If you feel like it, you can watch the whole of the recent dramatisation of The Master and Margarita on youtube, with English subtitles.
Disney Channel to be broadcast in Russia (NYT) (thanks, MK).
In order to save TV from the Crisis, it is proposed in the Duma that the ban on beer advertising during the hours 7.00-22.00 be revoked (RIA Novosti, in Russian).
Savik Shuster's live show on Ukrainian TV: a discussion of the Golodomor and Russian-Ukrainian relations with the participation of a wide range of commentators (kanalukraina.tv, in Russian).
Composer David Tukhmanov has won 320,000 roubles compensation from the the VGTRK TV company for use of his music (Lenta.ru, in Russian).
The Television Morality Committee will today meet to discuss the reality show House-2, which is accused of corrupting young people (ITAR-TASS, in Russian).
Televised political debate about the Obama victory: Vladimir Zhirinovsky (Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia) vs Sergei Ivanenko (Yabloko).
The Russian government's budget for the 2009 Eurovision song contest in Moscow is upwards of a billion roubles (about $40 million) (gazeta.ru, in Russian).
The Ukraine's Television and Radio Council has back-tracked and will now allow the Russian First Channel to broadcast in Ukraine (Kommersant, in Russian).
The Sebastopol Town Council has decided to ignore the Ukrainian government ruling (IZO, earlier) and permit the broadcast of Russian-language television (Kommersant, in Russian).
Is Georgia becoming a "second Israel"? There's a lot of investment from the direction of Israel; and military assistance (at least until recently). And a friend of mine in Batumi to judge a film festival writes that the first TV channel in the hotel is in Hebrew.
The Rossiya TV channel is suing presenter Anastasiya Zavorotnyuk for 17 million roubles because she quit the show Starry Ice to work on an analogous project, Ice Age, for the rival First Channel. The claim includes consequential loss, which is rarely recognised in Russian courts. (Prime Tass, in Russian).
Russian cable-TV channels in Ukraine to be cut off after 1 November (Kommersant, in Russian).
A dramatised life of Brezhnev's daughter Galina is the most popular programme on Russian TV (Russia-IC).
According to media magnate Anton Nossik there is widespread censorship of discussion of the financial crisis in the Russian mass media (dolboeb, in Russian).
South Park controversy (IZO, earlier): MK asks, is the Russian hostility a matter of revenge? (South Park Studios). Also: photos of the picket in support of Kenny/Кенни (al-3f, in Russian); and video.
UPDATE: interview with Rafael Akopov, the head of ProfMedia, owner of the 2x2 channel (Open Space, in Russian).
Brezhnev defends Kenny in the South Park affair (IZO, earlier).
Anton Nossik, media magnate, recommends Black Books, which happens to be my 13-year-old son's favourite sitcom (dolboeb). All I'm saying is, the internet, and, too, the pirate dvd manufacturers, have effectively removed boundaries between Russian and Western pop culture.
A look at the problems facing the 2x2 channel, which shows South Park, The Simpsons and other imported cartoon series; it is facing prosecution and closure on grounds of "extremism" and causing psychological harm to children (RASO, in Russian).
BBC Four is planning a comedy about a Russian oligarch living in London (Chortle).
In order to avoid the vote-trading scandals that have marred recent shows, the Eurovision Song Contest, to be held next year in Russia, will be decided by juries as well as viewers' votes; it's not clear what the exact judging mechanism will be (gazeta.ru, in Russian).
Part of a programme of documentary films about Art and Money to be shown on Channel 4 (UK) TV on Sunday 21 September, beginning 18.30: The Great Russian Art Invasion, presented by writer Marcel Theroux.
Showbiz round-up:
- Tatu vocalist Yulya Volkova is getting married (Dni.ru, in Russian) (Tatu built its image on the insinuation of a lesbian relationship between its singers).
