Loads of English-subtitled Russian films on YouTube

[MichaelB]

...and released perfectly legally by Mosfilm, who say they're publishing five per week via their YouTube channel.

The only downside, as the NYT article says, is that the channel is entirely in Cyrillic, so here are more English-friendly links to the first batch of titles.

Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966)
Crown of the Russian Empire (Edmond Keosayan, 1970)
Ruslan and Ludmila (Alexander Ptushko, 1972)
Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
Dersu Uzala (Akira Kurosawa, 1975)
Farewell (Elem Klimov, 1984)

Many of the ones below these don't have English subtitles, but quite a few do, so please feel free to add links.

[domino harvey]

Criterion's almost surely gonna have these blocked in the US

[MichaelB]

I suspect Artificial Eye is none too keen about a couple of them being made available in the UK either.

[colinr0380]

That's a great find! I think it is just the most recent batch of four or five that are without English subtitles - all the others that I've checked do, but many get hidden behind the YouTube pop-up adverts that appear at the bottom of the screen. Luckily these ads can be closed down when they appear. Hopefully this list will be helpful for future reference (I know I'll be using it to quickly get to the interesting films!) I haven't really organised them much, just into comedies and fairy tales and groupings of a number of films by a particular director:

Comedies:

Jewish Luck (Alexis Granowsky, 1925)
Kuban Cossacks (Ivan Pyryev, 1949)
The Diamond Arm (Leonid Gaidai, 1969)
Gentlemen of Fortune (Aleksandr Seryj, 1971)
Mimino, an early comedy from the director of Kin-Dza-Dza. (Georgi Daneliya, 1977)
Kin-Dza-Dza! Part 1 and Part 2 (Georgi Daneliya, 1986)
The Chinese Tea-Set (Vitali Moskalenko, 2002)

Fairy tales:

The New Gulliver (Aleksandr Ptushko and A. Vanichkin, 1935)
Sadko (Aleksandr Ptushko, 1953) - a version of Sinbad, whose US dubbed release was later used in an episode of MST3K.
Ilya Muromets (The Epic Hero and the Beast) (Aleksandr Ptushko, 1958)
A Tale of Lost Times (Aleksandr Ptushko, 1964)
The Tale of Tsar Saltan (Aleksandr Ptushko, 1967)

Viy (Georgi Kropachyov and Konstantin Yershov, 1967) - the most famous Russian horror film.

General groupings:

October (Sergei Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov, 1928)
Circus (Grigori Aleksandrov, 1932)
Jolly Fellows (Grigori Aleksandrov, 1934) - Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton are....not appearing in this film!
Volga-Volga (Grigori Aleksandrov, 1938)
The Enchanted Way (The Shining Path) (Grigori Aleksandrov, 1940) - this one is not listed on imbd.

Ballad of a Hussar (Eldar Ryazanov, 1963)
The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath! (Eldar Ryazanov, 1975). In two parts.
A Railway Station For Two (Eldar Ryazanov, 1983), which is in two parts
A Cruel Romance (Eldar Ryazanov, 1984)
Forgotten Tune of the Flute (Eldar Ryazanov, 1988)

We Are Jazzmen (aka Jazzmen on imdb) (Karen Shakhnazarov, 1984)
The Messenger as described in the subtitles but known as Courier on imbd (Karen Shakhnazarov, 1987).
Zero Town (Karen Shaknazarov, 1990)
Full Moon (Karen Shaknazarov, 1998)
Poisons, or the World History of Poisoning (Karen Shaknazarov, 2001)
The Rider Named Death (Karen Shaknazarov, 2004) - out from Kino in the US.
The Vanished Empire (Karen Shaknazarov, 2008), also out from Kino

The Fortune (Happiness) (Aleksandr Medvedkin, 1934)

The Russian Question (Mikhail Romm, 1948)
9 Days of One Year (Mikhail Romm, 1962)

The Cranes Are Flying (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957), which begins with an ominous untranslated thirty second passage before the subtitles begin with the Mosfilm logo. Presumably the untranslated bit is informing audiences of its Palme D'or win - either way this small section does not appear on the Criterion edition of the film, which starts with the Mosfilm logo.
Ballad of a Soldier (Grigori Chukhrai, 1959)
July Rain (Marlen Khutsiyev, 1967), which looks kind of Nouvelle Vague inspired
Two Soldiers Were Serving (Yevgeni Karelov, 1967)
The White Sun of the Desert (Vladimir Motyl, 1970)
Who, If Not Us (Valeri Priyomykhov, 1999)

Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1974)

Here's a particularly interesting one: The Beginning of an Age Unfathomable (Larisa Shepitko and Andrey Smirnov, 1967), a film Shepitko made following Wings.
Agony (Elem Klimov, 1981). In two parts.

