Vanity: Period Drama Review: Sunstroke 2014 (Russian with English Subtitles)

I saw this Russian production on the recommended list free from Amazon Prime members. I noticed some of the gorgeous snapshots so I gave the movie a try.

The movie, I found out based on the works of Noble Prize winner in Literature Ivan Bunin, is a story of what the Bolshevik Revolution destroyed. The film centers on a nameless Captain who is in a POW camp left behind in the Crimea after General Wrangel’s White Army left Russia for good defeated by the Red Army in 1920. He is a broken man shocked by what has befallen Russia. These scenes are muddy, earthy, and gray. The movie then flashbacks to 1907 where the then Lieutenant remembers his time on a passenger side paddle steamer on the Volga during a gorgeous Russian summer. The imagery is a 180 degree the opposite of the POW camp. The people are dressed in Edwardian finery, and enjoying life with no idea what will befall them in 7 years.

The Lieutenant encounters a nameless gorgeous woman and they have a one night affair. She is married and he is betrothed. The man is haunted by this encounter for the rest of his life.

This nameless woman is contrasted with a real historical person, Rosalia Zemlyachka. Rosalia is a committed Marxist-Leninist. Rosalia’s uncaring and masculine personality is contrasted with the feminine energy of the nameless woman. She dominates and humiliates another historical character the Hungarian Communist Bela Kun.

The movie also shows in another character what ideology and materialism does to another person’s soul.

Ochen’ mne interesno. Does the harsh Bolshevik woman’s unusual name play into the messaging somehow?

Zemlyachestvos were informal urban networks that helped peasants newly arrived to Moscow, St P. etc., adjust to city life, get jobs, housing, food, etc. As “zemlya” implies, the networks were organized around common origins in a particular “land” or locality (e.g., peasants from Tambov province might operate a mutual aid zemlyach in Moscow for immigrants from Tambov). During the revolutionary period, the Bolsheviks tried co-opting zemlyachs and started some of their own to gain influence over peasant-workers in the cities.

One of the myths created by the Communists: Russian life was better after the Revolution.

Wrong. Russian life was better BEFORE the Revolution.

Literacy, industrialization, standard of living — though still behind the Western nations — was steadily rising. Russia was producing world-class musicians, ballet dancers, artists, scientists, composers, writers.

It is only World War One that interrupted the rise and enabled the Bolsheviks to gain power. Totally useless war, materially and economically depleted the nation. People fell for Lenin’s lies of “Land, Bread, Peace!”

Definitely the Tsarist government was in need of reform. But not revolution. It proved a total disaster.

Thanks for the tip! I’ll be looking for something new to watch real soon. My grandfather from Danzig served in the German army on the Eastern Front and was a Russian POW during the Russian Revolution. He left his memoirs of his experiences, so this period has some special meaning for me.

I’m finishing Season 3 of “The Borgias,” the story of the papacy of Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borja, the “Spanish Pope”). I distinctly remember Rush raving about this series when it came out ten years ago. At the time, I watched a little bit of S1E1 and just couldn’t get into it. Was my assessment ever wrong! It is the most amazing production of history I’ve ever seen.

IMDB: “In the fifteenth century, Pope Alexander VI tries to control all power in Italy with the help of his several sons, through murder, intrigue, war, and marriage alliances.”

The palace intrigue is astonishing. I remember reading in history class many decades ago about the interlocking marriages throughout Europe and how seemingly every country was connected by marriage to every other country. This show really brings that home and makes you weep for the young people where married off as nothing more than chattel.

There are historical inaccuracies, of course, done to make the show flow on TV. Girolamo Savonarola, was an Italian Dominican friar from Ferrara and preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He was known for his prophecies of civic glory, the destruction of secular art and culture, and his calls for Christian renewal. He denounced clerical corruption, despotic rule, and the exploitation of the poor. As such, he became a bitter enemy of Pope Alexander VI. The Trial by Fire shown in the TV show had been planned in real life, but did not happen. Savonarola was not transported to Rome for torture and execution. He was hanged with two other friars prior to being burned, but he wasn’t burned alive as depicted in the TV show.

Thanks, C19fan, for the recommendation and Gene Eric, for the ping. I’ve not seen this movie but I will add it to my list.

I am pinging an ad hoc collection of freepers who have commented recently on a couple of other threads concerning movie recommendations and the film industry in general. This may become a recurring thread. By all means, use the ping list yourself if you have a good recommendation.

Some of you are movie buffs and are much more sophisticated than me. Others of you — if I read your previous comments correctly — have niche interests. And a couple of you take the view that Hollywood should be nuked from orbit just to make sure (though a couple of the latter are still interested enough to show up regularly on movie threads to express disdain, kind of like an atheist who spends all his time hating on God).

Until a couple of years ago, I was basically in the “nuke it from orbit” camp. I remembered many great films from earlier eras and wondered why Hollywood hadn’t made anything good in many years. In response, I had tuned out the industry as soon as my kids were old enough to be embarrassed at being seen with me in the theater. Then I stumbled over a wonderful film that passed all my litmus tests. I suddenly realized that excellent films were still being made; I just wasn’t hearing about them. So I’ve reengaged and have been doing a lot of catchup.

The film industry obviously leans far, far left. That makes it all the more important that we identify and support the good stuff. It’s often hiding in plain sight while the giant corporate conglomerates with global streaming platforms, oriented to a global audience, post-nationalist in perspective and monochromatically left liberal in leadership, are hyping lowest common denominator trash.

There are many sites on the web for general discussion of movies. I’m not proposing that we try to do that here. But movies do come up regularly on Free Republic when they deal with explicitly political and historical topics of interest to folks like us. Movies also come up frequently when they deal with major culture war issues. I would appreciate a heads up from any of you when you come across a good film with a generally conservative message on political issues or that exemplifies traditional moral and family values that stand out against the moral rot that infests so much of the entertainment industry. There’s no need to do a review here, but links to good reviews are welcome.

I’ve posted my list of recent finds several times recently so I won’t repeat it here. This recommendation comes from C19 fan, who has enough street cred around here to be worth listening to.

If you want off this list, let me know.

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