Cinema of Russia
Encyclopedia
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, widely developed under the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and in the years following the fall of the Soviet system, the Russian film industry would remain internationally recognised. In the 21st century, Russian cinema has become popular internationally with hits such as House of Fools, Night Watch
Night Watch (2004 film)
Night Watch is a 2004 Russian supernatural thriller film directed by Timur Bekmambetov. It is loosely based on the novel The Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko, and is the first part of a trilogy, followed by Day Watch and ending supposedly with Twilight Watch .-Plot:In the prologue, which...
, and the exceptionally popular Brother
Brother (1997 film)
Brother is a 1997 Russian crime film directed by Aleksei Balabanov and starring Sergei Bodrov, Jr. The sequel Brother 2 was released in 2000. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:...
.
Cinema of the Russian Empire
The first films seen in the Russian EmpireRussian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
were brought in by the Lumière brothers
Auguste and Louis Lumière
The Lumière brothers, Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas and Louis Jean , were among the earliest filmmakers in history...
, who exhibited films in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and St. Petersburg in May 1896. That same month, Lumière cameraman Camille Cerf made the first film in Russia, recording the coronation of Nicholas II
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
at the Kremlin
Moscow Kremlin
The Moscow Kremlin , sometimes referred to as simply The Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River , Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square and the Alexander Garden...
.
Aleksandr Drankov produced the first Russian narrative film Stenka Razin
Stenka Razin (film)
Stenka Razin is the first finished Russian narrative film. The 10 minute silent film is a fictionalized account of the episodes from the life of Stenka Razin and was premieried on ....
, based on events told in a popular folk song and directed by Vladimir Romashkov. Ladislas Starevich
Ladislas Starevich
Vladislav Starevich , born Władysław Starewicz , was a Russian and French stop-motion animator who used insects and other animals as his protagonists...
made the first Russian animated film (and the first stop motion
Stop motion
Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...
puppet film with a story) in 1910 - Lucanus Cervus. Among the notable Russian filmmakers of the era were Aleksandr Khanzhonkov
Aleksandr Khanzhonkov
Aleksandr Aleksejevich Khanzhonkov was Russia's first cinema entrepreneur. He produced Defence of Sevastopol, Russia's first feature film, and Ladislas Starevich's ground-breaking puppet animations....
and Ivan Mozzhukhin
Ivan Mozzhukhin
Ivan Ilyich Mozzhukhin Ivan Ilyich Mozzhukhin Ivan Ilyich Mozzhukhin (Russian: Иван Ильич Мозжухин was a Russian silent film actor.-Career in Russia:Mozzhukhin was born in Penza, Russia and studied law at Moscow State University. In 1910 he left academic life to join a troupe of traveling actors...
, who made Defence of Sevastopol
Defence of Sevastopol
Defence of Sevastopol is a 1911 historical war film about the Siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War and one of the most important films in the history of Russian cinema...
in 1912. Yakov Protazanov
Yakov Protazanov
Yakov Alexandrovich Protazanov was Russian and Soviet film director and screenwriter, and one of the founding fathers of cinema of Russia....
made Departure of a Grand Old Man, a biographical film
Biographical film
A biographical film, or biopic , is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. They differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical films” in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a person’s life story or at least the most historically important years of their...
about Lev Tolstoy.
During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, imports dropped drastically, and Russian filmmakers turned out anti-German, nationalistic films. In 1916, 499 films were made in Russia, more than three times the number of just three years earlier.
The Russian Revolution
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
brought more change, with a number of films with anti-Tsarist themes. The last significant film of the era, made in 1917, Father Sergius
Father Sergius (film)
Father Sergius is a 1917 Russian silent film directed by Yakov Protazanov based on the eponymous story by Leo Tolstoy....
would become the first new film release of the Soviet era.
Cinema of the Soviet Union
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
was the dominant language in films during the Soviet era, the cinema of the Soviet Union encompassed films of the Armenian SSR
Armenian SSR
The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet...
, Georgian SSR, Ukrainian SSR
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR was a sovereign Soviet Socialist state and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union lasting from its inception in 1922 to the breakup in 1991...
, and, to a lesser degree, Lithuanian SSR
Lithuanian SSR
The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Lithuanian SSR, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union...
