Because many of the classic Soviet films were never properly registered for copyright in the United States, they are available on video from a number of different sources, though in copies that vary widely in quality.
The most reliable source is Corinth Films, a company that has contracted with the Soviet archives for high grade prints of classics including Sergei M. Eisenstein`s ”Strike,” ”Potemkin,” ”October,” ”Alexander Nevsky” and
”Ivan the Terrible, Parts One and Two.”
Several of Andrei Tarkovsky`s features have been released recently, including ”My Name Is Ivan,” the restored, 185-minute verson of ”Andrei Roublev,” ”Solaris,” ”The Mirror” and ”The Sacrifice,” the latter being Tarkovsky`s final film, made in Sweden in 1985.
The late Georgian filmmaker Sergei Paradjanov, who specialized in visually lush restagings of classic folk material, is also well represented on tape, with ”Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors,” ”Sayat Nova” and his final film, ”The Legend of Suram Fortress.”
Less accessible are films by the new (and now, final) generation of Soviet directors. Elim Klimov, an important transitional figure between Brezhnev and glasnost, is represented by the very fine ”Come and See”;
Vasily Pichul`s ”Little Vera” earned its notoriety largely on the basis of star Natalya Negoda`s extensive nudity; and Vitaly Kanevski`s ”Freeze, Die, Come to Life” is a harsh, sometimes surreal look at life in a Soviet prison.