Archives For russia

Buying physical media has been a chore lately, you gotta keep an eye out so you make sure you don’t miss your delivery because, for some reason, people cannot just leave your package any longer.

Plus, distributors are doing physical media less and less. The whole of the Indian Cinema industry has decided to phase out physical media in favor of going all in on OTT and VOD. Even enormous hits like RRR are left with no physical release, even in the West. Even Disney is letting Sony handle its physical media, which seems like the end of an era. Then there’s the whole thing about editing and disappearing media from libraries.

So these are some of the most recent -and not so recent- films that have been added to the physical library. I wish I had more disposable income because there are a bunch of titles (and upgrades) that had been added to the wishlist.

These on top of some Bluray upgrades like Sion Sono’s Love Exposure, Kalatozov’s The Cranes Are Flying, brand new Criterion’s for Los Otros and Laberinto del Fauno. Some random BR UK release for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

Also, this post makes it so that this year is the most I’ve blogged since 2020. I’m coming for you 2019. Four posts in Feb’24 is the most continuous blogging since Aug’18.

It took a while, but

Happy 1000th fan!

If you aren’t following the list yet, you might discover a gem or two!

You know, for a year when I didn’t watch that many movies, I’m doing pretty good. LOL Confession! I haven’t been following award season, it does feel like it’s my second or third year already. I do know that people have been freaking out because all critic guilds and industry guilds have been awarding all different movies.  As the saying goes~ todos parecen más perdidos que cuy en tómbola!

Here’s my Spirit Award one.

Light blue highlights mean watched, hot pink are pending, and green on the queue already.

My favorite competing film this year (so far) is Lady Bird coz it got me in the feels. I wouldn’t mind The Shape of Water winning, though. Considering BAFTA nominations (Producers’ Guild win and Directors’ Guild nom), The Shape of Water does seem to have a love more momentum than actors-backed Three Billboards, and this one also has a strong BAFTA showing.

Fun fact, yo! Darkest Hour, Phantom Thread and Victoria & Abdul are [most likely] the first Chinese-backed films that make it to Oscar. All backed by Perfect World Pictures (北京完美影视传媒) [1].

What do Mamamoo and Chulpan Khamatova have in common? They all came together in a weird dream I had last night— now, the details are getting murkier, but I was walking down the street of the house where I used to live, which magically turned (I’m supposing) into some street/random place in Russia where I met Chulpan. What makes it all the more weird is that I haven’t seen Chulpan-related movies or series lately.

Suddenly we were at some high building which feature, I suppose, an incredible view of the city. It felt like we talked a lot in English… and French. I don’t even think Khamatova speaks French xD Mamamoo comes up over the fact that I, for some reason, tell Chulpan about Mamamoo. LOL AND Bryan Cranston comes up because he somehow got mad over the fact that I was talking to Chulpan about them. Hahahahaha. The dream made so little sense that the moment I woke up, I did so laughing.

Chulpan Khamatova’s FB updated a couple of days ago with a link sharing this supercut of her most updated filmography; meaning it includes Under Electric Clouds, as well as The Puppet Syndrome. There’s just a couple of clips I’m not so sure of, they could be from her series Bashnya (Башня) [Wikipedia], which was a little bit difficult to watch for lack of subs xD

Recognized clips (without repeats) are as follow~

  • Sobytie [1]
  • The Puppet Syndrome
  • Paper Soldier
  • Midsummer Madness (in that red whatever that is uniform xD)
  • Katya (short film)
  • Sleeping Songs
  • Dostoevsky (series)
  • The Rainbowmaker
  • Under the Electric Clouds
  • America
  • There’s a desaturated kissing clip between two Puppet Syndrome clips, that I think looks like America. But I’m not 100% on that.
  • The clip of Chulpan with a beard is from the Ivan the Terrible series.
  • The clip of Chulpan revealing her mangled face is from Bashnya
  • Unrecognized red screencap 001
  • Unrecognized sitting screencap 002
  • The House of the Sun

The unrecognized scenes could very well be from Sleeping Songs, I honestly don’t remember a thing about that movie. lol I’ll leave you with the screencaps, in case anyone wonders and/or knows. The second cap could be, judging from the hairstyle and the eyebrows, but I’m drawing a blank with 001. xD

Some image confirmation source at kino-teatr.ru + ruskino.ru

Ram-Leela on Ice!

February 4, 2016 — Leave a comment

Ice-skaters Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov did a rendition of Nagada Sang Dhol [clip] in their ice-skating routine (which, apparently, won them a gold medal) that made me want to watch Devdas on Ice~~~ or specifically Dola Re Dola on Ice because I’m like that!

[Original YT link seems to have been removed, the upload available at Volosozhar and Trankov’s performance channel isn’t as good quality as I remember]//240730

As you know~ Russia is big on the ice-skating events, even more so than the Koreans (who had the reality Kim Yu-na’s Kiss & Cry[1]), the Japanese who broadcast ice-skating competitions quite regularly throughout the year, and the Americans (the other day I caught a broadcast of Musselman’s Apple Sauce Family Skating Tribute on ESPN).

I never thought I’d see this fandom crossover. xD

Well~ just grab Chulpan Khamatova, dress her up in your clothes and snap a few photos in your store. She’s that charming and photogenic.

She just posted these shots -probably just shopping- at Xakama (ХакаМа) [Official Website][Facebook].

khamatova-xakama-store

I ran into this clip of what seems a rehearsal of Yevgeny Mironov and Chulpan Khamatova dancing for the sequences of The Puppet Syndrome. If you do get a chance, do check it out.

sindrom-petrushki-2015-khamatova

And all of a sudden~ Elena Khazanova’s The Puppet Syndrome (Синдром Петрушки) was released. A couple of months ago when the trailer was released, I didn’t even have a solid release date, but alas~

They’ve also just released the trailer for Aleksandr Proshkin’s Garden of Eden (Райские Кущи), but while they’re promoting The Puppet Syndrome, Khamatova gave an interview for Gazeta.ru about the film, women on Russian film, as well as being a film actress… and talked briefly about playing a teenage boy in Aleksei German Jr.’s Under Electric Clouds.

Apparently, they really did build a Chulpan Khamatova real-life-sized doll, full-body plaster cast, straws in her nostrils and the whole thing.

I can’t wait to watch that~~~

On Pixar’s Inside Out Russian movie pitch~ “Let’s make this big beautiful expensive animated film… about emotions in the mind of a little girl!- This is ridiculous.” Even in the European/Hollywood environment, it seems like a crazy idea.

Interesting bits about that line alone~ the Russian title of Inside Out, Головоломки (Holovolomky) — means “game puzzle.” and an animated film is called a мультфильм (mul’tfil’m).

And if she had been given the chance to play Furiosa (or Milla Jovovich’s role in Resident Evil), she bluntly said no. LOL

You can read the whole interview on the Gazeta.ru website.

Okay, I’m slightly impressed.

While posting the trailer of The Puppet Syndrome, I found it a little bit difficult to distinguish between gorwn-up Liza (Khamatova) and the actress that was playing her younger self. Khamatova’s face is peculiar — to me, it’s like trying to cast a young version of Bjork — but Young Liza, played by Alina Gvasaliya (born 1992) comes close.

alina-gvasaliya

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