, Byelorussian SSR
Byelorussian SSR
The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic was one of fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union. It was one of the four original founding members of the Soviet Union in 1922, together with the Ukrainian SSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic...
and Moldavian SSR
Moldavian SSR
The Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic , commonly abbreviated to Moldavian SSR or MSSR, was one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union...
. For much of the Soviet Union's history, with notable exceptions in the 1920s and the late 1980s, film content was heavily circumscribed and subject to censorship and bureaucratic state control. Despite this, Soviet films achieved significant critical success from the 1950s onwards partly as a result, similar to the cinema of other Eastern Bloc countries, for reflecting the tension between independent creativity and state-directed outcomes.
As with much Soviet art during the 1920s, films addressed major social and political events of the time. Probably the single most important film of this period was Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein , né Eizenshtein, was a pioneering Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, often considered to be the "Father of Montage"...
's The Battleship Potemkin
The Battleship Potemkin
The Battleship Potemkin , sometimes rendered as The Battleship Potyomkin, is a 1925 silent film directed by Sergei Eisenstein and produced by Mosfilm...
, not only because of its depiction of events leading up to the 1905 Revolution, but also because of innovative cinematic techniques, such as the use of jump-cuts to achieve political ends. Other notable films of the period include Vsevolod Pudovkin
Vsevolod Pudovkin
Vsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin was a Russian and Soviet film director, screenwriter and actor who developed influential theories of montage...
's Mother
Mother (1926 film)
Mother is a 1926 Soviet film directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin depicting one woman's struggle against Tsarist rule during the Russian Revolution of 1905. The film is based on a novel of the same title by Maxim Gorky....
(1926) and Dziga Vertov
Dziga Vertov
David Abelevich Kaufman , better known by his pseudonym Dziga Vertov , was a Soviet pioneer documentary film, newsreel director and cinema theorist...
's Man with a Movie Camera
Man with a Movie Camera
Man with a Movie Camera , sometimes called The Man with the Movie Camera, The Man with a Camera, The Man With the Kinocamera, or Living Russia is an experimental 1929 silent documentary film, with no story and no actors, by Russian director Dziga Vertov, edited by his wife Elizaveta...
(1929).
However, with the consolidation of Stalinist power in the Soviet Union, and the emergence of Socialist realism
Socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
as state policy, which carried over from painting and sculpture into filmmaking, Soviet film became subject to almost total state control.
One of the most popular films released in 1930s was Circus
Circus (1936 film)
Circus is a 1936 Soviet melodramatic comedy musical film. It was directed by Grigori Aleksandrov at the Mosfilm studios. In his own words, it was conceived as "an eccentric comedy...a real side splitter."...
.
Notable films from 1940s include Aleksandr Nevsky
Alexander Nevsky (film)
Alexander Nevsky is a 1938 historical drama film directed by Sergei Eisenstein, in association with Dmitri Vasilyev and a script co-written with Pyotr Pavlenko, who were assigned to ensure Eisenstein did not stray into "formalism" and to facilitate shooting on a reasonable timetable...
and Ivan the Terrible
Ivan the Terrible (film)
Ivan the Terrible is a two-part historical epic film about Ivan IV of Russia made by Russian director Sergei Eisenstein. Part 1 was released in 1944 but Part 2 was not released until 1958 due to political censorship...
.
Immediately after the end of the Second World War, the Soviet color films such as The Stone Flower
The Stone Flower
The Stone Flower is a 1946 Soviet fantasy film directed by Aleksandr Ptushko. It was the Soviet Union's first color film shot on AgfaColor negative film seized in Germany, and was entered into the 1946 Cannes Film Festival...
(1947), Ballad of Siberia
Ballad of Siberia
The Ballad of Siberia from Mosfilm is Soviet Union's second color film , directed by Ivan Pyryev, starring Vladimir Druzhnikov and Marina Ladynina....
