[lbo-talk] RE: Soviet nomenklatura privileges

Michael Pugliese debsian at pacbell.net
Tue Jun 10 07:32:46 PDT 2003


Chris>...The USSR also had some damn good war movies.

Yes, Klimov made a great one on WWII I saw a decade ago. http://www.slavweb.com/eng/Russia/cinema/direct-e.html Ahem, the review from TV Guide...COME AND SEE Elem Klimov, 1985, "A highly charged, emotionally exhausting indictment of war and the inhumanity of the Nazis, set in Byelorussia during the 1943 Nazi invasion, COME AND SEE focuses on the experiences of an adolescent transformed, in a matter of days, from naive boy to worn man. Young Florya (Aleksei Kravchenko) finds a rifle and immediately joins the local freedom fighters, despite the desperate pleas of his mother, who wants to lose neither her son nor the only source of protection for her and her two young daughters. Florya is left behind by the makeshift army and tries to return to his mother, but the Germans launch an air raid, which is followed by an invasion of paratroopers before he can get to his village. Only the most insensitive could sit through COME AND SEE without being emotionally devastated. From its opening scene, COME AND SEE descends into a virtual hell on earth that becomes increasingly frightening as it advances to the final horror. This film won the Grand Prix at the Moscow film festival; its director, Elem Klimov, was recently named the head of the Soviet Filmmakers Union. -- Michael Pugliese

"Without knowing that we knew nothing, we went on talking without listening to each other. Sometimes we flattered and praised each other, understanding that we would be flattered and praised in return. Other times we abused and shouted at each other, as if we were in a madhouse." -Tolstoy



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list