Cinephile, history fan, and one-time Muscovite Ally Pitts explores contemporary and Soviet-era Russian language cinema one film at a time! The show combines interviews and movie discussion, and features expert guests including authors, journalists, stand-up comedians, and indie podcasters. From time to time, it also tackles Hollywood’s attempts to bring aspects of Russian culture, literature, and history to the Silver Screen.
Episodes
Thursday Jan 18, 2018
Lady Macbeth (William Oldroyd; 2016)
Thursday Jan 18, 2018
Thursday Jan 18, 2018
Lyn Seren, film enthusiast, cat admirer, and car owner, joins Ally Pitts to discuss British film Lady Macbeth, which features a star-making performance by Florence Pugh.
Expect SIGNIFICANT SPOILERS from 4 minutes in until the end. CONTENT WARNING: If you're planning to watch the film, you should be aware that it contains scenes of domestic violence and sexual assault.
The film stars also Cosmo Jarvis, Paul Hilton, and Naomi Ackie. The screenplay is an adaptation of Nikolai Leskov's novella Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District by Alice Birch.
Russophiles Unite's intro music is Cold by Sasha Ilyukevich and the Highly Skilled Migrants.
You can find more of their music at: thehighlyskilledmigrants.bandcamp.com/ or: open.spotify.com/artist/1cXWmfhuDWyfKfsYADk96F
If you'd like to get in touch and tell us what you thought of the film and/or the podcast episode, it would be great to hear from you! Here are some ways you can do that:
Twitter: @RussophilesU
Email: russophilesunite@gmail.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/russophilesunite
Instagram: www.instagram.com/russophiles_unite/
Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/Ally_Pitts/
Support the show/fund Ally's caffeine habit at: ko-fi.com/russophilesunite
Find Ally's other podcast appearances at: www.podchaser.com/creators/alistair-pitts-107ZzmUqmI
Thursday Jan 04, 2018
Tsar (Pavel Lungin; 2009)
Thursday Jan 04, 2018
Thursday Jan 04, 2018
Happy New Year, druzya! For our first film pick of 2018, we're watching historical drama Tsar from 2009, directed by Pavel Lungin and starring Pyotr Mamonov and Oleg Yankovskiy.
To discuss the film, Ally is joined by co-host of High & Low: A Kurosawa Podcast and Russian history super-fan Spencer Seams.
This episode contains moderate SPOILERs from 19 minutes in until the end.
It also includes (at least) one significant factual error about Russian history by Ally.
For. Shame. No actual prizes for spotting it(/them), but kudos if you do.
If you'd like to get in touch and tell us what you thought of the film and/or the podcast episode, here are some options:
Twitter: @RussophilesU
Email: russophilesunite@gmail.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/russophilesunite/
Outro music: Grubiy Zakat by Zvuki Mu (fronted by Pyotr Mamonov).