Films:
Eliso (ელისო) 1928, dir. Nikoloz Shengelaia
-Viewed Mon 9/26 at Harvard Film Archive, 35mm, live musical accompaniment by Robert Humphreville
Cruising 1980, dir. William Friedkin
-Viewed Tue 9/27 at Somerville Theatre, 35mm
With over a year since the last post, I think it’s time to correct this blog’s identity crisis.
Continue reading “‘Eliso’ (1928), ‘Cruising’ (1980), and an update on RGFC 100 project”
My entry into professional writing was reviewing the American Film Institute’s “100 Years…100 Movies” list for DigBoston. Now I’m doing the same with the Russian Guild of Film Critics’ equivalent list found here. Rather than review each film, I’ll be recapping each decade.
I’ll also include the burrito I ate while collecting my thoughts. Welcome to BurritoAndAMovie.com.
Films:
The Forty-First (Сорок первый) 1956, dir. Grigori Chukhrai
Spring on Zarechnaya Street (Весна на Заречной улице) 1956, dir. Felix Mironer, Marlen Khutsiev
Carnival Night (Карнавальная Ночь) 1956, dir. Eldar Ryazanov
The Cranes Are Flying (Летят журавли) 1957, dir. Mikhail Kalatozov
Fate of a Man (Судьба человека) 1959, dir. Sergei Bondarchuk
Ballad of a Soldier (Баллада о солдате) 1959, dir. Grigori Chukhrai
Burrito:
Duck burrito with tater tots from Five Horses in Davis Square, Somerville, MA. They’re back open, though this doesn’t seem to be on the menu right now.
Pic taken December 2020. Hey, sometimes these decade retrospectives take a while from start to finish.
For the first time in a decade of film journalism, I don’t have a year-end best of list. The short explanation is that I didn’t watch enough movies for an informed slate. The longer one is that in September of 2019, my mother- and father-in-law welcomed me into their family. Less than a year later, in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were saying goodbye.
Continue reading “2020 Griefbinging”My entry into professional writing was reviewing the American Film Institute’s “100 Years…100 Movies” list for DigBoston. Now I’m doing the same with the Russian Guild of Film Critics’ equivalent list found here. Rather than review each film, I’ll be recapping each decade.
I’ll also include the burrito I ate while collecting my thoughts. Welcome to BurritoAndAMovie.com.
RGFC films:
Mashenka (Машенька) 1942, dir. Yuli Raizman (YouTube)
Dream (Мечта) 1943, dir. Mikhail Romm (YouTube)
Ivan the Terrible (Иван Грозный) 1944 (Part I) & 1958 (Part II), dir. Sergei Eisenstein (Criterion Channel [subscription required])
Cinderella (Золушка) 1947, dir. Nadezhda Kosheverova, Mikhail Shapiro (YouTube)
Non-RGFC films:
The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (Необычайные приключения мистера Веста в стране Большевиков) 1924, dir. Lev Kuleshov (Kanopy)
Man with a Movie Camera (Человек с кино-аппаратом) 1935, dir. Dziga Vertov (Kanopy)
By the Bluest of Seas (У самого синего моря) 1936, dir. Boris Barnet (Kanopy)
Burrito:
First burrito of lockdown: steak burrito grande from Tenoch. I started this draft in March but some stuff’s been happening since then, y’know?
My entry into professional writing was reviewing the American Film Institute’s “100 Years…100 Movies” list for DigBoston. Now I’m doing the same with the Russian Guild of Film Critics’ equivalent list found here. Rather than review each film, I’ll be recapping each decade.
I’ll also include the burrito I ate while collecting my thoughts. Welcome to BurritoAndAMovie.com.
Films:
Road to Life (Путёвка в жизнь) 1931, dir. Nikolai Ekk (YouTube)
Outskirts (Окраина) 1933, dir. Boris Barnet (Kanopy)
Chapaev (Чапаев) 1934, dir. Sergei Vasliev, Georgi Vasiliev (YouTube)
A Severe Young Man (Строгий юноша) 1934, dir. Abram Room (Wikimedia)
Jolly Fellows (Весёлые ребята) 1934, dir. Grigori Aleksandrov (YouTube)
The Youth of Maxim (Юность Максима) 1935, dir. Grigori Kozintsev, Leonid Trauberg (YouTube)
Happiness (Счастье) 1935, dir. Aleksandr Medvedkin (Kanopy)
Alexander Nevsky (Александр Невский) 1938, dir. Sergei Eisenstein (YouTube)
Burrito (last one pre-isolation):
Steak Burrito Grande, Herrera’s, Boston, MA
There’s a lot to love about the way we in the Boston Online Film Critics Association choose our annual BOFCA Award winners. Ranked voting (which, ahem, would be one positive step toward fixing democracy), a Top 10 list where beloved non-winners still get represented, and the satisfaction of boosting what we all know should win (e.g. You Were Never Really Here) instead of what we all know will win (that other movie).
To see this year’s winners, click here. Here’s my 2019 Boston Online Film Critics Awards ballot.
Burrito: Steak burrito grande, Felipe’s, Cambridge, MA (2019, dir. J.J. Abrams)
BEST PICTURE
1 – THE NIGHTINGALE*
2 – PARASITE
3 – LITTLE WOMEN
4 – ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD
5 – UNCUT GEMS
6 – US
7 – THE FAREWELL
8 – THE IRISHMAN
9 – MIDSOMMAR
10 – IN FABRIC
My entry into professional writing was reviewing the American Film Institute’s “100 Years…100 Movies” list for DigBoston. Now I’m doing the same with the Russian Guild of Film Critics’ equivalent list found here. Rather than review each film, I’ll be recapping each decade.
I’ll also include the burrito I ate while collecting my thoughts. Welcome to BurritoAndAMovie.com.
Films:
Father Sergius (Отец Сергий) 1917-1918, dir. Alexandre Volkoff, Yakov Protazanov (YouTube)
Strike (Стачка) 1925, dir. Sergei Eisenstein (Kanopy)
Battleship Potemkin (Броненосец Потёмкин) 1925, dir. Sergei Eisenstein (Kanopy)
By the Law (По закону) 1926, dir. Lev Kuleshov (Kanopy)
The Overcoat (Шинель) 1926, dir. Leonid Trauberg, Grigori Kozintsev (YouTube)
Bed and Sofa (Третья мещанская) 1927, dir. Abram Room (Kanopy)
The House on Trubnaya (Дом на Трубной) 1928, dir. Boris Barnet (Kanopy)
Storm Over Asia (Потомок Чингисхана) 1928, dir. Vsevolod Pudovkin (Kanopy)
Fragment of an Empire (Обломок империи) 1929, dir. Fridrikh Ermler (YouTube)
Burrito:
Carne Asada, Tenoch, Somerville, MA
Imagine being the one responsible for going through Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago and mapping it out chronologically. I do not envy that person’s job.
Originally ran on The Jensonian.
THE FILM
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Directed by David Lean, screenplay by Robert Bolt
Omar Sharif as Dr. Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago | Julie Christie as Lara Antipova | Geraldine Chaplin as Tonya Gromeko | Rod Steiger as Victor Ippolitovich Komarovsky | Alec Guinness as Yevgraf Andreyevich Zhivago | Tom Courtenay as Pavel Antipov / Strelnikov | Klaus Kinski as Hey That’s Klaus Kinski
THE BOOK
Doctor Zhivago (1957)
Written by Boris Pasternak
Kristofer Jenson's Blog 