Russian Relaxing: Difference between revisions

{{tropeUseful Notes}}

The Soviet Union had its own film industry, doing quite a few science fiction films (the original ''[[Solaris (Literature)|Solaris]]'' for example), a lot of films on the [[Great Patriotic War]] and other glorious historic moments for Russia, a whole genre which is essentially the Russian version of [[The Western]] (other states in the [[Warsaw Pact]] would do it as well) plus quite a lot of stuff that could really be called propaganda (mainly melodramas and love stories that initially were painfully "industrial romance", but later took on a surprisingly earnest and touching tone). However, the genre that seems most popular in Russia itself is the Soviet comedy as exemplified by the works of Leonid Gaidai, Eldar Ryazanov and [[Giorgi Danelia]]. Most of these comedies have elements of drama, tragedy and stealth satire, while much of their humour is extremely culture-specific, being based to a large extent on the daily experiences of ordinary Soviet citizens. Because of this they are largely unheard of outside the former USSR. Additionally, the Soviet film industry was not driven by box-office, but rather by cultural and educational value of films (and their implicit total accordance to ideological dogmas). Yeah, it was official, and surprisingly, it somewhat worked. Between the Scylla and Charybdis of dissent and ass-licking (the latter was discouraged too, by natural means of ass-licking pieces being shitty and unpopular), a lot could be done. That is not to say the Soviet censorship didn't drive many creators to despair, cut short careers of many a genius or force them to emigrate, make the plot choices awfully small and much of the work bland and uniform. But still.

* ''[http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:October:_Ten_Days_That_Shook_the_World Ten Days That Shook the World|October: Ten Days That Shook the World]]''. A reasonably accurate re-creation of [[Red October]].

* ''[[Alexander Nevsky]]''. Teutonic Knights, [[Putting Onon the Reich]], invade Russia and are beaten by the titular man.

* Andrei Tarkovsky's ''[[Solaris (Literature)|Solaris]]'' and ''[[Stalker (Film)|Stalker]]'' (very little relationship to [[STALKER]]), both of which take [[Sci Fi]] stories about man's reaction to the unknown and turn them into explorations of man's relationship with the unknown about his fellow about.

* ''[http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/At_Home_Among_Strangers:At Home Among Strangers|At Home Among the Strangers]]'': Another Ostern, the one that launched [[Nikita Mikhalkov]]'s career and may be the best thing he's ever done.

* ''[[Kin Dza Dza-dza-dza!]]'' cult sci-fi comedy movie

* ''[http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Irony_of_Fate:The Irony of Fate|The Irony of Fate]]'' (full Russian title: ''Ironiya Sudby, ili S Lyogkim Parom!''; see the "Taking Steam" section below), a 1975 comedy-drama by Eldar Ryazanov. Starting out as a satire of the unimaginative uniformity of Brezhnev era architecture and a screwball comedy about a man getting stranded on New Year's Eve (and having to explain himself to his fiancée, as well as to the fiancé of the woman whose apartment he unwittingly broke into), the film evolves into a melodramatic love story with a somewhat [[Bittersweet Ending]]. Similar to ''[[ItsIt's a Wonderful Life]]'' and ''[[A Christmas Story]]'' in the US, ''[[The Irony Of Fate]]'' is a Russian winter holidays' staple with at least one of the federal channels airing it on New Year's Eve every year.

** A sequel, ''[http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Irony_of_Fate_2:The Irony of Fate 2|The Irony of Fate 2]]'', was filmed in 2007 by Timur Bekmambetov, more famous as the director of ''[[Night Watch]]'' and ''[[Wanted]]'' and the co-producer of Shane Acker's ''[[Nine]]''. The sequel puts the children of the lead characters of the first film in the exact same situation in [[The New Russia|the modern day]]. Since Soviet nostalgia is [[Serious Business]] in Russia, public opinion of the film is [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|highly]] [[Your Mileage May Vary|divided]] (the [[Egregious]] amounts of [[Product Placement]] do not help).

* ''[http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Romance:Office Romance|Office Romance]]'' (full Russian title: ''Sluzhebnyy roman''), another lyrical comedy by Eldar Ryazanov about developing [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|office romance]] between rather clumsy single father in his middle 30s and his [[Defrosting Ice Queen|strict female boss]]. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

* ''[[Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears]]'', a 1980 film by [[Vladimir Menshov]] about provincial girls who come to Moscow hoping to find happiness. One of only three Russian-language films to win the Foreign Film Oscar, alongside ''[[War and Peace]]'' and ''[[Burnt Byby the Sun]]''.

* ''[[Guest From the Future]]'', a 1984 [[Pavel Arsenov]] [[Miniseries]] based on one of the [[Alice, Girl Fromfrom the Future]] books by [[Kir Bulychev]].

* ''[[Burnt Byby the Sun]]'', a 1994 [[Nikita Mikhalkov]] drama set in the time of [[Iosif Stalin]].

Russia is famous for not only its music, but the style of music. The ''[[Tetris (Video Game)|Tetris]]'' theme tune, "Korobeiniki", actually has lyrics.

Tchaikovsky is by far the most famous Russian composer. You'll have heard of ''[[Swan Lake]]'', ''[[The Nutcracker (Theatretheatre)|The Nutcracker]]''.

Bard music appeared in 1960s Soviet Union and became immensely popular. It is [[Three Chords and Thethe Truth|very simple in terms of musical techniques, but lyrics-heavy]], played on a common acoustic guitar and little or nothing else. The most well-known Soviet bard was [[Vladimir Vysotsky]]; other performers of note were Bulat Okudzhava and the noted musical dissident Alexander Galich.

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076998/ D'artagnan and the three musketeers]: [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]]. A fairly extreme case of [[Dawson Casting]] for D'artagnan, and some [[Ear Worm|very catchy song lyrics]].

'''[[Chess (Tabletop Game)|Chess]]'''

Russia is famous for its chess playing- in ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'', you can no longer actually play Chess in a [[Chess Withwith Death]] scenario because no Russians died for about a decade. Of the top 10 current chess players in the world (FIDE rankings), 2, including the world No.4 Vladmir Kramnik, are Russian and 4 (5 if you count the Latvian-born Alexei Shirov, who has since defected to Spain) are from the other former Soviet states. Of the World Champions between 1927 and 2007, only Max Euwe (1935-1937, Netherlands) and Bobby Fischer (1972-751972–75, USA) were from any other countries.

The Soviet Union invented [[Tetris (Video Game)|Tetris]].

More recently, the Eastern Bloc has produced [[STALKER]], [[TurgorThe Void (Videovideo Gamegame)|Turgor]], [[Pathologic]], [[Cargo the Quest For Gravity]], [[Metro 2033]], [[Silent Storm]] (nearly ruined by Western [[Executive Meddling]]), [[Space Rangers]], [[Il-2 Sturmovik]], [[Kings Bounty|King's Bounty: The Legend and King's Bounty: Armored Princess]], ''Death to Spies'', ''Rage of Mages'' and [[Allods Online]].