cult films

[8bit]

My two cents: after taking a class on it in my last year of university, I got to like Russian films a fair bit. I'm a big fan of early Sergei Eisenstein, namely Battleship Potemkin (1925), Strike (1925), and October (1928). Also, Alexander Nevsky (1933)

Hi Raiyven! Yes, the silent era, Nosferatu (1922) was a creepy silent movie about Dracula made in Germany. It was the first ever movie about Dracula. It was remade very faithfully by Werner Herzog in 1979, also called Nosferatu (German for Dracula) starring Klaus Kinski and the lovely Isabelle Adjani. Both versions are cult classics.

[Raiyven]

Originally Posted by 8bit

Nosferatu (1922) was a creepy silent movie about Dracula made in Germany.

How could I forget! I saw this in a class I took way back in college that centered on villains in film and literature, and I think this was one of the first films we watched. And yes sir, it was very creepy! I would say it's a testament to its originality and inventiveness in this early era of cinema that its original creepy feel is still able to evoke a 'wooooooo' in wimps like me

On that note, I actually liked the old Dracula movie as well, though well into the sound era (1931), with Bela Lugosi and (I think a very spirited performance by) Dwight Frye as Renfield.

Also, perhaps one of the most entertaining propaganda films I've ever seen: The Circus, directed by Grigori Alexandrov (1936). One of the best Stalinist musicals of the time, alongside Volga, Volga! and Kuban Cossacks (late 1940s, post-war). The whole idea of the musical genre in this political setting was to create patriotic, uplifting songs that the audience would remember outside of the theatre, enough so that they will internalize and remember *them* much more than political rhetoric. This, to me, is really interesting from a political point of view, especially when viewed in light of the fact that sound cinema altogether during this period (in the Soviet case) was viewed as an impressive method by which a political message could be communicated, as it covered more of the senses than silent film.

Educational rant is over My point though? See them if you can. The songs are kinda catchy. And The Circus paints a really nasty image of the US, so it's interesting to see how Soviet Russia had identified itself against the political 'other' even before the Cold War era.