Russia Watch/Evil Emperors
Young, Cathy
In late September, Russia marked the 600th anniversary of the death of the Orthodox saint, Father Sergius of Radonezh. The saint gazed balefully at frazzled Muscovites from giant posters on some of...
...Which reminds me that I did see an X-rated film in Moscow—a screening of Bob Guccione's notorious Caligula...
...It felt slightly awkward, like asking for directions to an X-rated movie theater...
...And then there is the renaming process: Cathy Young, author of Growing Up in Moscow (Ticknor & Fields), reports regularly on Russia for TAS...
...WINNER OF THE 'GOLDEN BEAR' AWARD AT THE YAROSLAVL FILM FESTIVAL...
...an announcement met by a gale of laughter from the audience...
...for Libras, a rendezvous this evening may signal the start of a new romance...
...A dorky professor in an office with books and a video monitor came on screen to talk about the Roman Empire, stressing the relevance of Roman jurisprudence to Russia's present-day endeavor to achieve the rule of law...
...Caligula's Russian distributors were still sufficiently in thrall to their Soviet upbringing to have vestiges of belief that a film—especially one with violent pornography—had to have some redeeming social value...
...TV also offers the "Allan Chumak Show" on Tuesday nights: for half an hour, a smooth, well-groomed, silver-haired gentleman in a suede jacket makes various motions with his hands, which is supposed to heal ailments and bring internal peace, but only if you sit very still in front of the tube and concentrate...
...A woman said, wide-eyed, "There actually is such a street...
...There's the nightly "astrological forecast" on the Russia channel, immediately following the weather on the 11 o'clock news (Tauruses and Scorpios should schedule business meetings for the early afternoon...
...at least that's the only way I can explain the history lesson to which the viewers were subjected before the fun could begin...
...In the film itself, a male voice-over translated all the dialogue, including screams of "I am your...
...The saint gazed balefully at frazzled Muscovites from giant posters on some of the capital's most prominent buildings, and banners that read REVEREND FATHER SERGIUS, PRAY TO GOD FOR US went up over numerous streets...
...Leos and Capricorns, look out for new investment opportunities...
...In a battered city, these words had the ring of a desperate plea for help...
...Sergei Potapov, a remarkable Moscow artist whose works recall Hieronymus Bosch, has a series of etchings showing the new Russian revolution as an apocalyptic carnival...
...the innocuous Khudozhestvennogo Teatra (Art Theater) Lane has reverted to the vaguely monarchist Kamergersky (Courtier's) Lane, but Lenin Avenue remains...
...Indeed, wandering through the wreckage of the Former Soviet Union, one is struck by the grotesque, tacky surrealism of it all, a mix of late Fellini and "Saturday Night Live...
...This little lecture was illustrated by scenes from the film—naked bodies twisted in various combinations—playing on the monitor...
...One day I found myself outside the Lenin Library metro station—also unrenamed—having to ask for directions to Marx-Engels Street...
...As the hall sank into darkness, an off-screen voice boomed, "CALIGULA...
...THE MOST SPECTACULAR MOTION PICTURE OF ALL TIMES AND ALL NATIONS OF THE CIS...
Vol. 26 • February 1993 • No. 2
