Lithuanian cinema

[oscarwerner]

I will start my first post. It is dedicated only to full lengh feature films. I leave documentary, shorts and animation for later topics.
I will also leave Šarūnas Bartas and Jonas Mekas aside. They worked not only in Lithuania, but in other countries as well. Their works are well known , available in internet platforms and various cinemateques.
I have picked a list of various more local Lithuanian movies, which reflect the history of lithuanian cinema and routes of a modern lithuanian cinema. I present only films of a higher quality from 1960-ies. Earlier lithuanian films due to unstabile political situations lacked that simple quality and practically lithuanian cinema was born in 1960-ies.
I have completed this list manually, it is not a copy of smth:)
I have picked various genres. I believe if one will see all my list, he/she will have good knowledge of a lithuanian cinema:)
Lietuvos Vaidybiniai filmai
Lithuanian Feature Films

1. Paskutinė atostogų diena/
The Girl and the Echo
1964, Rež. Arūnas Žebriūnas

2. Niekas nenorėjo mirti/
Nobody wanted to die
1965, Rež. Vytautas Žalakevičius

3. Jausmai/
Feelings
1968, Rež. Algirdas Dausa, Almantas Grikevičius

4. Gražuolė/
The Beauty
1969, Rež. Arūnas Žebriūnas

5. Birželis, vasaros pradžia/
June, Beginning of summer
1969, rež. Raimondas Vabalas

6. Maža išpažintis/
A Little Confession
1971, rež. Algirdas Araminas

7. Velnio nuotaka/
The Devil`s Bride
1974, rež. Arūnas Žebriūnas

8. Mano vaikystės ruduo/
The autumn of my childhood
1977, rež.Gytis Lukšas

9. Riešutų duona/
Bread of Hazelnuts
1977, rež.Arūnas Žebriūnas

--------
10. Faktas/
Fact
1980, rež. Almantas Grikevičius

11. Moteris ir keturi jos vyrai/
A Woman and her four men
1983, rež. Algimantas Puipa

12. Mano mažytė žmona/
My little wife
1984, rež. Raimundas Banionis

13. Amžinoji šviesa/
An eternal light
1987, rež. Algimantas Puipa

14. Savaitgalis pragare/
The Weekend in hell
1987, rež. Vytautas Žalakevičius

15. Žuvies diena/
The fish day
1989, rež. Algimantas Puipa

16. Vilko dantų karoliai/
The Necklace of wolf`s teeth
1997, rež. Algimantas Puipa

17. Elzė iš Gildijos/
Elsie`s Life
1999, rež. Algimantas Puipa

18. Lengvai ir Saldžiai/
Easily and Sweetly
2004, Rež. Ignas Miškinis

19. Kolekcionierė /
The Collectress
2008, Rež. Kristina Buožytė
20. Duburys/
Vortex
2009, Rež. Gytis Lukšas

21. Balkonas/
Balcony
2008, Rež. Giedrė Beinoriūtė

22. Ekskursantė/
The Excursionist
2013, rež. Audrius Juzėnas

23. Šventasis/
The Saint
2016, rež.Andrius Blaževičius

24. Gimtinė/
Motherland
2019, rež. Tomas Vengris

25. Purpurinis rūkas/
The Purple mist
2019, rež. Raimundas Banionis

[Umbugbene]

Thanks for putting this together, it makes me more curious about Lithuanian films. Have you made a Letterboxd list?

[oscarwerner]

Not yet:) St.Gloede helped me to start Lithuanian cinema list. I will work on it for sure. Last days i was working on lists about each year -1976,1977ies:) Still much work to do here:)

[Silga]

Someone has already made such list: https://letterboxd.com/naktis/list/lith ... ng/detail/

[Umbugbene]

Someone has already made such list: https://letterboxd.com/naktis/list/lith ... ng/detail/

Thanks, but I'm more interested in a select list of high-quality films. That one has 383 entries and attempts to include all Lithuanian films including films by Lithuanians abroad.

[Silga]

Well, then it's up to Oscar to make such list as I've seen very few local films.

