the m0vie blog

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guest Lee Murkey, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

So this week, both Elem Klimov’s Idi i Smotri.

As the Second World War rages, the inhabitants of Belarus prepare for the sweeping advance of the Nazis from the West. A young boy named Flyora dreams of joining the local partisans so that he can fight in the guerilla war against the hostile invaders. However, Flyora quickly discovers that war is not a place for heroes, and that any childhood innocence will soon be left behind.

At time of recording, it was ranked 106th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Show Notes:

• Recorded 3rd March 2022.
• Note: Due to the COVID-19 situation, this episode was recorded remotely. We suspect, going forward that a lot of our episodes will be until the crisis resolves.
• Come and See at The Internet Movie Database.
• The IMDb Top 250 at time of recording.
• Watch Lee’s reviews and essays as The Fake Critic.
• Follow Lee on Twitter.
• Charles Barfield at The Playlist reports on the restoration of Come and See, December 2019.
• Pat Brown and Jake Cole review the Criterion Collection blu ray release of Come and See for Slant Magazine, June 2020.
• Adam Bentz at ScreenRant looks at changes to the IMDb 250 algorithm, March 2022.
• Ronald Bergan at The Guardian looks back on the life and career of Elem Klimov, November 2003.
• Will Stone at 3am Magazine looks at the production and development of Come and See, particularly in the context of Klimov’s filmography, February 2010.
• Will Noah at The Criterion Channel writes about Elem Klimov’s early satirical pictures, January 2018.
• Serge Schmemann at The New York Times discusses the radical changes taking place in Soviet cinema during the eighties, October 1986.
• Elem Klimov talks to The New York Times about his life and career, January 2001.
• The Irish Independent reflects on the life of Ludwig Wittgenstein after he “solved” all the problems of philosophy, December 2000.
• Meilan Solly at The Smithsonian Magazine looks back on the Nazi slaughter at Khatyn during the Second World War, March 2021.
• Evgeny Vorobyev writes at Haaretz about the challenges facing Belarus in how it approaches the legacy of the genocide, December 2021.
• Jeremy Carr at MUBI discusses the horror and spectacle of Elem Klimov’s Come and See, February 2020.
• Michael Sragow at Film Comment reflects on the importance of watching and witnessing in Come and See, February 2020.
• Randall Horton at The Huffington Post looks at the relationship between Adolf Hitler and Ludwig Wittgenstein, December 2016.
• Imran Siddiquee at Buzzfeed News reflects on the fetishisation of auteur directors, October 2017.
• Geoff Dyer talks to The Atlantic about Andrei Tarkovsky’s philosophy of boredom and attention, March 2012.
• J. Hoberman reviews Come and See for The Village Voice, January 2001.
• J. Hoberman at The New York Times looks back on Come and See, February 2020.
• Tom Brook at The BBC looks back over debates about what it means to make an “anti-war” movie, July 2014.
• Graham Fuller at Reverse Shot discusses the framing and composition of Come and See, February 2015.
• Robert Rubsam at Commonweal discusses Come and See in the context of “cinema of atrocity”, July 2020.
• Valzhyna Mort at The Criterion Collection provides important historical and social context for Come and See, June 2020.
• Mark Le Fanu at The Criterion Collection discusses the production and context of Come and See, June 2020.
• The New York Times reports on the tendency to confuse Katyn and Khatyn in popular culture and historical discourse, July 1974.
• Matthew Dessem at The Dissolve looks at the differences between American and Russian Cold War cinema, August 2014.
• Ignatiy Vishnevetsky at The A.V. Club looks at the “villain gap” between Russian and American cinema, March 2016.
• Jan Maksymiuk at Radio Free Europe discusses the complicated legacy of Nazi collaborators in Eastern Europe, May 2005.
• Anton Troianovksi at The New York Times looks at how essential the Nazi threat is to defining modern Russian identity, March 2022.
• Ishaan Tharoor at The Washington Post looks at the complicated political realities that shape discussions of Soviet involvement in the Second World War, May 2015.
• Rachel Treisman at NPR looks at how Putin has weaponised the Russian mythos around defeating the Nazis in the war against Ukraine, March 2022.
• Richard Hollingham at The BBC reports on how a NATO military training exercise almost sparked the Third World War, November 2018.
• The Devil Finds Work, James Baldwin, 1976.
• Megan Garber at The Atlantic discusses the limitations of America’s obsession with happy endings, July 2018.
• Roger Ebert reviews Come and See for The Chicago-Sun Times, June 2010.
• László Nemes talks to The Los Angeles Times about his influences in making Son of Saul, January 2016.
• Ari Aster writes at Film Comment about the influence and impact of Come and See, May/June 2020.
• Francis Ford Coppola explains to The Guardian why he doesn’t think that Come and See is an “anti-war” film, August 2019.
• Aljean Harmetz at The New York Times reports on Soviet cinema expanding into the United States, September 1985.
• The Museum of Modern Art hosts a celebration of Soviet cinema, August 1986.
• Kevin Thomas at The Los Angeles Times reports on screenings of Soviet films at UCLA, November 1986.
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• Browse listening options at pod.link.

Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: antiwar, come and see, elem klimov, holocaust, idi i smotri, lee murkey, nazis, russian film, soviet cinema, tarkovsky, The 250, war |