September 14, 2017

Evil Clowns, Ballerinas, and Other Movie Monsters


Evil Clowns, Ballerinas, and Other Movie Monsters
Blood, Ballet, and Bacon

1. Send in the clowns! Or rather, ban them. And one in specific: Pennywise, the murderous clown from the horror novel-turned-movie It, is making professional clowns fear for their livelihoods. With a new film adaptation set to hit theaters next week, a comedy troupe in St. Petersburg protested the film. Clowns across Russia worry that the film will discredit their profession, making children fear for their lives rather than revel in the joys of red noses and balloon animals.

2. Cinema’s other movie villain this week: a prima ballerina. Not because she turns pointe shoes into a murder weapon, but because the movie, titled Matilda, insults the memory of Russia’s last Tsar, who was canonized in 2000. Incensed by the film’s depiction of Nikolai II’s affair with ballerina Mathilde Kschessinska before he became Tsar, Russian Orthodox activists have attacked several theaters, claiming that they are “forced to break the law.” Fearing more violence, Russia’s top movie theater chain announced that it won’t show the film. So much for the high culture of ballet.

3. Forget Bay of Pigs: Southern Russia saw a Highway of Pigs when pig farmers staged a protest. After authorities seized documents and computers, allegedly as part of a fraud investigation, the farm’s automated feeding mechanism ground to a halt, leaving 28,000 pigs oinking for slop and around 100 farmers protesting on the highway. There’s an ongoing investigation surrounding the pig complex – the largest in the Orenburg region – so it’s still up in the air who will bring home the bacon.

In Odder News
  • Want to scratch your ballet itch without a trip to the movies? Learn about the legacy of Russian ballet around the world.
  • More than 5000 new trees are on their way to Moscow. They’re not walking there, Lord of the Rings style, but it’s still pretty neat.
  • The latest turmoil in the US-Russia sanctions battle: which diplomats get dedicated parking spots. You never know what’s going to hit the hot buttons in international relations.
Quote of the Week

"It's no coincidence that [the film] originated in America; it would not have occurred to anyone in a morally healthy country. I recommend that Russians refrain from viewing it, or even better, that it not be shown in Russia at all. We should preserve our sacred things, our culture, including its symbols of joy like clowns and the circus.”
—United Russia Deputy in Sverdlovsk and former clown Anatoly Marchevsky on the negative impact of the movie It, and why it ought not to be shown in Russia.

Want more where this comes from? Give your inbox the gift of TWERF, our Thursday newsletter on the quirkiest, obscurest, and Russianest of Russian happenings of the week.

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
At the Circus (bilingual)

At the Circus (bilingual)

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955