The one I like - The Gambler (Losejas) from 2013. It premiered at San Sebastián Film Festival and, at least, had some promise and ability to deliver a captivating story. It also stars Jonas Mekas' daughter Oona.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2924336/


Also, there's a documentary made by Lithuanian-American Marius Markevicius called The Other Dream Team (2012) which tells a story of the 1992 Lithuania national basketball team and their bronze medal performance at the Summer Olympics in Barcelona. It features famous American sportscaster Jim Lampley and Greg Speirs of Grateful Dead among others. It was on the official selection for the Sundance Film Festival and received nomination for the Producers Guild of America Award for Best Documentary.
Here's a trailer, but the full documentary is available on youtube as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlEYzY_haD8

[Silga]

Of the films Oscar listed above, I know that A Woman And Her Four Men (Algimantas Puipa, 1983) is available on youtube with english subtitles.

Also from Oscar's list, there are two popular films now restored and available with english subtitles that I have copies of:

The Beauty (Arunas Zebriunas, 1969)
Devil's Bride (Arunas Zebriunas, 1974)

There are 19 restored documentaries with english subtitles on oficial page http://www.sinemateka.lt/en/documentary

There are also some other popular Lithuanian films available on youtube with english subtitles:

Forest of Gods (Algimantas Puipa, 2005)
Walnut Bread (Arunas Zebriunas, 1977)

[oscarwerner]

To say it in a very short way-Lithuania has always had strong visual photographers and cameramen. Arūnas Žebriūnas used that school creating cinema poetry. He also used children very often in his movies. As a result we got some unique style -something between Albert Lamorisse and Aleksandr Petrovič Dovženko. The Beauty (Arunas Zebriunas, 1969) is named among the best lithuanian films ever. Walnut Bread (Arunas Zebriunas, 1977) is more modern with comedy mix. Devil's Bride (Arunas Zebriunas, 1974) is an experiment to create pure lithunian musicle. Based on our older traditions. Vytautas Žalakevičius was a different type. First he was the strongest script writer ever and perhaps during all the history of lithuanian cinema. He wrote many scripts for himself and also for other lithuanian film directors. Almantas Grikevičius and Algimantas Puipa directed their best movies based on Vytautas Žalakevičius scripts. Vytautas Žalakevičius liked strong characters, strong emotions, like in his main picture "Nobody wanted to die", directed by himself. He also liked politics, war dramas, because of that his own directed films were often stoped , forbidden or damaged by soviet censorship. A.Žebriūnas survived as many other, because his films about children were supposed to be not dangerous for politicians:):)

[Umbugbene]

I just spent a few days going through the Lithuanian short films at http://www.sinemateka.lt/en/. It's an amazingly rich collection, and I'm not usually a fan of documentaries. Actually the curators' definition of "documentary" is extremely broad; there are a lot of staged performances, and most of the films don't purport to show unfiltered reality.

Two of the films stand out and are among the best short films I've ever seen:

Antigravitation (Audrius Stonys, 1995, 19 mins.) - Most of the images and music are linked by their various aspirations to the heavens (hence the title). The film gets more and more exhilarating as it progresses.

Time Walks Through the City (Almantas Grikevičius, 1966, 17 mins.) - Billed as a portrait of Vilnius, but much more than that. The photography and images are mesmerizing. I wonder whether this influenced one of Tarkovsky's films; see what you think.

[Silga]

Restored films that I currently have with English subs:

Adam Wants to Be a Man (Vytautas Zalakevicius, 1959)
Feelings (Algirdas Dausa, Almantas Grikevicius, 1968)
The Beauty (Arunas Zebriunas, 1969)
Devil's Bride (Arunas Zebriunas, 1974)
Walnut Bread (Arunas Zebriunas, 1977)
The Children from the Hotel "America" (Raimundas Banionis, 1990)

I should check about The Gambler (Ignas Jonynas, 2013). I've found English subtitles online, but I'll have to check if it works with the copy that's available.

A Woman and Her Four Men (Algimantas Puipa, 1983) is the latest one to have been restored and information on Lithuanian Film Center website says that English subs are available, but that's not the case with the restored copy I have. Might appear later some time. But a low quality version is available on youtube with embedded subs.

[karl]

Hi Silga - I've seen or have copies of all of those, but thanks anyway. WALNUT BREAD and THE BEAUTY are quite good.

[Silga]

Hi Silga - I've seen or have copies of all of those, but thanks anyway. WALNUT BREAD and THE BEAUTY are quite good.

I think there's been more than 15 years since I have seen Walnut Bread and read the short story the film is based on. It was on a reading list in school, if I remember correctly.

I haven't seen The Beauty, but heard a lot of great comments and recommendations.