[MichaelB]

Colin, that's brilliant - I meant to do this myself, but just didn't have the time today.

Fans of the documentary East Side Story might be very interested to hear that this list includes many of the famous/notorious Stalinist socialist musicals, including The Enchanted Way, The Jolly Fellows, Kuban Cossacks and Volga-Volga, though sadly not Tractor Drivers (which you can find elsewhere on YouTube, but without subtitles).

[tavernier]

Here's a particularly interesting one: The Beginning of an Age Unfathomable (Larisa Shepitko and Andrey Smirnov, 1967), a film Shepitko made following Wings.

Thanks for finding that one! I saw it at the 1988 NY Film Fest and have always wanted to see it again.

[colinr0380]

Among the unsubtitled batch (EDIT: These are subtitled as mentioned in the post below - just push the CC button below the video) are:

Sergei Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky

The first film by Eldar Ryazanov, Carnival Night from 1956 (apparently the Russian equivalent of something like It's A Wonderful Life for being a much beloved New Year film)

Another Aleksandr Ptushko fantasy - The Scarlet Sails from 1961

Ivan Vasilievich: Back To The Future (Leonid Gaidai, 1973), which from the few moments I saw seemed to involve time travel and dropping an unwilling cat head first into a fish tank! Apparently though this is based on a play by Mikhail Bulgakov!

And American Daughter (Karen Shakhnazarof, 1995), as might be expected is partly in English and partly in Russian

There is one film that the lack of subtitles in this batch does not affect - Assassin of the Tsar (Karen Shakhnazarof, 1991) is fine to watch since it is in the English language and features Malcolm McDowell in the lead role. The Russian dubbed version is also available, but this is also unsubtitled.

In case you are wondering about the number of Karen Shakhnazarof films, apparently he is the current Director General of Mosfilm! Though nepotism may not be the only reason for the preponderence of titles by him - I guess it is a good way of showing a belief in the project by putting your own films onto the site for free.

[jsteffe]

Thanks, colinr0380. You obviously put a lot of time into coordinating the list!

The Enchanted Way (The Shining Path) (Grigori Aleksandrov, 1940) - this one is not listed on imbd.

You can blame IMDb for the confusion on this. Светлый путь/The Shining Path is listed in Aleksandrov's IMDb filmography under the title Tanya. Artkino released a large number of Soviet films in the U.S. during that period, so perhaps they did release this one under the title Tanya, the name of the lead character. At any rate, it's very much worth watching.

If Весна/Spring (1947) is also on the list, it's worth watching. I enjoyed it much better than I expected--really lovely black-and-white photography, and the commentary on filmmaking is fun.

These films are all available for viewing on the original Mosfilm website. Here is a list of Mosfilm's English-subtitled films. You can view them online for free and can even purchase the films for download, though only the mobile device-sized files are available with subtitles. I use the service all the time and am very happy with it.

[colinr0380]

Thanks for pointing out the title jsteffe - I was getting quite frustrated with imdb at that point and think I just gave up looking! And Michael deserves the credit for bringing the release of these films to the forum's attention, I just seized the opportunity to do some research into an area of cinema that I need to become more familiar with.

[knives]

You can go into your settings and change it back to original language titles if you want.

[colinr0380]

Sorry for that knives - I'd realised that it wasn't that imdb was coming up with a different title (I'd ranted about imdb favouring the English language title over the original one in the above post) but that jsteffe meant that the film had never been released as "The Enchanted Way" in the US, so that was why it wasn't coming up on my searches! I edited my post when I came to that realisation but unfortunately after your comment.

[Wu.Qinghua]

Oh, what a beautiful surprise ... Many thanks to both of you, Michael and Colin ... I've always wanted to watch Zirk, err, Circus ... and puff, here it is ...

[MichaelB]

Is that the one about what a glorious multi-racial paradise the Soviet Union is, provided you don't mind the odd purge or famine?