- Sexy TV presenter Masha Malinovskaya has been chucked out of the Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR): she was deemed "not worthy of wearing the LDPR badge on her ample bosom" after not turning up to sessions of the Belgorod duma (Utro.ru, in Russian).
- Russian TV-presenter and glamourpuss Kseniya Sobchak, daughter of the former St Petersburg mayor, has been dubbed the number one "spoilt child" among the world's gilded-youth celebrities by German mag Chico (Rosbalt.ru, in Russian).
Oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov's media project entitled Snob, supported by businessmen such as Kommersant founder Vladimir Yakovlev, is slowly taking shape. A trial number of Snob magazine has been published; the TV channel is in preparation, due to launch next year; a flash homepage for the internet portal/club is up (Snob). Unfortunately the site has one or two orthography problems: for example, a comma has been omitted in the phrase 'журнал, который читать не вредно'. I couldn't help noticing, I'm a snob that way. Apparently one ambition of the planned club is to get each of its 'snobs', minimum income $10,000 per month, to write a blog. Good luck with that.
I was recently asked by Russian culture portal Open Space my opinion on the extent to which the Russia-Georgia war would impact the art world; I'll link when the survey is published but basically my answer was: contemporary exhibitions and market - not much; secondary market - to some degree, possibly. Anecdotally there is an effect on the cultural space in the form of censorship. In Moscow for example, Bakur Bakuradze, Georgian director of award-winning movie Shultes, has been told by a couple of publications that now is not the time to publish interviews that he gave recently. In Georgia, Vladimir Gusinsky's RTVi TV channel was summarily taken off the air after it broadcast an interview with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.
As anticipated some time ago on IZO, legislation has been introduced in the State Duma to create a public council which will check morality in films and on TV (Russia-IC):
Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin believes that “the council must not forbid anything, but should formulate an opinion, which will be brought to the viewers’ notice. Film director Pavel Lungin, in his turn, assures that “if the council will decide what amount of blood can be used and what not, then it is hopeless”.
Sofya Larina from Petrozavodsk has been chosen Beauty of Russia and will represent Russia at the Miss World contest (Vechernyaya Moskva, in Russian).
The "stagnation of political life" in Russia has made television boring (RIA Novosty, in Russian).
herr_und_knecht offers a lacanian analysis of the Gordon-Sobchak conflict (herr_und_knecht, in Russian):
The symbolic order represented by Katya Gordon, the moral values, the education, the very capacity to classify and differentiate, clashes traumatically with the Real - Ksyusha Sobchak, a force which it is impossible to "put in its place"...
Full transcript of the discussion plus audio file (Radio Mayak).
A week ago an on-air argument between TV presenter Katya Gordon and ubiquitous It-Girl Kseniya Sobchak, followed by further recriminations on Gordon's blog, ended, it seems, with Gordon being fired from her job (Anna Malpas/Moscow Times). It's still the biggest discussion item on the Russian internet: here's a round-up of comments (Argumenty i Fakty, in Russian).
Not much love for Russia in Ukraine. New regulations require that films shot in Ukraine are made in the Ukrainian language; currently much film and TV production is in Russian, partly to cater to the large Russian-language population, partly to increase commercial viability by distribution in Russia (Gazeta.ru, in Russian). The Russian comic Maxim Galkin's jokes, broadcast on the Ukrainian TV channel Inter, have been the subject of a commission of enquiry due to their "plain disrespect" for the Ukrainian people (Gazeta. ru, in Russian). And Ukrainian TV boss Vasili Ilashchuk has described Russian Dima Bilan's victory in the Eurovision Song Contest as a "falsification": he refers to an opinion poll in the Balkans which revealed that not a single man on the street would have voted for Bilan (Gazeta.ru, in Russian).
Thoughts on Dima Bulan's triumph in the Eurovision Song Contest (Telegraph):
While Bilan may have started out with a local choir in obscurity in Ust-Dzheguta, a small industrial town in a province of southern Russia, his song Believe, with its English lyrics, is a product of an altogether more professional outfit.
