This was an amazing essay. Funny enough, I also have a telenovela theme song from my youth I randomly bust out, but mine is from La Madrastra. Also, regarding this: "They had a roster of 20-30 Soviet-era oldies on repeat - movies that people who grew up in the 1960s-1980s knew by heart." It would be fascinating to see a list of some of these movies with summaries and links. This is the kind of cultural artifact I have no reference point for. Also, clicking on the video, I don't speak Russian of course, but I notice they do something films from other countries do a lot where they have clearly overdubbed the actors even though they're allegedly speaking the same language. I think it's really obvious in the scene at around 41 minutes.
Comedies seem like the most popular genre. At least, those movies that are most often quoted are comedies.
Regarding the overdubbing - I always thought this was because of sub-par audio equipment that they had to record voices separately. But in some cases it's also different actors dubbing someone else. It's still quite a popular technique in Turkish TV series. They will have extremely beautiful model-cum-actors that are dubbed by professional voice actors. Some even have professional relationships that span decades, and voice actors are known figures in their own right.
Translation of "Отроки" as "Teens" for some reason is hilarious to me.
Yeah, отрок is quite a powerful word, encapsulating in itself the coming of age. Teen, on the other hand, not so much.
This was an amazing essay. Funny enough, I also have a telenovela theme song from my youth I randomly bust out, but mine is from La Madrastra. Also, regarding this: "They had a roster of 20-30 Soviet-era oldies on repeat - movies that people who grew up in the 1960s-1980s knew by heart." It would be fascinating to see a list of some of these movies with summaries and links. This is the kind of cultural artifact I have no reference point for. Also, clicking on the video, I don't speak Russian of course, but I notice they do something films from other countries do a lot where they have clearly overdubbed the actors even though they're allegedly speaking the same language. I think it's really obvious in the scene at around 41 minutes.
I couldn't find a good article/arhive in English, but a good place to start might be this IMDB list - https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?country_of_origin=SUHH
Comedies seem like the most popular genre. At least, those movies that are most often quoted are comedies.
Regarding the overdubbing - I always thought this was because of sub-par audio equipment that they had to record voices separately. But in some cases it's also different actors dubbing someone else. It's still quite a popular technique in Turkish TV series. They will have extremely beautiful model-cum-actors that are dubbed by professional voice actors. Some even have professional relationships that span decades, and voice actors are known figures in their own right.