Art of Watching Films

Some of you might have already met this marvelous collection on DVD but for the first time in the web it is uploaded as separate avi's so that each cartoon is just 25 to 120 MB in size - pretty handy to download. An extraordinary collection of Russian most important animated short films by Russia's world renowned directors and artists. Winners of many top prizes in various countries. Old doesn't mean not worth watching. Some animations are still describing problems nowadays. Sometimes you don't even need words to understand meaning of it. If you have any love of animation at all – the artistry, the depth, the impact – the “Masters of Russian Animation” volumes are a must own.

Wings of Desire is one of cinema’s loveliest city symphonies. Bruno Ganz is Damiel, an angel perched atop buildings high over Berlin who can hear the thoughts - fears, hopes, dreams - of all the people living below. But when he falls in love with a beautiful trapeze artist, he is willing to give up his immortality and come back to earth to be with her. Made not long before the fall of the Berlin wall, this stunning tapestry of sounds and images, shot in black and white and color by the legendary Henri Alekan, is movie poetry. And it forever made the name Wim Wenders synonymous with film art.

Stephen Dwoskin (born 1939) is an accomplished experimental filmmaker who contracted polio as a child in New York City. This progressively affected his mobility. He is now a wheelchair user. He studied at Parsons School of Design and at New York University, receiving a Fulbright Scholarship to move to London in 1964, where is he still based. He was a co-founder of the London Film-Makers' Co-op. In 1967-1968 he won the Solvey Prize at the Knokke Experimental Film Festival in Belgium for a series of short films which established his reputation. Screenings of his films have been worldwide including Cannes, Berlin, Rotterdam, Toronto, Lucarno, Pesaro, Mannheim, Oberhausen, Sydney, Melbourne, Hamburg, San Francisco, Turin, Riga, Madrid, Barcelona, and Benalmadena. He is also a maker of documentaries: 'Face of Our Fear', one of the films he made to address attitudes to disabilities, was broadcast on Channel Four, UK in 1992. Awards include L'Age d'or prize, Brussels Film Festival 1982.

Dariya the maid getting a boy to touch her large breast is just one incident that occurs when Yohan and Victor infiltrate two families, forcing young Liza and blind Ekaterina to appear in porn, but they are not so innocent themselves.

Stephen Dwoskin (born 1939) is an accomplished experimental filmmaker who contracted polio as a child in New York City. This progressively affected his mobility. He is now a wheelchair user. He studied at Parsons School of Design and at New York University, receiving a Fulbright Scholarship to move to London in 1964, where is he still based. He was a co-founder of the London Film-Makers' Co-op. In 1967-1968 he won the Solvey Prize at the Knokke Experimental Film Festival in Belgium for a series of short films which established his reputation. Screenings of his films have been worldwide including Cannes, Berlin, Rotterdam, Toronto, Lucarno, Pesaro, Mannheim, Oberhausen, Sydney, Melbourne, Hamburg, San Francisco, Turin, Riga, Madrid, Barcelona, and Benalmadena. He is also a maker of documentaries: 'Face of Our Fear', one of the films he made to address attitudes to disabilities, was broadcast on Channel Four, UK in 1992. Awards include L'Age d'or prize, Brussels Film Festival 1982.

Still censored in its own country, In the Realm of the Senses (Ai no corrida), by Japanese director Nagisa Oshima, remains one of the most controversial films of all time. A graphic portrayal of insatiable sexual desire, Oshima’s film, set in 1936 and based on a true incident, depicts a man and a woman (Tatsuya Fuji and Eiko Matsuda) consumed by a transcendent, destructive love while living in an era of ever escalating imperialism and governmental control. Less a work of pornography than of politics, In the Realm of the Senses is a brave, taboo-breaking milestone.

The poetic travelogue A Sixth Part of the World and the "visual symphony" The Eleventh Year mark the beginning of Dziga Vertov's most creative period, which peaked in the canonical film Man with the Movie Camera. This 2-disc set presents the two rare masterpieces in a new transfer and with new soundtracks by British composer Michael Nyman. The bonus features offer materials on the methods of the filmmaker, as well as an introduction to the Vienna research project on Vertov, "Digital Formalism."

In 1959, Yasujiro Ozu remade his 1934 silent classic A Story of Floating Weeds in color with the celebrated cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa (Rashomon, Ugetsu). Setting his later version in a seaside location, Ozu otherwise preserves the details of his elegantly simple plot wherein an aging actor returns to a small town with his troupe and reunities with his former lover and illegitimate son, a scenario that enrages his current mistress and results in heartbreak for all. Together, the films offer a unique glimpse into the evolution of one of cinema’s greatest directors. A Story of Floating Weeds reveals Ozu in the midst of developing his mode of expression; Floating Weeds reveals his distinct style at its pinnacle. In each, the director captures the joy and sadness in everyday life.

An extraordinary collection of award-winning animated short films by Russia's world-renowned directors and artists. Digitally restored from 35mm materials newly printed by the National Film Archive of Russia, these are the highly personal animated short films from the Soyuzmultfilm Studio.
Winners of the top prizes at Annecy, Cannes, Colombo, Delhi, Espinho, Grijon, Hiroshima, Kiev, Krakow, Lille, London, Mamaia, Melbourne, Moscow, New York, Oberhausen, Odense, Ottawa, Stuttgart, Sydney, Tampere, Tours, Venice, and Zagreb. Presented in anthology format for the first time.