The movie is about “finite nonlinears,” robots that closely resemble human beings but are even more perfect than humans. They are intended to eventually replace human beings in space flights. Somewhat apprehensive about their usefullness, the United Nations sets up a space flight to determine their reactions to the human beings who also make up the crew. Pirx is selected as a commander of the flight, although the identity of the robots is not revealed to him…Read More »
The year is 1921. Lenin and the Bolsheviks have just defeated the White Army and ended the Russian Civil War. However, the valuable diamonds that belonged to the ousted royal family are beginning to disappear. The Cheka have discovered that they are being smuggled out of the country by White sympathizers, and are determined to catch the thieves. Part detective mystery, part spy thriller, and part action adventure, Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat is one of the defining Estonian films from the Soviet era.Read More »
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***One of the best 150 films I have ever seen.***
Three years before Andrei Tarkovsky made his first feature film Ivanovo Detstvo (1962) and became one of the most extraordinary directors of all time, war veteran Grigori Chukhrai wrote and directed a memorable and considerably beloved anti-war statement called Ballada o Soldate. This beautiful cinematographic achievement was basically one of the first films that accurately portrayed the human side of people that were involved in the war and the cataclysmic aftermath caused in an environment surrounded by hopelessness and chaos.Read More »
Amazon.com:
Grigory Chukhraj’s poetic odyssey of an accidental hero on a six-day pass is a sentimental journey through the ideals of the Soviet state in World War II. Vladimir Ivashov is the fresh-faced signalman whose trip from the Russian front to visit his white-haired mother becomes a series of detours as he stops to help the loyal comrades, fellow soldiers, and salt-of-the-earth civilians (as well as a few shirkers and scoundrels) he meets along the way. On a transport train he even falls in love with a pretty young stowaway, a feisty blond girl-next-door on her way to visit a wounded boyfriend. Delicately photographed and gently paced, this deliriously romantic road movie is undeniably Soviet in its celebration of patriotism and collectivism, but Chukhraj transcends politics with delightfully vivid characters and a deft mix of comedy, melodrama, and romance. –Sean AxmakerRead More »