petitioning for Malenkov biopic
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 31 March 2018 13:58 (six years ago) link
I fancy him.
― DJ U OK Hun? (jed_), Saturday, 31 March 2018 14:11 (six years ago) link
No Zhukov. That's who I fancy.
― DJ U OK Hun? (jed_), Saturday, 31 March 2018 14:13 (six years ago) link
the Horniburo
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 31 March 2018 14:26 (six years ago) link
I would kind of like to see a film about Malenkov's later years
In 1961, Malenkov was expelled from the Communist Party and exiled to a remote province of the Soviet Union. He became a manager of a hydroelectric plant in Ust'-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan.[19]After his exile from the Party, Malenkov fell into obscurity and suffered from depression due to loss of power and the quality of life in a poor province. However, some researchers say that later Malenkov found this demotion and exile a relief from the pressures of the Kremlin power struggle. Malenkov in his later years converted to Russian Orthodoxy, as did his daughter, who has since spent part of her personal wealth building two churches in rural locations. Orthodox Church publications at the time of Malenkov's death said he had been a reader (the lowest level of Russian Orthodox clergy) and a choir singer in his final years. He died on 14 January 1988 at age 86.
After his exile from the Party, Malenkov fell into obscurity and suffered from depression due to loss of power and the quality of life in a poor province. However, some researchers say that later Malenkov found this demotion and exile a relief from the pressures of the Kremlin power struggle. Malenkov in his later years converted to Russian Orthodoxy, as did his daughter, who has since spent part of her personal wealth building two churches in rural locations. Orthodox Church publications at the time of Malenkov's death said he had been a reader (the lowest level of Russian Orthodox clergy) and a choir singer in his final years. He died on 14 January 1988 at age 86.
― soref, Saturday, 31 March 2018 14:42 (six years ago) link
He became a manager of a hydroelectric plant in Ust'-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan. After his exile from the Party, Malenkov fell into obscurity and suffered from depression due to loss of power
ambiguous wikipedia sentences
― Number None, Saturday, 31 March 2018 15:27 (six years ago) link
lol!
― calzino, Saturday, 31 March 2018 15:35 (six years ago) link
This ruled
― Orwonty Nelson (latebloomer), Wednesday, 4 April 2018 11:09 (six years ago) link
Late to the party, but wanted to say I really liked this. It is hilarious, and it has succeeded in making me interested in Russian history, which has always seemed dauntingly vast to try to comprehend. Maybe I'll pick up a book on the subject later this year when I'm not so damn busy.
― davey, Sunday, 8 April 2018 11:51 (six years ago) link
haha, number none that is too funny! :D
― davey, Sunday, 8 April 2018 11:52 (six years ago) link
i loved how AI stuffed genre characters into the political allegory, largely indicated by the accents. Stalin as mob boss, Stalin's kids as 1920s minor aristocracy, leader of the army as no-nonsense Yorkshireman etc. It felt like the film was a vague allegory concerning now, as opposed to about the actual death of stalin. At one point, Beria was threatening a guard and came out with a malcolm tucker style "rip off your head and shit down the neck" quip, and it wasn't funny because Tucker won't actually rip off your head, while Beria has probably done that today before breakfast. In using standard AI farce with a collection of monsters, it kinda illuminates how monstrous our current political animals are - malcolm tucker would be head of the secret police in another life.
― Closed Beta (NotEnough), Wednesday, 11 April 2018 15:31 (six years ago) link
Although a bit of a kolbasa-fest, I really liked this and how stage-y this was. That's usually a criticism of poor cinematic adaptation of a play, but I really liked the intimate production - it probably didn't need any of the wider shots of Moscow, parade, etc.
― Spencer Chow, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 21:28 (six years ago) link
i really enjoyed this. really funny, solid performances, and some genuinely unsettling moments. especially liked buscemi who i thought put across khrushchev's slow transformation really convincingly. the only thing i didn't much like was the portrayal of stalin himself. even tho he doesn't get much screen time i still felt he should have felt like a shadow kind of hanging over the entire movie, like you should have FELT the characters' terror of stalin and their lingering fear that he might just walk back into the room. and i've read descriptions of stalin's actual moment of death, the deathbed scene where he raised up his hand, that were genuinely chilling and haunting and nothing like the goofy and over-the-top way they handled it here. still liked it overall and would prob watch again.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 11 April 2018 22:54 (six years ago) link
Stalin came off stupid and bumbling, which, uh, he was not
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 12 April 2018 00:35 (six years ago) link
Iannucci repeating Trotsky's mistakes :-O
― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Thursday, 12 April 2018 07:48 (six years ago) link
He's at the end of his life, pretty difficult not to appear bumbling when you're having a heart attack.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 12 April 2018 08:15 (six years ago) link
this was okay. geeked out to it of course but it left a lot on the table and only beale (definitive, so far) really approached his role as a role. tambor did the thing he does. buscemi did one of them. both were funny.
