It is time for some classic Russian cinema!
To soothe your longing for Russia, I selected the best classic Russian films to watch in lockdown when present-day reality has so little comfort to offer.
For Russian learners, classic Russian films offer an extra dimension of language learning on top of the rich cultural and historical factors.
Speed up Your Russian Learning
Watching Russian films will provide you with tons of colorful dialogues to improve your spoken Russian in several ways:
An entertaining way to learn — without a doubt, learning Russian with films makes learning enjoyable and keeps you motivated — both are essential for your language learning success.
Listening and comprehension skills — you may feel as if you’re sitting back, relaxing, and watching a film, but this whole time your brain is busy at work picking up the new sounds of the Russian language. The more familiar you become with listening to Russian words the faster you’ll be able to understand what is being said in Russian.
Authentic Russian — in movies, Russian is spoken informally and at normal speed. It will help you get to hear real Russian, with more natural dialogues than you may find in a coursebook.
Pronunciation — one area in which a lot of Russian language students struggle is pronunciation. Playing back films allows you to quickly and easily compare your own pronunciation with that of native Russian speakers.
Movie Watching Tips
Use subtitles — subtitles allow you to follow the dialogue and help you comprehend words you might not understand yet. You can also choose to switch on Russian subtitles, rather than your own native language, for an extra lesson in reading and comprehension.
Replay — any Russian words you struggle with can be replayed until you get the pronunciation just right. Try playing back the section in slow motion and watching the shape of the mouth of the character speaking, then copying this yourself to aid your pronunciation skills.
The Golden Classics
Click on the film titles to redirect to Mosfilm's YouTube Channel where you can watch them for free.
A young ученый (scientist) creates a машину времени (time machine) and accidentally transports czar Ivan the Terrible to 1970s Moscow. The film is based on a little known play by Mikhail Bulgakov.
A молодой человек (young man) goes в баню (to a banya) with his friends в новогоднюю ночь (on New Year’s Eve) and gets too drunk. His friends by mistake put him on a flight to Leningrad, while in Moscow his девушка (girlfriend) is waiting for him to celebrate the New Year. This comedy is a perfect satire of life in the USSR during the Brezhnev era.
A romantic comedy. A single отец (father) of two is working as a clerk in a statistical agency. Can this скромный мужчина (shy man) win the affections of his strict, career-driven boss?
An обычный советский гражданин (ordinary Soviet citizen) accidentally becomes a part of an international criminal gang that trades illegally obtained jewelry.
The plot рассказывает о приключениях Шурика (to follow the adventures of Shurik), the naive and nerdy Soviet student who often gets into ludicrous situations.
Follow the 'ups and downs', dreams and wishes in the lives of three women, starting from the time when they живут вместе (to live together) in a room in a hostel. The movie won an Oscar for лучший иностранный фильм (the best foreign film) in 1981. It was rumoured that US President Ronald Reigan watched this film at least 8 times as he wanted понять загадочную русскую душу (to undetstand the mysterious Russian soul) before meeting Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
In Italy, a dying woman говорит своей внучке (to tell her granddaughter) that she hid her treasure many years ago in Russia, in the city of Leningrad. The granddaughter just has to find a lion statue — that is easy in Leningrad, a city literally inundated with lions.
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