(Сказание о земле Сибирской, 1947), and The Kuban Cossacks (Кубанские казаки, 1949) were released.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s Soviet film-makers were given a less constricted environment, and while censorship remained, films emerged which began to be recognised outside the Soviet bloc such as Ballad of a Soldier
Ballad of a Soldier
Ballad of a Soldier , is a 1959 Soviet film directed by Grigori Chukhrai and starring Vladimir Ivashov and Zhanna Prokhorenko. While set during World War II, Ballad of a Soldier is not primarily a war film...
which won the 1961 BAFTA Award for Best Film
BAFTA Award for Best Film
This page lists the winners and nominees for the BAFTA Award for Best Film, BAFTA Award for Best Film not in the English Language and Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film for each year, in addition to the retired earlier versions of those awards...
and The Cranes Are Flying
The Cranes are Flying
The Cranes Are Flying is a Soviet film about World War II. It depicts the cruelty of war and the damage suffered to the Soviet psyche as a result of World War II . It was directed at Mosfilm by the Georgian-born Soviet director Mikhail Kalatozov in 1957 and stars Aleksey Batalov and Tatiana...
. Height (Высота, 1957) is considered to be one of the best films of the 1950s (it also became the foundation of the Bard movement
Bard (Soviet Union)
The term bard came to be used in the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, and continues to be used in Russia today, to refer to singer-songwriters who wrote songs outside the Soviet establishment, similarly to beatnik folk singers of the United States...
).
The 1970s saw the emergence of a range of films which won international attention, including Andrei Tarkovsky
Andrei Tarkovsky
Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky was a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, writer, film editor, film theorist, theatre and opera director, widely regarded as one of the finest filmmakers of the 20th century....
's Solaris
Solaris (1972 film)
Solaris is a 1972 film adaptation of the novel Solaris , directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. The film is a meditative psychological drama occurring mostly aboard a space station orbiting the fictional planet Solaris. The scientific mission has stalled, because the scientist crew have fallen to...
; Seventeen Instants of Spring, which created the immortal character of Standartenführer Stirlitz; White Sun of the Desert
White Sun of the Desert
White Sun of the Desert , a classic 'Eastern' or Ostern film of the Soviet Union.The film is one of the most popular Russian films of all time. Its blend of action, comedy, music and drama has made it wildly successful and it has since achieved the status of a cult film in Soviet and Russian...
(1970), and "Ostern
Ostern
The Ostern or Red Western was the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries' take on the Western.It generally took two forms:...
" – the Soviet Union's own take on the Western genre
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
.
With the onset of Perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
and Glasnost
Glasnost
Glasnost was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s...
in the mid-1980s, Soviet films emerged which began to address formerly censored topics, such as drug addiction, The Needle, and sexuality and alienation in Soviet society, Little Vera
Little Vera
Little Vera , produced at the Gorky Film Studio and released in 1988, is a film by Russian film director Vasili Pichul. The title in Russian is ambiguous and can also mean "Little Faith," symbolizing the characters' lack of hope ....
.
1990s
Russian cinema of the 90s acquired new features and themes.The drama Burnt by the Sun
Burnt by the Sun
Burnt by the Sun is a 1994 film by Russian director and actor Nikita Mikhalkov. The film depicts the story of a senior Red Army officer and his family during the Great Purge of the late 1930s in the Stalinist Soviet Union...
(1994) by Nikita Mikhalkov
Nikita Mikhalkov
Nikita Sergeyevich Mikhalkov is a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, actor, and head of the Russian Cinematographers' Union.Mikhalkov was born in Moscow into the distinguished, artistic Mikhalkov family. His great grandfather was the imperial governor of Yaroslavl, whose mother was a Galitzine princess...
is a story of small countryside community when new times of Stalinism are taking pace to disrupt their idylic reclusion and distort their characters and fates. The film received an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
In the context of the Russian WWII history Pavel Chukhraj filmed The Thief (Вор, 1997), a movie about a mother with son seeking a manly support and finding a criminal in military clothes. The film was awarded with 6 national prizes Nika, got a special prize in Venice and became the Oscar nominee.
Made by Valery Todorovsky The Country of the Deaf (Страна глухих, 1998) comedy based on the plot of Renata Litvinova
Renata Litvinova
Renata Muratovna Litvinova is a Russian actress, director, and screenwriter. She was born to a Russian mother and a Tatar father...
is parodying Russia of the 90s as a journey of two female friends caught in the fight of two clans - the deaf and the hearing.
The profound Dmitri Meskhiyev's melodrama Woman's property (Женская собственность, 1999) reflected subtle relationship between young student and older actress that grew into love-affair. The awaited death of one of the protagonists leaves the other facing the bitter loneliness.
