How about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unbelievable_Adventures_of_Ita... ; screwball comedy about running all over Leningrad in search of a buried fortune.

I realised it wasn't your ordinary comedy when one of the early jokes involved landing an Aeroflot flight on a highway. There's a splendidly bizarre explosion/dream sequence bit in the middle. And a lion chase.

https://russianfilmhub.com/movies/unbelievable-adventures-of...

Anyway, much of Mosfilm is on Youtube.

The Soviet mini-series that adapted Jules Verne's "The Children of Captain Grant" [1] is really nice, it's from the mid-'80s, a time that supposedly was bleak because of Chernobyl and the post-Andropov and post-Chernenko years, but nevertheless to kid me the TV series seemed full of optimism and of endless opportunities and marvels. That's from where I got the nickname I use on this website, too.

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088635/

The article talks mostly about lighter-hearted movies, but I'd still want to recommend my favorite examples of "burdensome beauty" (as they put it) by Tarkovsky:

"Зеркало" (The Mirror): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYZhXm02kN0

"Сталкер" (Stalker): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGRDYpCmMcM

"Андрей Рублев" (Andrei Rublev): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6kqlveBhVY

And, if you're into Slavic cinema in general, I'd also recommend "Life is a Miracle" by Emir Kusturica: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0322420/ -- he's not a Russian director, but he is fantastic.

“The most charming and attractive” 1985

“The irony of fate” 1975

“Winter cherry” 1985

Academy Award Winner “Burnt by the sun”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnt_by_the_Sun

I didn’t think that’s a comedy though.

There’s an abundance of serious, existential, often heavy Russian films. I just saw Beanpole and felt excited about a light, genuinely funny Russian comedy.

Any recommendations?

Anything by Gaidai [1]. "Kidnapping, Caucasian Style" [2] is probably the most popular or try "Operation 'Y'" [3], a movie that consist from three short novels with the same protagonist. Or, may be a good fit, his rendering of three O'Henry novels [4]: the first is the more serious one, the second is funnier but mostly conversational, and the third is burlesque action.

An example of a modern Russian comedy would be the "Yolki" series with [5] as the first installment.

[1] https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0301145/ [2] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060584/ [3] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059550/ [4] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056982/ [5] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1782568/

I’d be interested in pointers to Soviet equivalents of the James Bond books or films.

> James Bond books or films.

I've just read an interview with a Russian book editor that mentioned Lev Ovalov [1], which is I think the closest thing to what you wanted (in terms of books, anyway):

> Soviet writer, author of detective stories about the Chekist-counterintelligence officer Major Pronin .

(...)

> It was for this magazine that the story "Blue Swords" was written - the first in a cycle about Major Pronin, after which six stories about the hero were published in 1939-1940 in the magazines " Vokrug Sveta " and "Znamya" , then came out as a separate publication in the series " Library of the Red Army ", and in 1941 were included in the collection" The Adventures of Major Pronin ".

(...)

> On July 5, 1941, Lev Ovalov was arrested on charges of divulging classified information and convicted, after which he spent 15 years in labor camps and exile. There, the writer worked in his main specialty - a doctor, and met the nurse Valentina Klyukina, with whom they began to live together in the late 1940s .

[1] https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9E%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%BE...

Thanks! I’ll check it out.

Try https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeen_Moments_of_Spring

Can't recommend highly enough, this is a defining movie.

Nowhere close to the Bond-style films though.

Just a fair warning to the uninitiated.

For one thing, 17 moments was based on historical events: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sunrise_(World_War_I...

Thanks, I wasn't really asking for the actual bond but speaking Russian; I was asking "how did the Soviets address the same kinds of issue in popular culture" (if they did at all -- a parallel commenter suggests that it wasn't really a topic safe for anyone to touch).

It doesn't seem to have been a big genre, probably because of the difficulty of talking about secret agents in a country where secrecy was brutally enforced and the KGB were deeply feared.

I can however reccomend the Italian bond knockoff genre, including the ridiculous OK Connery: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062078/?ref_=nm_knf_t1

Starring Neil Connery. Music by Ennio Morricone.

OK, now I have to see that!

And from tonight's bad film club, may I recommend this Czech time travel / twin swap screwball comedy with Nazis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVBPNfKfgNo

Soviet spy movies are like James Bond written by Checkhov :) For example, there's "The fate of the secret agent" (1970) [1] and while it depicts a spy, it's very much not a James Bond type of guy. E.g. he only gets a single woman in the movie and he actually loves her.

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314736/

Thanks, I'll give that a try! The very differences are the point; if it were nothing but a reshoot of an existing trope that wouldn't be so interesting. So your "like James Bond written by Checkhov" is the kind of approach that would be interesting.

I believe you’ll like it: “Passion of Spies” (Шпионские страсти) 1967

Great, thanks!

Not a spy movie but Eastern (as a Soviet Western) - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_Home_Among_Strangers

Also sounds quite interesting! The very familiarity of the tropes is what makes the different kinds of interpretations more illuminating.

Well, if you're into 'politically incorrect' movies, virtually anything before 1980 will fit the bill. You could start with Birth of Nation which celebrates the KKK. Then move on to the Jazz Singer which prominently features black face. Breakfast at Tiffany's is famous for Mickey Rooney's 'ching chong' routine. There's really no shortage.

I am guessing they are asking for more Russian media... weird to focus on the political correctness part.

You're probably right. It's 'political incorrectness' as a selling-point that irritates me. I don't know if that's weird, probably not worth debating

Mickey. Mickey Rooney. Who when he was younger did a lot of movies as a character named "Andy Hardy."

Andy Rooney "played" a curmudgeon on 60 Minutes.

Oops, I've corrected the comment now.