torsdag den 15. maj 2008

Happiness / Schastye (1934)

this is the movie I stumbled upon when I randomly bought a ticket in cinemateket the other day. cinemateket just recently changed their programme to one where one can hardly read anything anymore about the movies. (I used to love the layout of their programme. I even praised it out loud) now to save money or paper, or make us non-film-students feel silly and out of place/uninformed, they made it much tinyer/slimmer. I dont really know the intention. I only know that they stopped bringing us any valuable information on the movies. (of course you could check it out online, but I have been a computerless girl for weeks.)

I therefore showed up 5 minutes before the movie started, asked the girl behind the counter what this was. she answers: "a russian silentmovie from 1932".
I say "ok. Is it any good?"
"yes."
"Does it have live music?"
"yes."
"ok. fine, I'll have a ticket then."

there I was, alone, buying a ticket for a russian silentmovie from 1932 about communism that was accompanied by live piano playing written by Arvo Part. pretentious? fuck that. it seemed intriguing enough. and I had never watched a movie with live music before. I was excited as I entered the cinema.

Inside the cinema I laughed and laughed and laughed. this movie turned out to be a silent movie comedy about a farmer named khmyr and his wife. khmyr is the typical antihero who cannot seem to do anything right, and is constantly experiencing bad luck. a bit painful to watch at times, but with a humorous twist nonetheless funny. Slapstickhumour wrapped in socialistic everyday drama accompanied by the live piano playing turned out to be quite a hit with me, and I left the cinema feeling both enlightened, and enrichened. Such an experience it was!

I wanted to try to find the trailer or I thought I might even be able to find the whole movie online and put it in here, but no such thing. I could hardly actually find any information on it online, nearly no screenshots, and most definetely not any film to embed. what I did manage to dig up was this torrent.

and this picture:


one guy reviewing the movie on imdb states that this is a pro kolkhoz movie, I am not so sure that I agree to that. appearantly the director was affiliated with the communist party. but I interpreted most of the movie as quite anti. until the very end where I guess it turned around a bit. anyone seen it and would like to comment on this?

3 kommentarer:

Gaia Melanie sagde ...

I haven't seen it, but I seriously wan't to.
fantastic post.

jannicke, have you seen "Zivot je cudo" by Emir Kusturica. It's such a good movie. One of the best. It's so funny but has a sad undertone. If you haven't we should watch it together. I have it on DVD. And Underground is also the best movie ever. Emir is so freaking talented. I love that there is an orchestra in every movie. Fuck, I love movie soundtracks so much.

jannicke sagde ...

yes, I halfsaw it several times at the videostore in Iceland. some great scenes. but Id love to see it again with you. from Emir Kusturica I have only seen Underground, Arizona Dream and Life is a miracle..

but I dont know what I am doing now. I seriously should have been in bed about 4 hours ago. I am soo disappointed in myself. I have an exam on monday. what the fuck am I doing? wasting the night away, sleeping the day away. I should be READING, and sleeping at correct hours.

so goodnight dearest melanie.

cant wait to watch lots of movies with you soon. :)

Gaia Melanie sagde ...

I say the same. I should be in bed sleeping. Well, I am in bed but i'm not sleeping. I will go and sleep now aswell. Or at least try.

sweet dreams, lovely.
xx