Piter FM

This movie was ok to me. The first thing that i thought was a lifetime movie. I figured the girl would break up with her boyfriend and not get married. The guy is too jealous and asks too many questions if she doesnt show up somewhere on time. In the end when he drops the phone in the water, it kind of adds a little spin and it makes you wonder how they are going to get together. Then he calls the radio station. i kind of saw it coming. This was a fun class and kind of sad it ended already.

Night Watch

This movie was very different from all the other movies we have watched in this class. This was very graphic and alot of fighting snd killing. The movie was very confusing at the beginning of the moive, but towards the end it falls into place. Alot more special affects than any other movie in this class. I like the car doing the flip and not hitting the guy walking across the street. Also that truack was like a race car. It could do things that no other vehicle could do. I usually like films like this but this one didnt catch my eye. It was ok to me. I cant belive at how long that agreement lasted until that boy came. I didnt think that the boy choose the dark side. THrough me for a loop, and i thought he trusted the guy who was the light.. but to me a ok movie

The Return

This movie was ok to me, . The first thing i want to say is the father is a asshole. He treats his kids like trap and it seems like if didnt even want them there. He made all these stops and stuff and they were just suppose to go fishing. I think the father got what he should have. The father expected the little boys to just love him and stuff but he was gone for 12 years. He has to earn there respect back. Not get it all because he came back. Also why doesnt eh big boy stand up for ivan i think ivan was right. y should i listen to you havent been here for 12 years. Another thing a good father would not leave his son on a bridge and hold a axe to it. not right at all. There was also alot of rainy parts in the movie when they get stuck in theh mud the kids did not know what to do and then the father slam his face into the car...wtf...thats just not right...overall a ok movie

Brother

This was a amazing movie no matter what people say. I liked the directing in this movie. The scene length was just about perfect for me. Not too long and not to short. The first thing that I noticed was that he is probably going to be the hero of the movie. He just got out of the army being a clerk. But he has a lot of talent and skills that he learned from there. The first thing that Daniel does that makes him a hero to me is when he saves or protects the German on the side of the road. He knocks the guy out with one hit with his elbow which was pretty cool and then steals his gun. What I find funny was that no one saw it or did anything. Probably they didn’t want to get hurt to and they saw the gun to. The first thing that he does is go to find his brother. He finds his brother and his brother gives him money and clothes and food. Gives him everything his father would have done. Viktor his brother is a father figure to Daniel. I notice that when they call they got actual number and stuff of today’s system unlike earlier movies that had to call the operator. This is a realistic film to me. There are people like that back that kill people and everything. Reminded me of the Bourne series, also when the Daniel and the girl go to the concert. That is common thing back then so again I like how it is realistic. I thought it was pretty cool showing us the scenes with the remaking of the gun and making like little grenades that pop. I don’t know why Viktor was like he was sorry at the end. I guess because that he didn’t tell Daniel that the bad guys where there but he probably knew because Viktor was talking weird on the phone when Daniel called Viktor to come over. I would have thought Viktor would have gotten up when he saw his brother shoot the first guy and help him out but he just sat there crying. I guess I would do the same if I had a gun pointed at me. But I don’t think that Daniel should have taken almost all the money and telling his brother to go to their mothers place. He was there for you; you should be there for him and take him with you. When Daniel goes back to the women who drove the trolley, I think he should have killed him. He beat that women and punch here right there. It doesn’t make sense then at the end she is crying like she regrets doing what he did and she should have left with Daniel. Overall movie was amazing.

