Cinema

(de voertaal van deze avond is Engels).

Jeffrey's Underground Cinema has been showing neglected and forgotten films for the last decade. This night:  

KARNAVALNAYA NOCH   1956 
(Carnival in Moscow) 
Directed by Eldar Ryazanov
78 minutes 
In Russian with English subtitles

As we all know the Soviet Union underwent decades of stifling governance by a guy named Stalin. For various reasons, he enforced a brutal clampdown on the entire country. And almost immediately when he died things started becoming more lively again. This film, in its own way, is a criticism of how bureaucratic and dull the Soviet government had become.

Set on New Year’s Eve, 1955, it focuses on the workers at the Soviet Economic Institute who have planned a lavish New Year’s celebration in their culture club. But when the new director arrives – comrade Ogurtsov – he is still doing things the old way: Stalin-mode. His idea of a celebration is a 40-minute reading of the statistics report. 

The film itself is shot in bright colours, is extravagant, and seems to toss homophobia out the window. Let’s not forget that in the beginning the Soviet Union was the first country in the world to legalise homosexuality, directly after the revolution. It was only that dullard Stalin who changed the game, and this flick in its own quiet way tries to put things back on track again. This flick takes the side of the new younger generation, a kind of joyful youth rebellion, who choose for exhilaration, rather than the older dogmatic regime.

With a short introduction by Jeffrey Babcock

20:30 (doors and bar open at 20:00)
Free entrance / no reservations
We advise you to come early: max. 70 people /
no admittance after 20.30