What are some good Russian/Soviet movies that people of other nationalities can enjoy, too?

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Vladimir ILL

Moskva sliezam nie vierit
Kogda uletaiut zhuravli
Ironia sudb'i
Vozvrashshenie
Brat

some that i (an american) like are: burnt by the sun, kukushka (its actually finnish, but it has russian in it), east/west isnt bad, the autumn marathon

**1066**

A little on the long side for some tastes but Andrei Tarkovsky's 'Stalker' or maybe the original 'Solaris' are Russian classics. A couple of enjoyable comedies are Sluzhebnyy roman (Office Romance) and Irony of Fate. All should be on imdb.com.

momochi

I enjoyed Brother 2 (my Russian friend tells me the first Brother isn't even worth watching). I agree with rp though, it may not be appropriate, but it's great fun.

I also enjoyed Prisoner of the Mountains, The Barber of Siberia (three hours long) and Burnt by the Sun.

I don't know what rp sees in Solaris - it was THE most boring movie I've ever seen. Believe me when I say that students who've grown up watching American movies will fall asleep. Ten minute shots of driving down the highway in complete silence? Please. Shoot me. Not to mention that even though this movie is director Andrei Tarkovsky's most famous work outside of Russia, he admitted it's personally one of his least favorite accomplishments.

Anyway good luck!

Vladimir C

Hi!
It's very interesting question for me. )) I am Russian. I always would advise American some Russian movies.
So...
Old comedies:
''Autumn marathon''
''3+2''
"Brilliant hand''
''Love and pigeons''
''Ivan Vasilyevich changes his profession''
''Gentlemen of good fortune''

There are no modern Russian good comedies. It's not only my opinion. Well may be ''Everything will be good''

Old serious films:
''Elder brother''
''Only old men go to battle''
''Moscow does not believe tears''
''Cold summer 1953''
''Officeres''

Now movies:
''Voroshilovskiy shooter''
''Star''
''The 9-th squadron''
''Kukushka''
''Brother-1'' and 2
''Boomer''
''Island''
''72 meter''

Ufff... If you want to know something else - ask me.

Little Witchy Girl

Try "Barber of Siberia" and "Irony of Fate"

Lando

I agree 6pat 2 , brother 2 with sergei bodrov is probably the best one Ive seen but some of sergei bodrovs others are decent.

molodoipovesa

Andrei Mironov comedies are not bad. Try the 12 Stulyev. Crazy music.
If you like cats there's also Kotyonok, about a kitten. Very cute, has a part that will bring tears, but a happy ending.
Velvet Revolution is a sort of 24 imitation, the dubbed version has lots of kitsch one liners.

Cossak

So Russia produce a lot of new movies.
Last Saturday i watched movie "We're from the future"
http://www.domovie.ru/archive/2120/ If you understand russian you can watch it...

rp121121

In my opinion, "Irony of fate" (actually, it is not the best possible translation I would think) suggested by a number of people above is a BS. There is nothing interesting in that boring movie other then Barbara Brilska who was very beautiful back then (IMHO, of course). I know that a lot of Russians would disagree with me, but stil this is what I think. More important, however, is that no normal American person would understand that movie.

Solaris by Tarkovsky that was also suggested by someone is a real good one and is worth seeing even regardless of whether one learns Russian or not. Another movie that I personally like is "Brother" with Sergey Bodrov. This movie is certainly not the best advertisement of Russia, as it shows lawlessness of the early 90s, but it is fun to watch. You may need to watch this one yorself first to see if it is suitable for students though. You may also want to look at movies directed by Nikita Mikhalkov. Actually, I do not like him personally and have never watched his movies, but he seems to be very popular and he once was awarded Oscar for the best foreign movie, so he might be not too bad.

I have just recalled another good one: "Master and Margarita". It is based on a famous novel by Mikhail Bulgakov. The book was great and the movie is at least OK. People may really like this one.

Finally, you may want to look at the movie "Quiet flows the Don" that is based on the famous book by Mikhail Sholohov for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize. Well, you may actually need to start with this one.

As to the new Russian movies 99% of them are BS that is not worth time spent watching them (in my Very humble opinion, of course)

Edited:

Having taken into account some of the comments made on here I can compose my top list as follows.

1. "Quite flows the Don" - it is a great novel and a very good movie. I think it is worth watching simply because the author received the Nobel Prize for the book (also, he approved the movie).
2. Movies directed by Nikita Mikhalkov, such as "Burnt by the Sun" and "The Barber of Siberia". I did not watch those, but many people have mentioned them on here, so these movies must be good.
3. "Master and Margarita" - it is a great novel and a fairly good movie (you cannot really make a great movie based on a novel like that, but the one they made is OK). It involves a somewhat nontraditional interpretation of the events described in the Bible but if you do not have theology students in your class it should be fine.
4. Brother and Brother 2. These are well done block busters that would be rated PG-13 in the U.S, which may or may not be acceptable for you depending on the audience.

I removed Solaris, as lilaichee might be correct in that the movie does not have much of an action, so people may fall asleep. I liked the book very much, so I might have been positively biased on the movie.

Good luck.

Misanthropist

Well, "Rusalka" (Mermaid) is pretty recent. I think it actually won something at Sundance film festival.It's somewhat similar to Amelie, if you've seen that, except the ending is rather sad.

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