समाचार

Soviet actor who starred in award-winning films during a burst of freedom for the arts before repression set in again during the mid-60s

The years following the second world war represented a low point in Soviet cinema, both in quality and quantity. It was only after Stalin’s death in 1953 and Khrushchev’s speech in 1956 attacking aspects of Stalinism, that the Soviet film industry began to pick up.

The result of this thaw was a number of films that merited international success, notably Mikhail Kalatozov’s The Cranes Are Flying (1957), which was named best film at Cannes, and Josef Heifits’ The Lady With the Dog (1960, which got the special jury prize at Cannes. Both starred Alexei Batalov, who has died aged 88.

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This letter is part of "Behind the Celluloid Curtain," a series of correspondences between Scout Tafoya and Veronika Ferdman on the topic of Soviet cinema, with each series organized around a theme. This particular series focuses on love in a time of discontent.Dear Scout,Those Soviets are really unlucky in love, aren’t they? At any period of time and age—from the star-crossed adult lovers of the 1800s of The Lady with the Dog to the summer campers in their early to mid-teens in One Hundred Days After Childhood (for which director Sergei Solovyov won the Silver Bear fat the Berlinale in 1975)—love has never saved anyone, or cleared the cobwebs out of eyes and minds. Not when there are such big pressures—whether the general malaise brought on by social misalignment of July Rain and Lady with the Dog, or the struggle to find the value and...

This is the first letter in the first series of what will be an ongoing installment of correspondences between Scout Tafoya and Veronika Ferdman on the topic of Soviet cinema. Each series will be organized around a theme—director, genre, time period, mood or more whimsical connectors such as color or season. In short, the writers reserve the right to let Soviet cinema be their muse and guide the orientation of the letter writing. For this inaugural dispatch from the celluloid wonders of the Soviet bloc the subject can best be described as love in a time of discontent.Dear Veronika,I’m excited to be writing to you about the many, many undiscovered, unsung gems hiding in the vast canon of Russian cinema. There’s so much to cover that it’s frankly a little overwhelming to me. A whole world of movies I’ve never heard of just waiting to be watched.

While Festival du Nouveau Cinema is not known for showcasing a large number of world premieres, the Focus section is always the exception. Taking a look at Quebec and Canadian features, films large and small are allowed space to find an audience. The section consistently features a large number of adventurous first time filmmakers, making their debut in the feature length format. Let’s have a look at five films in particular that are not to be missed.

Antoine et Marie

Directed by Jimmy Larouche

Larouche has already made his mark on the Fnc, with his feature length debut La Cicatrice in 2012. In a year particularly rich with great Quebec cinema, La Cicatrice was still able to stand out from the crowd, and Larouche’s follow-up film has been eagerly awaited every since. Making its world premiere, Antoine et Marie takes focus on the relationship between the titular characters. Together for three years,...