Brief Encounters / The Long Farewell: Two Films by Kira Muratova (Criterion Collection)

Buttoned-down city planner Valya (Kira Muratova, who directed) wasn't getting much aid around the house from oft-absent bohemian geologist husband Maksim (Vladimir Vysotsky), but her hiring of country girl domestic Nadia (Nina Ruslanova) might spur an impossible triangle, in "Brief Encounters" (1967). And, in Muratova's "The Long Farewell" (1971), domineering single mother Yevgeniya (Zinaida Sharko) fins her world upended by the newfound insistence of her teenage son (Oleg Vladimirsky) to move in with his dad. 3 1/4 hrs. Total on two discs. Standard; Soundtrack: Russian; Subtitles: English; featurettes. In Russian with English subtitles.