East/West
East/West
East/West is a 1999 French film directed by Régis Wargnier, starring Sandrine Bonnaire , Oleg Menshikov , Sergei Bodrov Jr. and Catherine Deneuve...
co-production film tells history of early years of Stalinism as a story of emigre family living in the USSR.
2000s
Andrey ZvyagintsevAndrey Zvyagintsev
Andrey Petrovich Zvyagintsev is a Russian film director and actor. He is mostly known for his 2003 film The Return, which won him a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.-Biography:...
's The Return, a Golden Lion
Golden Lion
Il Leone d’Oro is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most distinguished prizes...
award recipient, shows two brothers' test of life when their father suddenly returns that reaches a deep almost-mystic pitch.
The Russian Ark
Russian Ark
Russian Ark is a 2002 Russian historical drama film directed by Alexander Sokurov. It was filmed entirely in the Winter Palace of the Russian State Hermitage Museum using a single 96-minute Steadicam sequence shot...
, 2003 by Alexander Sokurov
Alexander Sokurov
Alexander Nikolayevich Sokurov is a Russian filmmaker. His most significant works include a semi-documentary, Russian Ark , filmed in a single unedited shot, and Faust , which was honoured with the Golden Lion, the highest prize for the best film at the Venice Film Festival.- Life and work...
, was filmed in a single 96-minute shot in the Russian Hermitage Museum
Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,...
is a dream-like narration that tells about Classic Russian culture sailing in the Ark.
The serialised novels by Boris Akunin
Boris Akunin
Boris Akunin is the pen name of Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili , a Russian writer. He is an essayist, literary translator and writer of detective fiction.-Life and career:...
set in pre-Revolutionary Russia
Russian Revolution
Russian Revolution can refer to:* Russian Revolution , a series of strikes and uprisings against Nicholas II, resulting in the creation of State Duma.* Russian Revolution...
evolve around fictional Erast Fandorin adventures in three popular movies: The Azazel
Azazel (film)
Azazel is a Russian made for TV adaptation of Boris Akunin's introductory 'Erast Fandorin' novel The Winter Queen.-Plot summary:This historical detective story features a young police inspector, Erast Fandorin...
, The Turkish Gambit
The Turkish Gambit (film)
The Turkish Gambit is a 2005 Russian film, an adaptation of Boris Akunin's popular novel The Turkish Gambit featuring detective Erast Fandorin. It was directed by Dzhanik Faiziyev, and starred Yegor Beroyev, Marat Basharov and Olga Krasko. Akunin adapted his own novel...
and The State Counsellor
The State Counsellor (film)
The State Counseller is a 2005 Russian film, an adaptation of Boris Akunin's novel of the same name featuring detective Erast Fandorin. Directed by Filipp Yankovsky, it was one of the most expensive films ever made in Russia....
.
Life of the Orthodox Monastery and their Christian miracles are described in the film The Island by Pavel Lungin
Pavel Lungin
Pavel Semyonovich Lungin is a Russian film director. He is sometimes credited as Pavel Loungine .Born July 12, 1949 in Moscow, Lungin is the son of a scriptwriter and philologist. He later attended Moscow State University from which he graduated in 1971...
. The film was highly acclaimed by critics and was much-awarded by spectators and prizes.
Colorful musical Stilyagi, Hipsters about young generation lifestyle in the Soviet Union was a big success for its profound and vibrant portrait of the era of the 1950s. Filmed by Valery Todorovsky
Valery Todorovsky
Valery Petrovich Todorovsky is a Russian film director, screenwriter, TV producer.Legend has it that Todorovsky was born immediately after his mother watched Hitchcock's Psycho, in 1962. The film did not have an official release in Odessa; rather, it somehow reached Odessa Film Studio, where his...
in 2008.
2010s
How I Ended This SummerHow I Ended This Summer
How I Ended This Summer is a 2010 Russian drama film directed by Alexei Popogrebski. It was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival.-Plot:...
by Alexei Popogrebski
Alexei Popogrebski
Alexei Popogrebski is a Russian film director and screenwriter. His 2010 film How I Ended This Summer was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival.-Filmography:* Koktebel * Prostye veshchi...
a film shot in remote Chukotka
Chukotka Autonomous Okrug
Chukotka Autonomous Okrug , or Chukotka , is a federal subject of Russia located in the Russian Far East.Chukotka has a population of 53,824 according to the 2002 Census, and a surface area of . The principal town and the administrative center is Anadyr...
won Berlin's Film Festival Golden Bear
Golden Bear
According to legend, the Golden Bear was a large golden Ursus arctos. Members of the Ursus arctos species can reach masses of . The Grizzly Bear and the Kodiak Bear are North American subspecies of the Brown Bear....
in 2010 and thrills upon the face-off generation gap.