[knives]

My first attempt at this national roulette was a bit of a failure. It's taken me about three hours to get through Jewish Luck it's so uninteresting. I think I'll go to the guaranteed success of Agony next. Thanks for all of the links though Michael and Colin.

[Wu.Qinghua]

Is that the one about what a glorious multi-racial paradise the Soviet Union is, provided you don't mind the odd purge or famine?

Well, I guess that's the one ... or at least one of those ...

[colinr0380]

Newly added, but unsubtitled (EDIT: All are close-captioned, as mentioned by Kirkinson below!):

Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)
The Stone Flower (Aleksandr Ptushko, 1946)
The Unmailed Letter (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1960)
Ivan's Childhood (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1962)
Walking The Streets Of Moscow (Georgi Daneliya, 1964). With Nikita Mikhalkov in an acting role.
Time, Forward! (Sofiya Milkyna, Mikhail Shvestjer, 1965). In two parts.
Anna Karenina (Aleksandr Zarkhi, 1967). In two parts.
Kidnapping, Caucasian Style (Leonid Gaidai, 1967)
They Fought For Their Country (Sergei Bondarchuk, 1975). In two parts.
Queen Of The Gypsies (US title)/Gypsy Camp Vanishes Into The Blue (UK title) (Emil Loteanu, 1975)
The Ascent (Larisa Shepitko, 1977)
Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears (Vladimir Menshov, 1980)
Come And See (Elem Klimov, 1985). In two parts.
American Daughter (Karen Shakhnazarof, 1995) (a version with the English language sequences dubbed into Russian)
Ward No. 6 (Aleksandr Gornovsky and Karen Shakhnazarof, 2009)

[JeanRZEJ]

This is a treasure, thank you for pointing this out. Some of these I have been eagerly hoping to find. I've seen several and loved a few of them immensely, so there's definitely some gold to be found in here.

[L.A.]

A film I've wanted to see for many, many years is Neotpravlennoye pismo / The Unmailed Letter (1960). I've only heard positive things about this.

[A]

Thank you so much for pointing this out! And for making the effort and list the ones with english subtitles!
Now I just need the time to watch all of those.

[Amy Racecar]

The Stone Flower with Subtitles, broken up into nine parts.

Not actually uploaded by Mosfilm but I've not read anything prohibiting linking to possibly copyrighted material, so correct me if I'm wrong.

EDIT: Eh hem, EIGHT parts.

[colinr0380]

A film I've wanted to see for many, many years is Neotpravlennoye pismo / The Unmailed Letter (1960). I've only heard positive things about this.

That film is now up on the channel but unfortunately, as with all of the recently added films, it is unsubtitled. It certainly looks spectacular though, as might be expected from a Kalatozov film.

[Kirkinson]

FYI everybody, I just checked a few of the most recently uploaded films mentioned here (The Unmailed Letter; Walking the Streets of Moscow; Time, Forward!; Anna Karenina; and Kidnapping, Caucasian Style) and if they didn't have subtitles before, they do now: you just have to click the "CC" button. It seems Mosfilm has simply decided to use YouTube's closed captioning feature for the subtitles rather than adding them to the video itself. This way people have the option of watching them with or without English subtitles, and Mosfilm presumably has the option of adding other subtitle languages later if they want to.

[colinr0380]

Great news! I'd missed that!

Here is the next batch:

