FROM THE TSARS TO THE STARS:
A Journey Through Russian Fantastik Cinema
Press Coverage
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"From the Tsars to the Stars: A Journey Through Russian Fantastik
Cinema" is the first effort of its kind to pay tribute to the many
creative talents of the Russian film industry, honoring their creative
innovations, as well as to recognize the extent of their influence on
the current global Mecca of visual effects in cinema.
Russian cinema has an inspired tradition of genre filmmaking,
resulting in a treasure-trove of cult classics that remain sadly
unknown to the American audience. Coined in Russia, "film fantastika"-
attempts to describe this pioneering body of work from the noteworthy
to the virtually unknown directors ' aesthetic applications in visual
storytelling in motion pictures. Russian visual-effects pioneers
created stunning visions of man's voyage to outer space in 1950s'
films more than a decade before Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE
ODYSSEY.
Ironically, many of these visually astonishing works from Russian
cinema did end up upon Western screens - albeit mauled beyond
recognition. Enterprising U.S. producers purchased Russian Science
Fiction films cheaply at the height of the Cold War. Many
up-and-coming American directors (Francis Ford Coppola, Peter
Bogdanovich, and Curtis Harrington, among others) had a hand in
refashioning these films to suit Western B-movie sensibilities.
This series will feature restored and brand-new prints of the
legendary Russian originals with English subtitles, giving the U.S.
sci-fi fans the chance to finally see these films for what they really
are.
Robert Skotak
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