The same year Silent Souls
Silent Souls
Silent Souls is a 2010 Russian film that was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 67th Venice Film Festival. It is based on a 2008 novella by Denis Osokin. The film was awarded the Golden Osella for best cinematography and a FIPRESCI award...
, an arthouse film wins Golden Osella
Golden Osella
The Golden Osella is the name of several awards given at the Venice Film Festival. They are awarded irregularly and in various categories such as directing, screenwriting, cinematography and 'technical contributions'.-Best Director:...
for the best cinematography. Beautifully filmed it is a melancholic poem of love and death.
One of the many successful movies that were made in co-starring with Western actors and actresses is a comedy Lucky Trouble
Vykrutasy
Vykrutasy is a comedy film with Milla Jovovich in the title role. The premiere was held on February 14, 2011. The film's director was Levan Gabriadze.- Cast :* Milla Jovovich — Nadya* Konstantin Khabensky — Slava Kolotilov...
, 2011 which features Mila Jovovich.
List of highest-grossing films
As of 14, August, 2011:- The Irony of Fate 2The Irony of Fate 2The Irony of Fate 2 or The Irony of Fate: Continuation is a 2007 Russian romantic comedy film directed by Timur Bekmambetov based on a screenplay by Alexey Slapovskiy produced by Channel One and released by Mosfilm...
, 2007 - Day Watch, 2006
- AdmiralAdmiral (film)Admiral is a 2008 biopic about Alexander Kolchak, a Vice-Admiral in the Imperial Russian Navy and leader of the anti-communist White Movement during the Russian Civil War...
, 2008 - Night WatchNight Watch (2004 film)Night Watch is a 2004 Russian supernatural thriller film directed by Timur Bekmambetov. It is loosely based on the novel The Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko, and is the first part of a trilogy, followed by Day Watch and ending supposedly with Twilight Watch .-Plot:In the prologue, which...
, 2004 - The Best MovieThe Best MovieThe Best Movie is a 2008 Russian comedy film from TNT and Comedy Club Russia, spoofing such famous Russian films as Night Watch and Day Watch, The 9th Company, Heat and TV series: My Fair Nanny, Dalnoboyshchiki and Brigada. The movie includes numerous cameos by Russian celebrities, some of them...
, 2008 - MongolMongol (film)Mongol is a 2007 semi-historical film directed by Sergei Bodrov. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay written by Bodrov and Arif Aliev. Producers for the film comprised Bodrov, Sergei Selyanov and Anton Melnik. The film is based on the early life of Temüjin, who later came to be known as...
, 2007 - The 9th Company, 2006
- The Inhabited IslandThe Inhabited IslandThe Inhabited Island is a 2008-2009 science fiction film directed by Fyodor Bondarchuk based on a 1971 novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky of the same Russian name, published in English as Prisoners of Power. Due to the length of the filmed material, the film was released in two installments...
, 2010
See also
- Cinema of the world
- History of Russian animationHistory of Russian animationThe History of Russian animation is very rich, but is so far a nearly unexplored field for Western film theory and history. As most of Russia's production of animation for film|cinema and television was created during Soviet times, it may also be referred to as the History of Soviet...
- List of Russian films
External links
- RosFilm Archive of over 8000 Russian Language films to stream for free
- Russian film titles at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
- Russian-language films at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
- Russiancddvd.com - Classic Russian Movies on DVD's - Collection of classic and modern Russian movies.
- Russian Movies database (dvd & vhs catalogs, actors & directors pages)
- Russian Movie Club in USA (movie & actor directories, trailers, screenshots, reviews)
- Russian Film Database, University of Innsbruck, Austria
- The Return (Возвращение) Review at FilmDailies.com - a filmmaker's blog
- european-films.net - Reviews, trailers, interviews, news and previews of recent and upcoming European films (in English)
- Russian Film
- List of the best Russian movies
- 7 Brand New Russian Films Contemporary Russian Cinema