[Silga]

I just spent a few days going through the Lithuanian short films at http://www.sinemateka.lt/en/. It's an amazingly rich collection, and I'm not usually a fan of documentaries. Actually the curators' definition of "documentary" is extremely broad; there are a lot of staged performances, and most of the films don't purport to show unfiltered reality.

Two of the films stand out and are among the best short films I've ever seen:

Antigravitation (Audrius Stonys, 1995, 19 mins.) - Most of the images and music are linked by their various aspirations to the heavens (hence the title). The film gets more and more exhilarating as it progresses.

Time Walks Through the City (Almantas Grikevičius, 1966, 17 mins.) - Billed as a portrait of Vilnius, but much more than that. The photography and images are mesmerizing. I wonder whether this influenced one of Tarkovsky's films; see what you think.

Thanks for the recommendations. I haven't seen any of these short films. Might watch some next month.

[St. Gloede]

Not yet:) St.Gloede helped me to start Lithuanian cinema list. I will work on it for sure. Last days i was working on lists about each year -1976,1977ies:) Still much work to do here:)

And now, after almost 3 months, I finally got around to exploring Arunas Zebriunas:

Paskutine atostogu diena / the Girl and the Echo (1964)



The Girl and the Echo is a sweet and short film about a girl on vacation at her grandfather's and the kids she meets and plays with. It has a drifting atmosphere that could have been quite enchanting, but it does not quite deliver (perhaps because the print is not as good as it could have been). We see quite a bit of talent on display however, with long takes, and decent work with the collection of child stars. Overall, it doesn't do quite enough for me to make a lasting impression, but it is still a good film.

Grazuole / The Beautiful Girl (1969)



*I did not know The Beautiful Girl was a game - and the early scenes of our young protagonist dancing and being given compliments on her appearance by her fellow kids was completely out of context, i.e. I thought the film was saying this is an incredibly beautiful girl everyone just admires - which did leave out some context until a little later.

The film is really about self-confidence, growing up and while beauty standards play a part it is much more about how you feel about yourself. It is a sweet and yes, beautiful film. The visuals have undergone an incredible upgrade from the above. We are presented with long takes in luscious b/w widescreen, often focusing on faces - especially during the dances when the camera can be on her moving in a circle for long periods. It did a great job of setting up a group of friends, the kind of cruelty and love children are capable of and the way childhood can be/feel - playing off The Girl and the Echo perfectly - just with a more refined focus and style.


Velnio nuotaka / The Devil's Bride (1974)



The Devil's Bride is a Lithuanian folk tale rock opera that is often a complete feast for the eyes (and ears). The only comparison to his earlier work has to be the widescreen shots, beyond that we have gone from stark b/w to a colour bonanza - from restrained sensibilities to fast-paced craziness, and from childlike wonder to rock n' roll. I suppose this could be seen, to tie back to his visuals from The Little Prince, and I'm so happy he got to dive head first into a production like this.

The only real issue here is that it is often too obvious that people are lipsynching - matching up the music better (done well in many scenes) could have made this absolutely fantastic, but as it stands it is still a great work. It is so simple, yet slick, cool and deliciously offbeat and quirky. Kudos to the angel turned devil, for his charm, and to Zebriunas for adapting this into such a memorable and unique picture.


Riesutu Duona / Walnut Bread (1977)



Walnut Bread is just as, if not more beautiful than The Devil's Bride, with carefully crafted long takes and slightly more restrained cinematography. Zebriunas toned down the craziness, but it is not completely gone. In the first act we return to a focus of children, but the focused has changed from gently observing their lives to a far more stylized expression that play into children's saturated understanding of the world.

This is on the surface a basic coming of age story, opened with narration from an older male lead and depicting his childhood and a Romeo and Juliet style love story, but Zebriunas presents it almost as a magical tale - capturing everything from silly and childish gags to poetic beauty. He is not quite Ilyenko or Iosseliani, but this is clearly the brand of filmmaker he ended up becoming (could easily be called a mix of the two) - and the journey has been really interesting to observe over these 4 films.

[Silga]

There is a new Lithuanian film Nova Lituania (Karolis Kaupinis, 2019) currently streaming on MUBI. A rare feat for a Lithuanian film. I haven't seen it myself yet, but heard that it got good reviews and already won awards in various festivals, including Best Picture at Athens Film Festival.

It is a semi-biographical film set in the 1930s about Lithuanian geographer Kazys Pakstas (name's changed in the film) and his idea to save the country by establishing a Lithuanian colony overseas.

Trailer without English subs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w43g7iVNFc

A clip with English subs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F35czXu3LGU