how it showed the changes in Russia from the Thaw to the era of Stagnation. Foreign names were less heard of in the era of Stagnation, there were more vehicles on the road, and it seemed like everyone was busy. Although movies tend to over exaggerate how things were actually, there still had to be some truth to what was happening around this time period. It also seemed that there were still very few men around. The scene where Katerina is talking to the lady at the matchmaker's place, expressed that there were two women to every forty-year-old man. Whether or not that statistic is true, it still gets the point across that there were more women.
There is one thing I must draw attention to and that is Rudolph's character. I was very upset when he left Katerina and about some of the things he said to her. He said that her getting pregnant was her own fault. How can a woman get pregnant by herself? That's just impossible. I've heard this line from several movies and every time I hear it it aggravates me. I think he was an irresponsible dolt. I did not like him at all. He deserved it when Katerina said that he couldn't see her daughter. After all, she got herself pregnant so he couldn't possibly claim her as his daughter. He wasn't even there while she was growing up. I'm so glad that Katerina met Gosha and fell in love with him so she didn't get back with Rudolph. Gosha seemed to be a better man, even if he did come on strong at the beginning. He just seemed to know that they were going to end up together. Too bad that doesn't happen in real life all the time.

Kidnapping Caucasian Style

Wow after a whole week of sad and/or depressing films, I wasn't sure what to think of this film. It had the same Russian style of comedy where it seems like it's trying to be serious but at the same time funny. I don't understand the Russians idea of comedy. It just doesn't seem funny to me.
There were some similarites to Irony of Fate. There was a woman that more than one man liked, Nadya in Irony of Fate and Nina in Kidnapping Caucasian Style. They like to make fun of drinking. They show how drinking leads to bad incidents like getting put on a plane they weren't suppose to be on or getting thrown in an asylum. Also, the characters keep to one area in the town that they are in. They have a simple setting.
Kidnapping Caucasian Style had more characters in it. There were the three kidnappers that reminded me of Laurel and Hardy. They also had more comedic songs like the one Nina sings about the bears.
Overall, I think it was a decent comedy. As I said before, I wasn't really ready for a comedy after all the sad/depressing films and especially after Mirror. I'm beginning to think that Russian comedy is similar to British comedy. You have to have a particular taste for it.

Mirror, Mirror On the Wall. . .

This was an amazing film. Although I may not understand what was going on, I loved the artistic side to this film. The poetry throughout the movie were actual poems written by Andrey Tarkovsky's father, Arseny Tarkovsky. There were also beautiful scenic shots. I also believe there was a lot of symbolism. Water seemed to show up in almost every scene, whether it be in the form of rain, milk, or just plain water. Water is usually seen as purification but in Mirror it seemed like he was trying to say that no one can be cleansed or purified when this world around us is so filthy. My favorite scene of this is when the man is pouring the water over a woman's head. She swooshes her hair around in the water and then pulls it out but the walls behind her are black and dirty looking. Water falls over the walls but it does not clean it off. Also in this part if you look closely as the camera pans across the wall you can see a face. At first I thought it was a person's but then I realized it looked like a cat's. Earlier in the movie, there was a black cat drinking the spilled milk of the children and later on there's another grey and white cat. Spilled milk also appears several times. "Don't cry over spilled milk." Although no one is actually seen crying over the milk, there are times when the characters have been crying or will start crying after the milk scenes.
As for how the film was put together, I began to notice that something in one scene would appear the next scene. The art book showed itself several times and appeared to be a transition. The wind also was a reoccurring transition. So were the mirrors. All of these I have come to realize are from the poem "And This I Dreamt, And This I Dream" by Tarkovsky's father:

And this I dreamt, and this I dream,
And some time this I will dream again,
And all will be repeated, all be re-embodied,
You will dream everything I have seen in dream.

To one side from ourselves, to one side from the world
Wave follows wave to break on the shore,
On each wave is a star, a person, a bird,
Dreams, reality, death - on wave after wave.

No need for a date: I was, I am, and I will be,
Life is a wonder of wonders, and to wonder
I dedicate myself, on my knees, like an orphan,
Alone - among mirrors - fenced in by reflections:
Cities and seas, iridescent, intensified.
A mother in tears takes a child on her lap.

The wind rolled across the fields and the trees like a wave. There were waves of water pouring down the walls in a few scenes. These were all around times when someone or something died., like when the mother was killing the rooster. Waves of water were coming off the walls behind her.
There was also a bird that the little red-headed boy caught and that the narrator had on his bed.
There were mirrors surrounding the narrator and his wife when they were talking about what they should do with their son, Ignat.
I also realized that certain scenes when referring to past or newsreels were in black and white while most of the rest was in color.
I really enjoyed this film and would watch it again if it hadn't made me so nauseous the first time. I believe the panning shots were a little too fast since there was so much going on in the background.

Ballad of a Soldier

This film showed the war through the radio more than it showed it in action. The only part of the war we see is at the very beginning where Alyosha takes out two tanks. Otherwise news of the war is only heard through the radio at every train station he receives water from. The focus of the film seemed to be more on the individuals that were waiting at home trying to go on with their lives as the war was going on. All the women listened intently for news of their husbands or sons while they worked the fields or in factories. They struggled but continued to hope they would one day see their families together once again.
There was no propaganda in this film unlike the other Socialist Realist films. It was more of a general view for anyone that went through the war or any other war. The men went off to fight on the front lines while the women were at home worrying and trying to survive. Any mother who's son went off to fight would wish to see them again and if they did they would not want them to leave. This was shown with the confrontation of Alyosha and his mother. He only got to see her and let her know that he was still alive but he had to leave to continue fighting. She didn't want to let him go for fear she would never see him again. The other mothers also questioned Alyosha about whether or not he had heard of their sons or when the war was going to end. This probably did happen because every mother would be worried about their child.
Shura and Alyosha covered another universal part: husbands and lovers. A married woman would loose her husband when war came because he would have to go fight along with the younger men. Even young lovers would loose one another. When Pavlov told Alyosha to bring his wife the soap, he had no idea that she would be with someone else. She may have believed that she would never see him again so she found someone else that would be there to take care of her. This was quite possibly something that happened often especially if the wife had not heard from her husband. Then there was poor Shura who did not have a lover or husband. She probably would not have had one either after the war. As said in class, many Russian men (about 13.71%) were killed during World War II.