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July 24

Bond in Russia

Were James Bond films banned in the Soviet Union? Are Bond films popular in present day Russia? Bond films describe Russians/Soviets negatively. I cannot find any information on this. --Ghjol (talk) 11:48, 24 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Google gives some information including results that suggest that every movie up to Goldeneye was officially banned in the USSR and some blog posts that suggest the same. On the flip side, there is also a small story in the St Petersburg Times from 1975 that gives a positive review of The Man with the Golden Gun. From title searches in Russian online stores, it seems both the books and films are now readily available to purchase. Further info (in English at least) is sketchy as you've already found. Nanonic (talk) 14:25, 24 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That story is about Russia, but the paper is the St. Petersburg Times in Florida, in case anyone was confused! Adam Bishop (talk) 01:07, 25 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I used to teach Russian students, and they said films from the west were shown in Russia just like anywhere else, including James Bond. They were familar with the same Hollywood films as someone from any european country would be. 78.147.128.100 (talk) 22:57, 24 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Very few of the films have the USSR/KGB as antagonists (I can only think of From Russia with Love; most of the time the villain is a Dr. Evil type. The Spy Who Loved Me has the KGB as allies. The series seems rather ahead of the curve wrt detente, something it continued with Sino-Bondo relations in 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies. -- Finlay McWalter Talk 23:17, 24 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In Flemming's early books, and in a few movies (Dr. No and From Russia with Love mention SMERSH which was basically the KGB in disguise. However, besides Dr No and FRWL, the USSR does not play heavily in the films at all. Instead, SPECTRE is usually the main organization of bad guys, and they were INTENTIONALLY non-national. Indeed, even in FRWL, SMERSH is not a major player; it's only EX-SMERSH agents like Rosa Klebb who now work for SPECTRE that move the action along. There was almost nothing expressly anti-USSR in any of the films, and as noted, there were even some where the Russians are clearly cooperating with MI6. In fact, I can't think of a single instance where actual, active USSR agents were James's opponents. Except for Klebb, who the movie makes clear pains to show is NOT still working for the UUSR, there aren't many Russians at ALL who appear as villains. --Jayron32 03:57, 25 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Octopussy has a Soviet general as a villain, but again, he's acting as a renegade, not an agent of the Soviet state. Dr. No is a SPECTRE agent in the film, btw. Algebraist 15:33, 25 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Do pop singers commonly mime in concerts?

How often do pop singers mime when giving concerts at some large venue? Never? Sometimes? Always? One reason to think that they commonly mime would be that it would be difficult to get the same vocal quality as you would get for a heavily processed voice signal in a recording studio, similarly with the music played. Another reason to imagine that they do this is that if they do concerts repetively, they could damage their voices. 78.147.128.100 (talk) 23:05, 24 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

See Lip-synching in music#complex performance. 152.16.59.190 (talk) 23:39, 24 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Sometimes, but not always. For example, when Queen performed "Bohemian Rhapsody" live, they played the "rock" portions live, but for the "opera" portions ("I see a little silouetto of a man... Scaramouche..." the bit from the music video was played on video screens behind the band and the stage went dark. That;s because that part would have been impossible to play live; all of the vocal parts were done by Mercury himself doing his own harmonies via overdubbing an insane number of times (like 20 or 30 times). The band could not recreate this on stage to even a reasonable approximation, so they didn't even try. --Jayron32 03:47, 25 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that they didn't perform the opera portion live, but when I saw them in 1978 they used this portion to break into a medley of their hits - Killer Queen, Now I'm Here... before going back to the rock part. They just used the bit they couldn't perform to springboard to other things they could perform. --TammyMoet (talk) 08:17, 25 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

They probably mixed it up a bit. I have seen the video of the "Live at Wembley 86" concert, and they do it with the dark stage and video bit on that show. --Jayron32 05:54, 26 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Marcel Marceau does it every time he performs the '60s hit "The Sounds of Silence". Clarityfiend (talk) 04:52, 25 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Lip syncing or singing live to prerecorded music is routinely used on some TV shows to ensure that a performance conforms to a tight schedule. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 13:04, 25 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

As I recall, some pop singer was embarrassed by having their recording continue on while they obviously weren't singing on Saturday Night Live about 3-4 years ago. Can't recall who it was but I think they were a female singer. Dismas|^(talk) 16:35, 25 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ashlee Simpson on SNL, I presume. decltype (talk) 16:48, 25 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yep, that's it. Dismas|^(talk) 16:59, 25 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I was traveling through the Czech republic in 2002/3 and saw MANOWAR signs everywhere. The people I was staying with said that they were doing a second tour there to rebuild their reputation after it was discovered they were using playback during their shows in that country, they said that they were booed off of the stage at one venue. I can understand why performers do it, but also why it's frowned upon. 142.132.4.26 (talk) 23:56, 27 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]