biggest laughs for me kept coming from stuff that was totally indistinguishable from veep: "switch with me, we can make it look like part of the ceremony", buildup+payoff of malenkov and the little girl, etc. pretty good but pretty generic. (i get that being generic is to some extent the Point but eh.) an exception was when palin's molotov, orating, got stuck a while on the word "unwavering": this was a joke about the soviet union. (so was "i've had nightmares that made more sense than this", but that was in the trailer.)
svetlana and beria's vibe was wrong. even as a little girl she feared and hated him, couldn't stand to be around him (which because her father was, she always was: being picked up, dandled on knee, etc). showing this-- even just w body language, which in their first scene together (everyone racing to hug her) i thought for a second they were doing-- would imo have made the occasional references to beria being a serial child rapist feel less... is the word really "awkward"? better-integrated into the movie. (btw yes i am fairly sure this did come up at his "trial"-- yezhov's porn stash certainly came up at his.) but they don't do that really. nevertheless beale was, again, vivid, great.
they should have used patronymics. it would have been funny every time.
― difficult listening hour, Monday, 7 May 2018 08:27 (five years ago) link
this was a joke about the soviet union.
another good one: "hey, polina's back!"
― difficult listening hour, Monday, 7 May 2018 08:33 (five years ago) link
This was OK - banality of evil and all that - but it was too long for a farce.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 16 May 2018 19:00 (five years ago) link
This was fine. Almost as funny as In the Loop and of necessity a smoother and handsomer production.
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 3 July 2018 12:18 (five years ago) link
most of this was on the level of the extremely dull opening ~20mins of in the loop, but nowhere near the american section; their rumsfeld caricature was realer than the entire politburo put together
― difficult listening hour, Tuesday, 3 July 2018 15:52 (five years ago) link
(i did see it a second time and wrote this more detailed post which i consigned to my folder of ilx posts i don't post, but i figured i'd dig it up if the thread got bumped)
i saw this again and i don't actually think it's very good? you don't notice at first because conceptually it's such a gimme and the performances range from good to very good. but so much of the writing is SO lame, so disconnected: svetlana/khrushchev on "harm" (agonizing silence @ this and later callback, from otherwise p responsive audiences); khrushchev as funeral director (built up, then immediately squandered as blandly as possible in a scene that compares unfavorably to a bit from woody allen's hollywood ending); pointless "we are russians! in russia" flags (ninjinsky, baku pisshouse); concept after concept that feels like a mid-tier thick of it joke gone totally unaltered. "who puts a lamp on a chair"-- what the fuck was this? stop wasting my time. "maybe he's the milk" / "maybe you're the tit"-- compare this to in the loop's "they're so massive they actually draw in other tits from the surrounding area" / "like you?" for the difference between spending four seconds writing a joke and spending thirty.
sometimes there are little errors that make it feel chintzy and glib if u are a pedantic nerd, like malenkov drawing himself up in pomp to announce he is "the general secretary of the soviet union", or beria the human filing cabinet mispronouncing kaganovich's name, or the titles calling 1953 "the midst of the great terror". and for some reason even tho the movie is a door-slamming farce there are only two scenes set in the house on the embankment! nina khrushchev is in one of them and i kept wanting her back.
surprised myself on rewatch by thinking the nkvd raid scenes were pretty good. the near-wordless subplot about the son who denounces his father weighs more than anything else in the movie (but not as much as the state) and got v grim lols. (the massacre scene is barely legible tho. idk that ianucci's mise en whatever is any better than kevin smith's. would've been better if he'd just pastiched eisenstein.) also good: anything with the central committee formally assembled-- wish there had been more of this, it rly snaps the writing into focus. everyone sitting around waiting for palin's undead molotov to finish torturing a foregone conclusion of power into a just product of soviet principle is exactly the level too little of the movie is on.
i think they should have come back to "are you still testing me?" a time or two. instead of harm.
lose the title cards.
― difficult listening hour, Tuesday, 3 July 2018 15:56 (five years ago) link
Is there a patreon I can subscribe to where I can see this folder
― U. K. Le Garage (wins), Tuesday, 3 July 2018 16:15 (five years ago) link
their rumsfeld caricature was realer than the entire politburo put together
Did you ever hear Kubrick quoted by one of his actors, "Real is good; interesting is better"?
I think my favorite line is "Who the fuck would want eternal life?"
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 3 July 2018 16:52 (five years ago) link
i've read descriptions of stalin's actual moment of death, the deathbed scene where he raised up his hand, that were genuinely chilling and haunting and nothing like the goofy and over-the-top way they handled it here
b-b-but it's a comedy
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 3 July 2018 16:53 (five years ago) link
It's a comedy in the sense that life is a comedy, but it's not particularly funny.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 3 July 2018 17:16 (five years ago) link
Then it's a not very good comedy.
