Russian Cinema Days

A two weeks ago Lwd. invited me to almost surreal event. It was the official opening of the days of the Russian culture and cinema and he wanted to see a movie from 1916 but couldn't remember its name. I haven't had dose of _that old_ movie since the time at the Academy and I found it great idea.

The movie was A Life for a Life (Zhizn za zhizn ), directed by Yevgeni Bauer and indeed it was amazing piece keeping in mind the time when it was shot. Taken just an year before the Revolution, it had rich set decoration and costume design. Camera and cutting techniques also deserved a bow, because what today we get as normal was quite unusual in 1916. And here comes the best: it was a silent movie, so it was accompanied by live piano performance. Enough for the movie.

The really impressing part was before it. There were welcome message that lasted more than 40 minutes (longer than the movie we were about to see). The atmosphere was just as if taken from the 40's, with all these long inspirational speeches by important Russian artists. Probably Lwd. and I were the youngest youngest audience in the whole hall. Lwd. deserved true applauses because he was understanding most of the Russian without any help. Without some of the jokes we had, I wouldn't survive the prologue. Undoubtedly Lev Durov made it even more unforgettable with a 20 minutes recital. Have some of it below:

Happy October!