Little Vera

I liked actually liked this movie. Vera just seems a teenager in love with drinking and being a slut with whoever she wants. At the beginning of the movie she seems like a total B*tch and stuff and throughout the movie she is like that. Some parts like when the dad is drunk and in pain she helps him change his clothes and stuff and helps him get in bed. It seems like she cares about the dad more than the mom. The parents are just total Aholes to Vera. But Vera kind of brings it all on herself by the way she acts. The parents are not in love. The mom even says that they got married way to young and doesn’t want Vera to do the same mistake. It seems like they are just together to almost be able to survive and live in that apartment/house they are in. Better to have two incomes than just one. Another thing I found weird was that she meets some new guy at a party and she is all of a sudden in love. It doesn’t make any sense. She knows nothing about this guy and is already having sex and has him move into his home and about to get married. Too much stuff going on way to fast. She does all this stuff in the matter of days when it is suppose to be years for all of this to happen. Drinking had a bid impact on his film compared to the others films. It makes the dad crazy in some parts and it also almost kills Vera.

Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears

I think this was an ok film. It reminded me of the first movie we saw, Irony of Fate. They both involve a kind of love story when they just meet each other on accident, but I liked irony of fate better. It also reminded me of a regular lifetime movie. With the love then the guy leaves, he’s gone for a week, and then the guy comes back. The shots were very long at some moments. I don’t think this movie should have been this long. Some parts that they really didn’t need in the film. One thing that I didn’t like about the film was the way the women get treated by the men for example Gosha treats Katya in the second part of the film. As if she is below him and they are in love?? Ya no, that’s not the way it works today but it did back then. Also the film started and ended with the showing of the apartments and their windows just like Irony of fate.

Ivan's Childhood

I liked this movie way better than Mirrors. I understood this film a lot better and way less complicated than it. It makes a lot more sense to me. Right from the beginning it grabbed my attention and had a bunch of information for use to use. Unlike Mirrors I got a little confused at the beginning. This movie was at a much faster pace to me then mirrors. I like that a lot in movies. One thing that I notice that was different from his other movie was the camera angles. One when the little boy is spinning and when the camera is like running through the trees making it seem like you are in the movie doing the running yourself. At the beginning of the movie when the boy is dreaming, I think that is what the boy wants more than anything to be with his mother again and then he wakes u and he is in a barn type building. Also how the camera is running alongside the boy sometimes which again is different form mirrors. Also at the end of the movie, it is kind of like a love story and reminds me of a Ballad Soldier.

The Mirrors

This film was weird. I have got to say this was a bad film to me, I didn’t like it. I didn’t like how we really didn’t know any of the characters names. I think one maybe two names were mentioned. When the film starts off it just starts off and to me with no plot. I was very difficult to understand, but I think he did it on purpose after reading the book and then watching the film. Let’s start with the movie. There is a part in the beginning and sometimes throughout the movie when the characters just stare right at the camera and it makes it look like they are staring straight at you, almost hinting towards a horror movie and stuff. Some others things like the barn catching on fire randomly and looking at the wind blow in the grass. It shows some similarities the things that hint towards a horror film in our generation to. The one thing that stood out to me was who the movie would be in color at one frame then it will be black and white the next. I thought it was pretty cool adding more affect to the horror movie.

Ballad of a Soldier

I liked this movie very much. It is probably the best movie I’ve seen in this class so far. In the beginning of the movie there is a young man named Alyosha running from a bunch of tanks. He falls into a hole and shoots 2 German tanks with a gun he found when he fell into the hole. When he finally gets back to his head quarters the general wants to see him and calls him a hero. Alyosha asks if instead of the award if he can have time to go home and fix a leaking roof for his mom. The General agrees with him and gives him 6 days to get home fix the roof and come back without being late. Alyosha throughout this entire movie is a hero. First when he is on the train he helps a wounded soldier with his bag and waits for him to wait for his wife. Another thing he does is he finds were a soldiers wife lives that he never knew and gives her some soap. He then takes it back when he sees that the wife is cheating on him. To me that was the right thing to do. Then he goes to give it to the grandpa, who is very nice and proud of the soldier. Then he finally gets home to his mom. He was running around helping everyone else that he never had time to do the thing he was suppose to do. In all of this he falls in love with Shura. Who he met on the train that took him half way home. He wants to tell her and she wants to tell him but they never do and never get a chance to really tell each other how they fell about each other. This film seems like action at the beginning and then turns more drama and then romantic and then sad. It’s really never the same thing through out the movie. I did not like the movie at the end. A movie can’t just end the way it did its leaving to many open ends to it which is stupid. It doesn’t tell us that they found each other and were in love for ever or if he came back home or who won the war. But they hint that he did die in the end credit things when they explain about him. Over all the best movie so far