― Alan Alba (Tom D.), Tuesday, 3 July 2018 17:27 (five years ago) link
Comedies don’t need to be all that funny, tho.
― rb (soda), Tuesday, 3 July 2018 17:51 (five years ago) link
heard a lot of that lately and not seen many good comedies in the past few years
― ogmor, Tuesday, 3 July 2018 17:53 (five years ago) link
compared to Tag i expect it's funny
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 3 July 2018 18:04 (five years ago) link
Stalin doesn't have much confidence in the setting; it could be any corrupt regime perpetuating itself, an idea that absolves the filmmakers of writing jokes to fit the material.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 3 July 2018 18:18 (five years ago) link
i agree, and i liked that about it
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 3 July 2018 18:33 (five years ago) link
(i have forgotten most of the Soviet history i knew in college)
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 3 July 2018 18:34 (five years ago) link
nearly assuming the audience knows what the NKVD was is plenty confident for this era
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 3 July 2018 18:36 (five years ago) link
the palin committee meeting stuff was actually painful bad and well beliw the rest of it
― the last famous poster you were surprised to discover was actually (darraghmac), Tuesday, 3 July 2018 18:37 (five years ago) link
You didn't need to know anything about Soviet history. Imagine watching a Italian comedy where they talk like Cubans.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 3 July 2018 18:37 (five years ago) link
"or the titles calling 1953 "the midst of the great terror""I didn't notice this at the time and I was looking to pick at this thing, cos I can't fucking stand Ianucci's style and the rest.. anyway absolutely fab post there, DLH.
― calzino, Tuesday, 3 July 2018 19:37 (five years ago) link
the CC scenes are actually not far from Python's People's Front of Judea in Life of Brian
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 3 July 2018 20:37 (five years ago) link
Imagine watching a Italian comedy where they talk like Cubans.
is this a Scarface reference
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 3 July 2018 20:40 (five years ago) link
Just finished on BBC2, what a piece of pointless crap.
― Eggbreak Hotel (Tom D.), Sunday, 20 December 2020 23:16 (three years ago) link
yep. A self-satisfied Iannucci gag fest no less, with some good and bad actors enjoying themselves much more than the poor viewer.
― calzino, Sunday, 20 December 2020 23:20 (three years ago) link
It's not good on many levels but I enjoyed a couple of the performances. I don't much care about movies having a point either but yeah, this is waste, especially compared to Khrustalyov
― Uptown Top Scamping (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 20 December 2020 23:21 (three years ago) link
It was simultaneously too light and too dark and ended up as nothing. Not funny. I grinned once.
― Eggbreak Hotel (Tom D.), Sunday, 20 December 2020 23:25 (three years ago) link
It really doesn't work as a comedy
― Uptown Top Scamping (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 20 December 2020 23:26 (three years ago) link
And it definitely doesn't work as a drama, apart from the last 5 minutes.
― Eggbreak Hotel (Tom D.), Sunday, 20 December 2020 23:28 (three years ago) link
Plus I'm sorry the bit where Beria has a hissy fit and starts shouting accusations at the other committee members was just a pale shadow of Glenn's "I AM MAN" meltdown in "Rise of the Nutters".
― Eggbreak Hotel (Tom D.), Sunday, 20 December 2020 23:35 (three years ago) link
There was an 80's brit tv comedy drama about Stalin that pissed all over this, but I saw it years ago and can't remember the name of it, and then there is the darkest of dark comedy of Khrustalyov My Car which isn't going to be for everybody but goes more into the anti-Semitic "doctors' plot" violence at the end of Stalin's era, which much more interesting than doing shit comedy versions of famous Soviet commissars in *hilarious* UK regional accents. Actually maybe the latter could actually be funny if it was done by anyone but fucking Iannucci.
― calzino, Sunday, 20 December 2020 23:51 (three years ago) link
Having Paul Whitehouse play Paul Whitehouse, Michael Palin play Michael Palin and Jeffrey Tambor play Jeffrey Tambor was a bit lazy.
― Eggbreak Hotel (Tom D.), Sunday, 20 December 2020 23:56 (three years ago) link
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/dec/14/khrustalyov-my-car-review-visually-amazing-russian-gem-aleksei-german
lol Khrustalyov is the recipient of that highest of movie accolades, a five star P Badshaw review! tbf on him it is a decent little review.
― calzino, Monday, 21 December 2020 00:43 (three years ago) link
Fuck off back to Georgia, dead boy.
― papal hotwife (milo z), Monday, 13 September 2021 22:18 (two years ago) link