Product Details

• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Homevision
• VHS Release Date: June 6, 2000
• Run Time: 60 minutes
• ASIN: 0780020456
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #435,174 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This third and final volume of the Face of Russia series begins with video footage of a Russian Orthodox service taking place in a church that, due to communist subjugation, has not held mass for some 70 years. This scenario typifies art and culture in modern Russia--a reclamation of the old brought to life through new media of expression. In this study of 20th-century Russian music and cinema, we are shown how historical events are portrayed in a larger-than-life fashion characteristic of Russian artists, and how this heightened sense of drama has actually altered Russia's view of its own reality. For example, filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein's thundering depiction of Lenin's revolutionary forces overtaking the Hermitage was greatly exaggerated--it was actually a quite subdued "storming"; more people were injured in the making of this film than in the event itself. Nevertheless, it is now perceived by Russians as an accurate summary of the final day of the Bolshevik revolution. The world of music is given equal time in this video, highlighting composers such as Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, and Shostakovich, and their endeavors to capture the Russian voice in their characterizations of historic events.

Also addressed in this film is the idea that, now that communism has faded, Russia must set out to form a new cultural identity. As difficult a task as this must be, "Facing the Future" offers the hope that Russia will come to see itself as more than "a caviar of faces" and as a nation of individuals. With this change in perception, along with increasing acceptance of foreign cultural influences, Russia is certain to adopt exhilarating new forms of art and self-expression. --Ed Noble

Product Description

In Boris Godunov, the great composer Musorgsky dramatized the conflict between power and the people during Russia's original "Time of Troubles." Sergei Eisenstein retold history with silent films of such power that they became more real than actual events. Facing the Future explores the advance of Russian music and cinema, and looks at how new media forms are shaping Russia during its current time of change.

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