Comments on: Ivan Illych and history

By: neo

neo — Sun, 12 Feb 2023 21:16:46 +0000

Faith2014:

Yes, Fathers and Sons made a deep impression on me back then as well. I felt it helped explain my leftist uncle.

By: Faith2014

Faith2014 — Sun, 12 Feb 2023 19:55:28 +0000

If you read Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons, you will see that what we went through in the 1960s was very similar to what they went through in the 1860s. History rhyming, if you will.

My old college Russian prof absolutely despised Constance Barnett’s translations, and said she was the reason that people feared and hated Russian lit.

Ivan Illych was one of my favorite novels.

By: om

om — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 17:36:24 +0000

Hubert:

The Life and Times of Colonel Blimp – on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkQGZdgJcRo

It looks like a good thing to save for my next Red Cross platelet donation. Very good writing in the first 20 minutes or so, visually interesting, introductory dance sequence with motorcycles ….

By: Hubert

Hubert — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 15:52:35 +0000

TommyJay: for the best of Powell & Pressburger (their production company was called “The Archers”), check out:

“The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” (1943–one of Martin Scorsese’s favorite movies)
“A Canterbury Tale” (1944)
“I Know Where I’m Going!” (1945)
“A Matter of Life and Death” (1946)

They’re quirky, with a strange dream-logic quality to the narrative. Not everybody’s cup of tea. I showed “Blimp” to my Friday-night movie group. It went over like a lead balloon.

Mike Plaiss: yup! The young Deborah Kerr angle doesn’t hurt either.

By: Mike Plaiss

Mike Plaiss — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 15:47:48 +0000

So I went to the Emeric Pressburger link to see what movies he’d done, and was surprised to see The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.

That is a really good movie few have seen. I happened across it on AMC and stuck around because of the silly title and I wanted to get a look at a very young Deborah Kerr. I assumed it would be really bad – maybe because of the title and the fact that I’d never heard of it. But it was great!

By: Jim Nicholas

Jim Nicholas — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 15:42:26 +0000

The Death of Ivan Illych describes the best and the worst end-of-life care available at Ivan’s time. For an excellent discussion of that subject today, I suggest Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande.

By: TommyJay

TommyJay — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 05:41:04 +0000

Thanks for that Hubert. I don’t know the name. But I’ve seen The Red Shoes, and have heard of Black Narcissus.

I’m watching Ball of Fire tonight. Not the first time I’ve seen it, but it is a rather hysterical mish mash of slang and Stanwyck is quite dynamic as always.

By: miguel cervantes

miguel cervantes — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 23:01:49 +0000

I followed along in the penguin edition in english, as best I could,

anton marras, who has written several books on chechnya and russia, name checks another tale, hadji murad, in one of his tales,

By: Chuck

Chuck — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 22:07:16 +0000

after three hundred pages I found myself still consulting the list of character names to remember who was who

I do know a fellow who found his very uncommon Russian family name mentioned in War and Peace, he had it underlined in the (Russian) edition. That gave him something to think about.

By: Hubert

Hubert — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 17:42:41 +0000

TommyJay: and Emeric Pressburger, who–with Michael Powell–wrote some of the most enchanting movies in the history of British cinema:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emeric_Pressburger