Ivan the Great

The first thing that came to mind was how Eisenstein made this movie during such a hard time. It really surprised me how good it was. First thing I want to do is compare the silent films and sound films of Eisenstein. I still think the films are a lot better with sound so you don’t have to second guess yourself to what the characters are saying. Also I notice that this film was much slower compared to Battleship. Battleship really didn’t have a slow moment in it. It was always at different camera angles and up to speed. This film was slower and focused more on the scene. Sound could have played a role in that. Also it could have something to do with the audience, keeping them entertained. One thing I notice during the movie is that Eisenstein like to use shadows in this film. There was one part where there was a shadow on the wall on Ivan’s body and the globe/circle thing he had. I considered the circle to be like the world. The circle on the wall was much bigger than he was on the wall. Also when Ivan’s servants I guess where leaving the room, Ivan’s head was much bigger compared to the servants who were leaving. Over all this movie was better than I expected it to be.

Burnt by the Sun

I liked this movie very well. It was a great drama film and had some intense parts to it. I only part I did not understand during the whole film was the fire ball that would appear sometimes through out the movie. I think it could have been Kotov messing with Stalin in other words going against him, or him messing with the soviet government. Also there was a part in the movie when the ball of fire went into the wheat field and then just darts off into the forests and lights the tree on fire. I didn’t understand that part either because they just leave it at that. Other then the fire balls, the film was pretty straight forward. Compared to other Russian films they also had singing. I think in every film we have watched there have been some kinds or form of singing in the movie. The ending of the movie brought everything together, the Soviet government was just taking out the people that would stand up or oppose Stalin. I also believe that’s why that man Mitya went back to that house. He just had to do a job for the government or else they would have killed him and maybe the ones he loves like Marusia and the little girl. This movie gives a good example of how it was back then when people didn’t go along with the status quo, the government would take care of theings.

Circus

I like this movie very much. This movie had about everything you could imagine a movie could have. It had love, hate, comedy, racism, musical, romance, religion, and of course propaganda. A little bit of everything. The two movies that we have watched, this movie and the Chapaev had different takes on heroes. In Chapaev there is really one main real life hero with the help of the soldiers. In this film the hero to me was the whole circus crew when they marched in the parade in the end, and had them all line up right next to each other. Something that I noticed to be somewhat the same to Chapaev was that both movies seemed too made for entertainment. One film has wars and guns and battle for entertainment. This film has the animals and its way of entertaining us with all the variety is has. It seemed like each film had its director’s taste in entertainment. One thing that I notice was religion in this film. The woman Marion does the sign of the cross before she goes out to do her routine. So I’m guessing to say she is Christian. I don’t know it was just an interesting fact I notice in the movie. I probably would place this film somewhere in the middle. Some stuff I found funny was the monkey shoot the gun off, and I think the dog had a gun around its chest, probably for the circus entertainment. I liked this film, it was entertaining to see all the animals do the tricks and stuff throughout the movie, and the one thing I didn’t like was Marion’s singing, it definitely got annoying after the first 5 minutes.

Chapaev

I likes this movie very much. It reminds me of the old style of americans movies. Like the movies with Paul Neumann and John Wayne. It reminds me of old western movies. These might not be old enough but like Platoon, The Sand Pebble, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Duck you sucker, and the wild bunch. They all have similaritieswith the cannoon at the end taking the people out on the ledge and the people being out number. It teminds me of batleship except in battleship the bad people were out numbered and in this movie the good people were out numbered. It kepted me on the edge of my seat. With all the gun fights, and the end when your think the hero is going to make it and then he dies. I like the special effects persay. with the cannon at the edge and and when they are in the barn type buiding wit the cannon again. Kepted me on my seat the whole time. Anoter i like is that the general and commissioner is a good person at heart. He doesnt want to made look bad or have his troops make fools of themselves. Example is when he makes the soldiers stop taking advantage of the peasants. To act like true soldiers.

