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Russia Banned Satire "Death of Stalin" Strikes Chord at US Box Office
Hollywood Reporter ^ | 3/11/2018 | Pamela McClintock

Posted on 03/14/2018 2:50:58 PM PDT by GoldenState_Rose

Over the weekend, Armando Iannucci's critically acclaimed The Death of Stalin did impressive business upon launching in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles, grossing $181,308 for a per-screen average of $45,327 — the second-best average of the year to date behind Black Panther.

Moreover, the comedy scored the second-best opening average ever for veteran indie distributor IFC...

The movie will be listed on the marquee in a total of nine cities next weekend — including Washington — on its way to rolling out nationwide at the end of the month.

Set in 1953, The Death of Stalin is based on a French graphic novel about the chaos and power struggles that ensue following the death of Joseph Stalin.

The British-French film, which screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, was originally supposed to play in Russian theaters but was banned in January after members of the government said it was part of an effort in an anti-Russian information war.

(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; History; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: deathofstalin; movies; putin; russia; stalin

1 posted on 03/14/2018 2:50:58 PM PDT by GoldenState_Rose
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To: GoldenState_Rose
Outstanding film, a "must see" filled with "black humor" based on true, historic events.

No wonder Putin is afraid of the film and had it "banned" in Russia. He can't stand his people learning the truth being told about the murderous butcher Stalin, his inner circle of sycophants and the habitual terror the Soviets lived under throughout his terribe reign.

Putin LOVES Stalin and the good old, bad old days of the Soviet Union.

The good news is Putin's ban has assured the film's success throughout the former USSR and the world. Russians are streaming, watching, downloading and disseminating bootleg copies of the film found for free on the Internet.

2 posted on 03/15/2018 5:05:28 PM PDT by Jmouse007 (Lord God Almighty, deliver us from this evil in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, amen.)
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To: Jmouse007

Saw this on a flight yesterday returning from England. Dark humor. Mostly the situation itself is absurd. Steve Buscemi as Nikita “Nickie” Kruschev should give you some idea.


3 posted on 03/23/2018 4:48:59 AM PDT by Oratam
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To: Oratam
While you personally might not like some of the casting choices (the critics along with myself thought Buscemi's portrayal of Kruschev was excellent); As someone who spent years living and working throughout the Soviet Union shortly after it fell, what is presented in the film is hitorically accurate and it is damming concerning Soviet communism and the abject terror Stalin inflicted on the entire nation.

Every student I taught and every person I met had family members, friends and colleagues killed, "dissapeared", imprisoned or sent off to Siberia and the gulag never to be seen again. Every one of them!

This film is an historically accurate "black comedy" and while we can laugh at the sheer absurdity of what we see, ...it happened.

This is a "must see film", especially for young people who have absolutely no clue as to what communism and socialism is and leads to every time it has been inflicted upon a nation and its people.

4 posted on 03/23/2018 9:40:32 AM PDT by Jmouse007 (Lord God Almighty, deliver us from this evil in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, amen.)
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To: Jmouse007
I liked the movie. It's been two days and I'm still thinking about it . . . mostly scenes featuring Buscemi.

I meant only that the producer's, director's, screenwriter's, whomever's choice for Kruschev says something about his or her regard for the subject, i.e., Buscemi is a fine actor but a comically homely one thus truly perfect for the part. This ain't hagiography.

5 posted on 03/23/2018 3:19:13 PM PDT by Oratam
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To: Jmouse007

Fully agreed, this definitely is worth watching, like how Animal Farm and 1984 should be required reading for at least a taste of how bad communism and socialism are.

And funny how one of the so-called reasons for it being banned besides obviously the bits about Stalin dealt with how it apparently “mocked” veterans of the Eastern front, since one of the best characters in the movie, not to mention one of the few characters to actually be good, or close to that anyways, is Field Marshal Grigory Zhukov, who, as the film reminds us, was pretty much the guy responsible for driving out the Nazi Germans during the Eastern Front at the very least. That if anything sounds like a heckuva promotion of Eastern Front veterans, not mockery or ridicule of them.


6 posted on 04/17/2018 6:03:25 AM PDT by otness_e
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