Strike (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)
The Forty-First (Grigori Chukhrai, 1956)
Poem of the Sea (Yuliya Solntseva, 1959). Written by Aleksandr Dovzhenko.
Andrei Rublev (HD) (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966). In two parts.
Beware of the Car (Eldar Ryazanov, 1966). Featuring Donatis Banionis!
The Elusive Revengers (Edmond Keosayan, 1967)
War and Peace Part 1 (Sergei Bondarchuk, 1967). This was put up on the Mosfilm site without subtitles, so I have linked to a non-Mosfilm upload with the subtitles included.
Shine, Shine My Star (Alexandr Mitta, 1969)
Tchaikovsky (Igor Talankin, L. Sadikova and Mikhail Tumanishivili, 1970). In two parts.
Liberation Film I: The Fire Bulge (Yuri Ozerov, 1970)
Liberation Film II: Breakthrough (Yuri Ozerov, 1970)
Liberation Film III: Direction of the Main Blow Part 1 (Yuri Ozerov, 1971)
Liberation Film III: Direction of the Main Blow Part 2 (Yuri Ozerov, 1971)
Liberation Film IV:The Battle of Berlin (Yuri Ozerov, 1971)
Liberation Film V: The Last Assault (Yuri Ozerov, 1971)
Chayka (Yuli Karasik, 1972). An adaptation of Chekhov's The Seagull.
Beg (aka The Flight) (Aleksandr Alov and Vladimir Naumov, 1972). In two parts. Based on the Mikhail Bulgakov play Flight.
Spartacus (Vadim Derbenyov and Yuri Grigorovich, 1977). A filmed performance of the Bolshoi Ballet.
Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979). In two parts.
Air Crew (Alexandr Mitta, 1980)
Formula of Love (Mark Zakharov, 1984). Features probably the zaniest/most irritating (delete as applicable) title song since the era of the Monkees! Based on a story, Count Cagliostro, by Tolstoy.
Boris Godunov (Sergei Bondarchuk, 1986)
The Cold Summer of 1953 (Aleksandr Proshkin, 1987)
Winter Evening In Gagny (Karen Shakhnazarov, 1987)
A Forgotten Tune For the Flute (Eldar Ryazanov, 1988) In two parts.

This next one unfortunately doesn't have the little cc button to turn subtitles on, and sadly it is a Russian Western which might have been eligible for our lists project!:

A Man From Boulevard des Capucines (Alla Surikova, 1987)

More without subs:

Bed and Sofa (aka Third Meschanskaya Str.) (Abram Room, 1927). Silent but no translation of intertitles.
Arsenal (Aleksandr Dovzhenko, 1929)
Lenin in October (Mikhail Romm and Dimitri Vasiliev, 1937)
Thirteen (Mikhail Romm, 1937)
The Golden Key (Aleksandr Ptushko, 1938)
Lenin in 1918 (Mikhail Romm, E. Aron and I. Simkov, 1939)
Traktorisky (Ivan Pyryev, 1939). Pyryev was apparently also a previous Director General of Mosfilm from the 1940s to the 1960s.
The Fall of Berlin Part 1, Part 2 (Mikheil Chiaureli, 1950)
Certificate of Education (Tatyana Lucashevich, 1955)
Shirli-Myrli (What A Mess!) (Vladimir Menshow, 1955)
The First Echelon (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957)
Journey Beyond Three Seas (Pardesi) (Part 2) (Kwaja Ahmad Abbas and Vasili Pronin, 1958). According to imdb this is an Indian/Soviet Union co-production and the first Indian film in Cinemascope! Amongst the cast is Nargis, the same year she starred in Mother India.
Miles of Fire (Samson Samsonov, 1958)
Kommunist (Yuli Raizman, 1960)
The Cossacks (Vasili Pronin, 1961)
Clear Skies (Grigori Chukhrai, 1961)
Operation Y & Other Shurik's Adventures (Leonid Gaidai, 1965)
The Sixth of July (Yuli Karasik, 1969)
Once Again For Love (Georgi Natanson, 1969)
Twelve Chairs (Part 2) (Leonid Gaidai, 1971)
Uncle Vanya (Andrey Konchalovsky, 1971)
Dzhamilya (Irina Poplavskaya and Sergei Yutkevich, 1972)
Impossible! (Leonid Gaidai, 1976)
Afonya (Georgi Daneliya, 1976)
A Slave of Love (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1976)
31st June, Part 2 (Leonid Kvinikhidze, 1978). A TV movie based on a story by J.B. Priestley!
Autumn Marathon (Giorgi Daneliya, 1979)
My Tender and Affectionate Beast (A Hunting Accident) (Emil Loteanu, 1979), based on Chekov's The Shooting Party. This had been up with subtitles but has been removed and replaced with a version without.
Moon Rainbow (Andrei Yermash, V. Karpichhyov, 1984)
Love and Doves (Vladimir Menshov, 1986)
Mother Part 1, Part 2 (Gleb Panfilov, 1993)
The Star (Zvezda) (Nikolay Lebedev, 2002)

[colinr0380]

If Весна/Spring (1947) is also on the list, it's worth watching. I enjoyed it much better than I expected--really lovely black-and-white photography, and the commentary on filmmaking is fun.

Spring is now up on the site!

[rebelkin]

Just watched Kalatozov's Salt for Svanetia (1929) on the site.