Utopia/Dystopia: A Soviet Futurism Double Feature | Futuretoons

Futuretoons returns with a double feature of Soviet futurism! We look at two films that depict very different futures, a utopian and dystopian, and explore the relationship between propaganda and retrofuturism!

related material:

Будет ласковый дождь / There Will Come Soft Rains (1984) [Eng CC]

Animated Soviet Propaganda - Onward to the Shining Future: Plus Electrification

Music:
Tetris X (テトリスX): Troika
Tetris X: BGM 01 (Technotris)

I do not own any of the content presented. Credit to the copyright holders and thanks to the original uploaders.

For the purpose of review/education.

[sterlinsilver]

"There will come soft rains" is the single most depressing short film I have ever seen.

[namesurname]

Glad that lately soviet art is getting more exposure in the west. Nice video.

[RickWhitechest]

There Will Come Soft Rains is one of my absolute favorite pieces of animation. I show it to people whenever possible.
It's so terribly haunting, and it fits my own writing style so well, it makes me jealous.

[Zenth]

I rewatch "there will come soft rain" every couple of years. Its never gets any easier to watch.

[CallMeMrRook]

Short, sweet and utterly awesome presentation yet again

[davidlong]

Just watched the Russian version of "There Will Come Soft Rains" and personally I prefer just reading the original story by Ray Bradbury and imagining the world he pictured instead. Too many liberties taken in the video version. I first read it when I was a teen way back when.

[nyt]

How do you find all these videos ? its amazing !!

[LabFlurry]

I think the real future will only come after the technological singularity. Until now, our world is still pretty much low-tech compared to sci-fi visions. But we are in the start of the 'future' I guess.

[marcbrasse]

Again great stuff! Although the positive tone has of indeed been rather state-run it is typical that sci fi has, on average, been much more dystopian in the West. Even if they had to be taken with a pinch of salt Sowjet space faring movies where almost always about venturing out and solving hardships on the way. One could already make a complete study of how US movies used original Sowjet material and then turned it into something much darker. Queen of Blood or those nice "Planet of the platinum Beach blondes" variations on Planeta Bur are examples. About the distopian movie here: It still also has a sort of propgandistic theme by indicating that the blame for such futures would probably lie with the USA. "They built their decadent lives and then ff'd it up" so to speak. One could just as well see that as a main theme here. What after all indicates that a sowjet attack turned them into dust? Maybe they just broke their own bacteriological vile. Other pointers towards that more hidden propagandist layer are: The agressive US scientists in the original version of Der Schweigende Stern / First Spaceship On venus or the derilict weaponized US space station in Ikarie XB 1.

[vapidrabbit]

i wish you would just show the videos/cartoons, rather than talking about them