Moscow Does not Believe in Tears (Москва слезам не верит) is a wonderful film from 1979, which won the Oscar for the best foreign language film in 1980.
Cranes Are Flying (1957), directed by Mikhail Kalatozov. This is a beautiful film in every respect.
Ballad of a Soldier (Russian: Баллада о солдате), is a 1959 Soviet film directed by Grigori Chukhrai and starring Vladimir Ivashov and Zhanna Prokhorenko. While set during World War II, Ballad of a Soldier is not primarily a war film. It recounts, within the context of the turmoil of war, various kinds of love: the romantic love of a young couple, the committed love of a married couple, and a mother’s love of her child, as a Red Army soldier tries to make it home during a leave, meeting several civilians on his way and falling in love. The film was produced at Mosfilm and won several awards, including the BAFTA Award for Best Film from any Source and was nominated for the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay.
The Master & Margarita is a famous book in Russia, and it is the “group read” Russian book for summer 2010!
http://learningrussian.wordpress.com/the-master-and-margarita/
The Idiot is one of my favorite books by Dostoevsky, and this Russian production from 2003 is superb. I’m going to upload one episode per week.
http://learningrussian.wordpress.com/the-idiot-2003/
These classic Soviet comedies are still some of the most beloved films in Russia. Quote a line from them to a Russian and you’ll always get a smile.
http://learningrussian.wordpress.com/classic-russian-comedies/
I really love this series of Holmes and Watson films. There are more on YouTube, but because of the time limit on YouTube you have to watch them in 10 minutes segments, which is a drag. These from Google video are complete and have optional subtitles.
http://learningrussian.wordpress.com/the-russian-sherlock-holmes/
Here’s another interesting take: a movie in English with Russian subtitles. This is a great way to hear English expressions used, and see how they get translated into Russian. The subject is interesting as well. It’s a documentary about sound design in Animation, specifically for the movie “Wall-E”.