It's been a few days since we reported any new developments on Star Wars: Episode VII, other than filming resuming at London's Pinewood Studios following the accident that left Harrison Ford with an injured leg.
Now it seems the cast and crew might want to take another little time out to say "nostravia" to the news that the film that launched the franchise in 1977, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, has made it onto the Russian Culture Ministry's latest official list of foreign classics, according to a report in The Moscow Times.
It’s likely that many in the West will report this as a case of the film having been “approved” for viewing by Russian audiences. In fact, the list is roughly equivalent to a foreign movie-focused version of the US Library of Congress’ National Film Registry.
It is designed to recognise and honour exceptional films, rather than act as a stamp of approval by some imagined all-powerful Stalinist Bureau of Appropriate Entertainment.
Other Hollywood classics on the 100-film list include Apocalypse Now and Citizen Kane, together with seminal multinational fare such as Seven Samurai (Japan), Un Chien Andalou (France), Kes (UK) and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Germany), and films from Yugoslavia, Hungary, China and beyond.
We'll have to wait and see whether the forthcoming, JJ Abrams-helmed instalment of Star Wars makes it onto a future list. In the meantime, it's nice to see some good news on US-Russian relations for a change.
cnewbould@thenational.ae
