My native language (and culture, I guess) is Russian.  I tried to watch this film (185 min version, subtitles) several days ago...couldn't even finish the first part.  I'm sorry to have to say this about a supposed masterpiece, but it bored me half to death.  I was not moved emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, or otherwise.  I should mention that I felt similarly about such films as "Battleship Potemkin", "Citizen Kane" and a few other oldies, as well as some recent critically acclaimed films.

It seems to me that these older works, which may have represented very advanced and original thinking when they were made (although I am not so sure about that), are now quite dated and appear primitive, trivial, and even cliched.  I don't think this has anything to do with the B/W or any other technical aspects.  Before you get too upset, this is just my own little perspective, based on my modest experiences in life and film-watching.  I do not claim to be a film expert or even a buff by any means.  I consider myself a fan of good films, be they foreign, indie, or even, God forbid, Hollywood :).  The question is, what is "good"?  I will not attempt to answer this bottomless question here, but I would like to discuss this further with anyone who thinks they agree, understand or can relate to anything I just said.  Perhaps I'll start a new thread and try to express my thoughts better when I have more time...

Check out my list of favorites on here (this is only a small subset) to get an idea of my tastes, and let me know what you think and/or recommend, although I haven't seen some of these in years and may have included them mostly for sentimental reasons.  I wish there was something like an Unfavorites list so people could get an idea of what I feel is overrated, at best.  More on that later...

kuzma725