Russian art pre-, during and post- the Bolsheviks in Margy Kinmonth's documentary, REVOLUTION: NEW ART FOR A NEW WORLD

An oddball combination of history -- with emphasis on Russian artists and their art -- lots of pretty palaces and one nonsensical visual effect used over and over again right through to the end credits (it's the kind of thing that may take you back to your elementary school days when you took such delight as the classroom movie projector went in reverse and showed the film images moving backward), REVOLUTION: NEW ART FOR A NEW WORLD is a so-so documentary with an ace up its sleeve.

That would be its ability to show us very interesting Russian art of the pre/post/during Revolutionary period, some of which has not been seen in the west (or not for a very long time) and is mainly of the non-figurative, abstract variety which so displeased a certain dictator named Joseph Stalin that most of these artists found themselves either summarily executed or shipped to one of those infamous gulag prisons.

As written and directed by Margy Kinmonth (shown at right) and thanks to its melange of either British or thick Russian accents (and no English subtitles available), the documentary is a real effort to sit through, though for fans of modern art, the chance to see all this may be worth it.

TrustMovies' particular favorite is the symbolic red horse (above), but you'll have you own pick, I'm sure, out of the plenteous art on view. We meet a array of Russian museum directors, art experts and relatives of these artists (one of whom is shown below), and even the noted film director Andrei Konchalovsky (whose grandfather, I believe, was one of these artists) and who tells us in passing that he considers Kasimir Malevich's famous Black Square to be simply ridiculous -- an assessment with which I thoroughly agree.

By trying their best to be more modern, rule-breaking, world-changing and avant-garde than was the west at this point in time, Russian artists did indeed produce some interesting stuff, some of which we see here. We get some politics along the way too -- quotes from Lenin, and a little history regarding the passing of power from him over to Stalin -- and the movie ends with a long list of artists, together with what happened to each.

With the advent of (thanks to Stalin's insistence on) socialist realism, together with the stifling of inventiveness, the Russian avant-garde dwindled and finally disappeared almost entirely. A few artists took refuge in avant-garde tableware, of all things!  (The doc also includes a silly and unnecessary recreation of a Stalinist torture/confession session.)

If, overall, Revolution: New Art for a New World is pretty ham-handed, it is finally saved by its look at the fine art, collages, poster art and even advertising art of the time period. From Film Movement and running 85 minutes, the disc -- which hits the street tomorrow, Tuesday, September 11, for purchase and/or rental -- also includes an additional 20 minutes of extra footage and interviews. 

Streaming misadventure: Mikhail A. Bulgakov's A YOUNG DOCTOR'S NOTEBOOK hits home screen

The main reason for most Americans to view A YOUNG DOCTOR'S HANDBOOK, the four-part British TV series from 2012 now streaming on Netflix, will not be the famed Russian writer/doctor Mikhail A. Bulgakov, on whose work the series is based. Even though the late Bulkagov wrote The Master and the Margarita and is considered one of modern Russia's foremost literary stars, the real stars here are the two lead actors Daniel Radcliffe and Jon Hamm -- the former playing the title character, the latter his elder self.

While misters Radcliffe and Hamm are both fine actors who have proven their worth time and again, this is stunt/star casting at its looniest, as neither actor remotely resembles the other, especially concerning their height. (Well, maybe in Russia, males never reach their full growth until well into adulthood?)

In any case, what we have here is something that looks, sounds and smells like Brit situation-comedy except set, oddly enough, in a Russia where everyone has a crisp British accent -- except our two leads. Mr. Radcliffe loses his own natural accent to sound like something from the famed "Mid-Atlantic" region, while Mr. Hamm keep his own perfectly acceptable America model, except for the word can't -- which comes out like he is telling us about German philosopher, Immanuel Kant.

What were they thinking? The tone here is so dead wrong: almost shockingly obvious and seeming to go mostly for cheap laughs and last-minute surprises that make us think we're watching one of those O'Henry stories rather than something by Bulgakov.

Purporting to tell us all about this young doctor's first year of practice and the various patients he sees out in the Russian sticks (just about the time of a certain very famous revolution), the series soon exhausts every old joke about the novice practitioner confronting the locals, as well as his first amputation, childbirth, you name it. And all the while the older doctor's there, too -- unseen by anyone except his younger self -- kibitzing, warning, trying to help but achieving little.

Simultaneously too short (to achieve any depth or caring on our part) and too long (due to its constant repetition of situations and supposed jokes), the one thing the series has going for it is that, should you stick around to watch all four of the first section, you'll only have spent a total of about 88 minutes -- no more than you'd waste on some little independent movie.

The series begins in the office of the older doctor, with the police rummaging through his things. It is not much of a spoiler (you'll learn it within the next episode) to tell you that they could easily have re-titled A Young Doctor's Notebook into The Morphine Follies.

The first of two four-part seasons is available now via Netflix streaming and Amazon Instant Video.