Russian Movies (or A Short Story of Vietnamese Public TV)

[Thanh Dang Nguyen <Nguyen.Dang.Thanh@Eng.Auburn.EDU>]

Hi Huy,

If you get interested in the mentioned Russian movies, check the Internet
Movie Database for more info. Here are some pointers:

	Girgori Chukhrai: Ballad of a Soldier (1959)
	Mikhail Kalatozov: The Cranes are Flying (1957)

As Giang mentioned, these movies were banned for a while (typical situation
in the sensitive 60's in Soviet Union). The first time I saw both of these on
the Vietnames state TV was in summer '88, when it was shown for public audience
after many years (probably thanks to the glanosty). Even my parents knew these
movies, and they got really excited for being able to watch them on TV. I
was pretty much indifferent, though.

BTW, how did you get hold of these gems, especially here in the US? I think
you can find some of them from backorder, but the prices are quite steep.
However, for all of you who haven't watched them, I highly recommend these
movies. Innocent, romantic and touchy pieces!

I would also open up another topic for "discussion". Probably many of you
had experienced the poor crop of cinema we were able to watch back in the
70's and 80's (I was born in '71, so don't know much about what's going
on in 60's). From my experience, I think I didn't see much good stuff.
We had movies mostly from Eastern countries (Bulgaria with "Tren tung cay
so" which was a very popular entertainment during the first age of Vietnamese
public TV after war, East Germany with "Dien thoai Cong an so 110" and a
well-known, action-packed "Hong sung vo hinh", Poland with "Ruoi trau"
va "Thu linh ..." - can't remember it, Czechoslovakia with "30 Vu an va Thieu
ta Geman" and some popular series for kids such as "Maika, Co be tu tren troi 
roi xuong", "Arabella" etc.) I remember back then, as kids we liked to watch 
East Germany movies, since they used to put some sort of "nude" scenes in 
them :) We also had some other selections from the Western world later on, 
mostly from France, such as the comedies from the funny Louis de Funes 
("Fantomas", "Sen dam nghi mat" etc.), a masterpiece from Gerard Philipe and 
Gina Lollobrigida titled "Fanfan la Tulipe" (Fanfan hoa tulip), and "The Three 
Muskeeters" (Ba chang ngu lam phao thu). I still remember those times when we
kids made our own swords out of scrap iron, just to imitate those galant 
muskeeters in the movies. Well some of the kids were eventually brought to 
hospital after some fierce street fights. Thanks God they didn't shown "Rambo" 
back then on TV :)

Anyway, although most of the Eastern movies were purely entertainment and 
probably unknown in the West, some of the pieces had really achieved some fame
even among Western critics. Two of them were mentioned above, but
we could also watch the prestigious "War and Peace" series on TV (directed
by Sergei Bondarchuk), and I think some of you might have seen "Moscow
Doesn't Believe In Tears" (Matxcova khong tin o nhung giot nuoc mat"),
an Oscar-wining movies in '80, or "Mephisto", a yet-another-Oscar-winning
cinema from Hungarian director Istvan Szabo. BTW, I personally don't like
"Moscow ..." much.

>From the mid-80's some long series were first shown for Vietnamese audience
on TV, like the extremely popular Italian maffia story "The Octopus" (Bach tuoc)
which dragged itself, I think, from '86 even into early 90's, a Victor Hugo's
adaptation titled "Nguoi dan ong co bo mat cuoi", and another popular
French series, "Nguoi nong dan noi day". They were probably better for
the public than other Russian series (like "Nhung chang duong dai
tren con cat" - I think it's not so bad, though). My personal favourite then
was a Jules Verne's adaptation "Captain Grant's Children", a cooperation of
Russia, Bulgaria and some other countries. I saw it 4-5 years later on
Hungarian TV, and still liked it.

Before I left Vietnam in summer '88, other Western series were also on TV 
which really captivated the public, eg. "The Thorn Birds" (Tieng chim hot 
trong bui man gai) with the handsome Richard Chamberlain and the innocent-looking
Rachel Ward (Meggie in the movie), or another literature adaptation, "Jane 
Eyere" featuring the James Bond 007 hero Timothy Dalton. Just before I left, 
another popular Australian mini series was being shown on TV with title "Nhung 
dong song deu chay", or something similar. I couldn't identify this one yet. 
I think these movies were the first major experience of the Vietnamse public
with Western movies industries (I don't count those people who could watch
"Rambo" or porn movies (phim con heo) illegally :). BTW, I think they were not 
distributed by Western companies, but mostly copied (illegally or not?) from 
the Russian state TV. Many times we watched these series in Russian first (like 
"Bach tuoc"), since people with a good TV antenna (it means a long one
pointing towards the sky, not parabole disk) in Hanoi could watch the Russian 
channel, which was considered to be a major attraction back then. This 
first-time-experience was pretty much memorable and unforgettable for many people, 
I think.

Well, I better close here. Just some nostalgy from a 26-year-old young man :)
Hope you like it, especially those of you who grew up in Vietnam during that 
probably primitive, but innocent time. I visited home two years ago, and I was 
so sad to see the video rentals loaded with cheap Hongkong action movies and
other crappy Western stuffs. The overall selection is wider, but the quality
was probably worse, since little guidance can be obatained. IMHO, cinema is an art 
of seeing; I think we need the eyes of a child to do that. Lots of movies these 
days are purely exploitation of human eyes and brains. Hopefully our children will
have a much better chance than we had quite a few years ago.

If any of you have some personal experience in this nostalgic matter, please
share with me (personally to my email address) or with our list (if you
wish so).

Enjoy!

-Thanh

PS. For those of you in the US, "Fanfan le Tulipe" will be shown on
International Channel on March 8 at 11:00 PM Eastern time, in a series
dedicated to the magnificent French actor Gerard Philipe (last month
was another movies series with Brigid Bardot). Don't miss it! It's a classic
French movie!