His American producers, Jim Beanz and Timbaland, are responsible for tunes by Britney Spears and Shakira - not, at first sight and sound, the most iconic of Russian performers.
That may be changing. Dima Bilan's power ballad, and the millions that went into producing it, may appear an ominous sign of Russia's determination to stamp its dominance on even the most superficial competition.
Dima Bilan wins the Eurovision Song Contest! Congratulations, Dima! (Daily Mail). UPDATE: Ukrainian Ani Lorak came second.
Mikhail Prokhorov, who backs the NLO publishing house, is launching a magazine and TV channel called Snob, aimed at the affluent (Moscow Times).
The Warrior's Ultimate Secret is being talked about as the first major Russian-Chinese TV co-production (Hollywood Reporter).
Last night, or should one say in the small hours of this morning 4 April, the TV talk-show Only At Night hosted a discussion of artistic freedom; among the talking heads on the trailer are Semyon Faibisovich and Andrei Erofeev; unfortunately there seems to be no publication of the broadcast itself (TV Tsentr, in Russian; via dmitrivrubel).
DIRECTV launches Russian children's channel in USA (foxbusiness.com):
TV Nanny's programming features entertainment shows, educational programs and good-natured cartoons free of violence or aggression, targeting children from 3 to 8 years old in Russia and around the world. Russia's leading psychologists participated in the development of the channel's content with the goal of creating a harmonious blend of entertainment and education.
Putin Catches A Gypsy Cab (in Russian). A funny short (thanks, IW). The head of Putin is actually entirely computer-generated. It's an example of new 3D-modelling technology developed in Russia and actively being marketed; the best example is a Can-Can, which hasn't (as far as I know) leaked out to the internet.
The youth TV channel 2x2 has been ordered by the media regulator RosSvyazOkhranKultura to take two animated serials off the air. Little Woody Friends (I'm not sure of the English equivalent) and The Adventures of Big Jeff are accused of a "cult of violence and cruelty" (strana.ru, in Russian).
Happy Together, aka Married ... with Children (to blame for Russia's demographic crisis?)
There is one overarching question in Russia today: will President Putin forego the Yeltsin constitution and take a third term. In his public pronouncements Putin has said he will not, but the agitation in public suggesting he should is considerable. One day the historians will pick over the lead-up to the 2008 elections. They might note that in recent months no fewer than three TV documentaries have been commissioned about F D Roosevelt. The reason: he was the only US president to serve more than two terms; and his career is also thought to contain parallels to the fight against the oligarchs.
Sotheby's will sell the collection of Russian art assembled by Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya in London on September 19. Among a large number of pocelain and enamel pieces there will be a selection of paintings, predicted top-lot being a large work by Nikolai Roerich bought at Sotheby's in 1998 for £287,500 and now estimated at £800,000-1 million. I guess it will go higher, considering its size and provenance.
The Russian year in France (to be parallelled by a French year in Russia) begins in 2009 with an exhibition in Paris entitled Sotsart. Political Art in Russia. This would be an incarnation of the Sotsart show that opened in Moscow earlier this year as part of the Biennale (RIA Novosti, in Russian). It will be interesting to see, when the time comes, how the more satirical contemporary exhibits fare with the Russian customs' service.
A Russian TV drama that looks critically at the Federal Penetentiary Service has been cancelled because of official pressure.
Dmitri Prigov's funeral will take place at the Vostryakovskoe Cemetery, although he may be buried elsewhere. Prigov, whose father I am told was Jewish and who sometimes claimed (perhaps on the basis of the etymology of his surname, perhaps for more solid reasons) to be an ethnic German, was apparently christened into the Orthodox Church (this kind of pick-and-mix identity is characteristic of the Moscow underground artists in the 70s and 80s) and there will be a memorial service at a church in Moscow, yet to be confirmed.
