There won’t be another post for a bit, as from next week I’ll be swapping the shop floor for the cold shores of lake Issyk-Kul. Soon arriving at what was once a busy resort town where small-time Soviet apparatchiks, from the Central Asian Socialist Republics, took summer vacations at the various sanatoria dotted around Cholpon Ata. I have to say to you I’ll be pinching myself every day, being in one of the most beautiful countries in the world with my family. Without a doubt, the best thing that’ll happen to me this year. Since moving from Moscow last summer, my partner is back in her homeland. The woman I’ve spoken to a few times at the local travel agent when getting my spends for past foreign trips, made it clear that although she works in such a place, she had to ask me “where is that?”
Those who know me in real life are aware of my liking of Soviet film from the 1950s and 50s, made during the Khrushchevskaya ottepel. And so, keeping with the theme of an obscure former Soviet Republic, to the bottom left is the opening scene of Andrei Konchalovksy’s 1965 film adaptation of Chingiz Aitmatov’s novel The First Teacher. Basically, a goofy and Bolshevised Red Army soldier, demobilised after the Communist victory in the Russian Civil War, and with his habit of enthusiastically repeating revolutionary maxims, spends a lot of the time getting the piss taken out of him by Kyrgyz villagers who view what he says as being irrelevant to their lives. A few years before he made Pervyy uchitel, Konchalvosky, while uncredited in helping with the writing, once played a bit part in his friend Andrei Tarkovsky’s war film Ivan’s Childhood (he very briefly played a geeky bespectacled soldier trying to win the affections of an army nurse, with her also being pursued by a lecherous captain).
He is perhaps most well-known in the ‘West,’ though, for such things as his taking on of Akira Kurosawa’s screenplay for the 1985 film Runaway Train, with two escaped convicts trapped on the out of control locomotive, hurtling through the wastes of Alaska. And, not to mention, the seminal Sylvester Stallone buddy cop flick Tango & Cash.
In my absence, however, I think any members of the admittedly small audience who visit here regularly will be in safe, capable hands, considering there are two new authors for this blog, who will no doubt keep you entertained while I’m away until the end of March. I should have some more filler posted up by then. I’m sure you can hardly contain yourselves at the thought.
{ 17 } Comments
Working class lad in Moscow, now in the land of don’t know where. Why can’t you go to Spain or Turkey like everyone else? I could be forgiven for thinking that your mention of Konchalovsky and Ivan’s Childhood, could have some connection to a certain backfiring attempt at cyberbullying on Myspace?
Well, enjoy yourself. I eagerly await the next part of your post below….
Thanks. You and Tong have got the keys while I’m gone anyway. Also I got your message, just I didn’t get around to checking my mail until a couple of days ago. My interest in Thanh has admittedly been getting to know how his nationalist political current influenced, even if indirectly, the Khmer Rouge. For a time, of course, they were Cambodian nationalists par excellence. I’m very patchy on the ins and outs of his actual political activity as a young man though, so post away, whatever you find.
Regarding Heder, then yeah there’d be no harm in asking him if you could borrow a few things. On the ideological and party ‘structure’ side of things then a few years ago he wrote this work on the Vietnamese and Khmer Communists. Ignore the extortionate price displayed there though. It’s cheaper from that White Lotus book shop. On the suggestion of Tong, I still haven’t mustered the courage to get in touch with Philip Short yet.
Mau, are you referring to this?
Konchalovsky makes his appearance about six minutes in, after Captain Kholin (Valentin Zubkov) has finished playing his lecherous game of cat and mouse with young nurse Masha (Valentina Malyavina).
Get yourself to Oxford or Cambridge. You’ve got it in you.
I had some encouragement for the above a while ago, but you see, I’m scared of rejection. I suppose I could go to Warwick instead …
Ha ha. The thing about higher education these days, is that for the ‘economic middle class,’ as opposed to, let’s say, the upper middle class, it’s become increasingly utilitarian. The elite will of course still receive a good all round education at the best separate schools and best universities, like they’ve always done, but expansion of higher education has been done in a manner which has created only degree factories, churning out ‘middle class’ morons with little or no intellectual curiosity. I’ve never put one foot inside a lecture hall, and I’m still far better read than her in the above photo. Says it all really.
Tong, your post was automatically removed, for if there are two or more links included in a comment, it is marked as spam. I manually deleted it by mistake when getting rid of comments linking to porn sites and other things. I read it though, and thanks for the compliments. I’ll have to get around to reading Platonov myself.
Two more books, my wife helped me to scan Beyond the horizon, hopefully she can scan The Little Red Book of Pol Pot and The Brother Enemy, which I plan to scan next, I think you don’t have those too, Pineapple. They are rather large books, I got recently but haven’t had a chance to read them yet, partly because I want to finish library items first and also because I want to scan them before I leave any marks or notes on them.
Kampuchea as a factor in a Sino-Soviet conflict
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ANAFX5FF
Beyond the horizon. 5 years with Khmer Rouge.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZX66T9JV
Did you find the Foreign Policy of Kampuchea any of interest? I read it all elsewhere, it’s interesting a bit as it features a lot of references to the old newspaper and magazine articles. It mentions that Sam Sary died in South Vietnam contrary to Thailand, where I thought he was killed. What a might be bomb for his son! Daddy working together with Vietnamese intelligence against Prince Sihanouk! I should definitely release this information on my Khmer socialist blog.
Pol Pot’s little red book
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=L22O9065
I’d be interested in getting a copy of Brother Enemy, please. That’s Chanda’s book.
The other two, Picq and Basu’s books you scanned are temporarily unavailable from the Mega Upload site. If they become permanently unavailable, then can you re-upload them please? Foreign Policy of Kampuchea is good for reference, if you need to look something up in a general sense.
Looks like all links are working, the last one with Picq 5 years was unavailable as you said, I can always upload one more time in case if you or another person wants them.
That’s the one with the same picture, I decided to break this a quite large volume into three parts. The main part into two and the third index and notes. So here’s the first half.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=383YGPDN
Thanks. The links are working now, too.
I hope things are okay with yours, over there.
Pretty mad stuff, that’s been going on.
I thought about it too.
People I know are safe there. Most of the gun fighting took place near government buildings.
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