Man with Camera

This movie was very werid. It almost seemed like a documentary on what the with a camera was viewing. It showed all the lengths he had to do to get the views of the cameras the way they did. Also it seemed like he was a interst in young things like he had a picture of a small tree and babies. Then by the end it is more grown men. Another thing i found was that he captured everything he possibly could. Also i like the special effects when the camers is walking and moving all by itself. That was prety cool even to this day.

Battleship

I liked this film very much. This movie makes sense to me. In the first couple of parts it's about the food they are eating. Seriously you cant eat meat that is rotten and has worms on it. One thing that i notice was that the doctor was looking at the meat. When he did do that he took his glasses off and kepted saying there is no worms and the meat is perfectly fine. He kind of said that with a smirk on his face. Later in the film when they take the ship over, they just put the dead body on the side of the street. People are just walking by an looking at the body. I would have thought you would want to give your fallin comrades a proper grave. Also they still go around in their ship. I would have thought that they would have been happy to have no officer and they would try to go home instead of still fighting. This good tho because they really do love their contry. At the end proves it when it is just their ship aganist like 10 and they dont care they just fight and never give up. I think this film is like american films. There have been films with people taking over the ship and fighting in wars. Along with bad officers and bad food and living conditions. One film that comes to mind is the Sand Pebble. Tho it was made way later then this film. It was alot of simarities like the officers be bad and mean.

The Dying Swan

This movie went on forever. It seemed like they had parts of the movie they didnt need in it but again it was at the beginning of the film business and the more the better back then was best. The silent film again deals with people cheating on each other. Gizella can not speak but has an amazing gift of dancing. Once Gizella gets hurt from Viktor because he cheated on her. She uses her depression or anger or sadness to become a good dance and Valeriy gets obsessed with her. He has been searching for death his entire life and finds it in Gizella's danceing because of what Viktor did to her. Then when Viktor comes back and tells Gizella that he was wrong and that he loves her, she doesnt have that death dance anymore and she is killed by Valeriy. Another thing that i thought was interesting was that she was warned in her dreams that she was going to die by him but she choose to ignore it. Also her father warned he too.

The 1002nd Ruse

This movie was weird form the start. To me the only thing that i got out of it was that the husband was a jerk to his wife useing a book of tricks to spy on her and to treat her badly. Then in return the wife wants someone better and cheats on her husband. It seemed like she just stayed with her husband for the money because when they went walking down the street she wanted jewerly from a store but her husband didnt buy it because he is mean.

A Child in the Big City

Overall the movie was better than I expected. The women Mary seemed like she was just into Viktor to for his money. Not only that she just wanted someone who was wealthy so she doesnt have to be a seamstress anymore. Viktor want someone who was not spoiled and to fall in love with her. It seemed like through out the movie they began to change the roles of each other. At the end of the movie Mary was the wealthy one and Viktor was the poor one and evertually commmitted sucide. Mary was just useing him the whole time.

Irony of Fate

The movie so far is very good. I was thinking this movie was going to be boring and stupid but definitely not the case. It is a lot better than I expected. It kept me entertained the whole time. The movie was very different compared to the average American comedy movie. One of the major things that I see is different is that there is no swearing or people acting stupid in the Russian movie like in American comedies. The Russian movie was down to earth and showed the culture of the Russian people. Also the Russian movie is realistic to the average person in Russia. Some American comedies are funny to but are about events or things that the average American cannot do. American movies are also more organized in government matters as example like the environment, roadways, and people living in houses. American films are more dependent of special effects, and again the Russian movie is more what can actually happen in real life it seems like. Another thing I noticed was the Russian movie uses a lot of drunken comedy. They make fun of him being drunk and sometimes they encourage it. It was very funny and I can’t wait to see the second part of the movie.