Reviews
72 metra (2004)
If I could give this film a zero, I would give it
The only modern Russian film I can label a total failure (given it was directed by Khotinenko, formerly the leader of 1980s Russian intellectual cinema).
Nothing and nobody worked well in this piece of crap. How can one shoot a film which is a total disaster given the best opportunities provided: Ennio Morricone as a music composer, Chulpan Khamatova (the best Russian cinema actress (along with Ingeborga Dapkunaite)) as a leading female hero, enormous funds of Russia's Channel One, good (meaning cheap:) connections with the military allowing to use resources of the Russian Navy, and a plenty of good examples of "submarine movies"?
It is almost impossible to make a bad submarine movie nowadays given the stunning (e.g. Das Boot by Wolfgang Petersen) or simply good like "K-19" or "U-571" sub film examples. "72m" even employs some citations from Das Boot which means that somebody from the film crew has seen that film:)) - however, ineffectively.
One might argue this was the first experience of a "blockbuster" film by contemporary Russian TV producers - I regret they have not realized that they should better shoot their TV-series crap than to spoil the perception of the great Russian cinema. I mean the great Russian directors like Eisenstein, Kozintsev, Pudovkin, Dovzhenko, Klimov, Tarkovsky, etc. just whirl in their coffins when somebody tries to judge about the Russian cinema thinking of the "72 meters".
The same producers later delivered the "Night Watch" - an evenly questionable, though better shot, piece of film. So there is some hope for Russian viewers - maybe the Channel One (ORT) producers in a dozen of films will learn what they had to learn at a film school which nobody of them have attended.
Please do not waste your time or money. 0/10.
Vremya zhatvy (2004)
A Kafkian comedy (?) depicting the absurdity and alienation of the post-war (and not only) life under the Stalin regime
Genre definition of this film is a hard thing: I have written "comedy" but at the same time I can label this film a "tragedy" because it delivers an overall sense of the Russian 20-th century tragedy, on which background a personal tragedy of the heroes looks just as a particular case. Besides, all the heroes are already dead by the time of the film and the back voice belongs to the youngest hero who is also late.
Plot outline is simple (I hope, I won't spoil viewing:): a tractor woman-driver dreams of a chintz pattern to lace a dress, however, in a setting of the total poverty of the Russian post-WW II village, the fabric may be only presented by authorities as a prize for the "high tempo" labor- and how hard (actually, too hard) she works! As a result, the woman is presented a challenge prize - a velvet "Red banner" which she has to keep at her village house. The banner immediately becomes a target for mice willing to eat it, and the woman tries to do her best to keep the banner intact because the loss or damage of a communist symbol may inflict an "anti-communist" charge against the whole family. The labor victory changes the life of the family: as the back voice says, "This was the last time I saw my mother smiling." The film well shows the twisted labor motivations people had when alienation from the results of the labor was the norm.
Almost a docu-drama, the picture uses many tools its author, a prominent Russian documentalist, has developed in her previous documentary works: shooting in a real Chuvash village, the use of not professional supporting actors all of which are real gems, modest, natural coloring, depiction of some still existing pagan rites, etc.
The film is a rare example of an honest and sincere movie free of "visual effects" and "product placement" crap deemed "cool" and profitable by modern Russian cinema producers. No surprise, it had an almost zero distribution in Russia and would probably find more fans among Western viewers.
If anybody wants to sense what and how simple Russians felt during the Stalin era - this is THE FILM.
Starukhi (2003)
A refreshing example of a positive, optimistic and truly humanistic Russian movie
A nice touching story about a group of old women living the rest of their days in a dying Russian village inhabited only by old women and a Down-syndrome guy.
The women are frequented by the local tank-unit commander helping the old, often in exchange for home-brewed vodka, who is in fact the only respectable and influential person in the neighborhood.
The situation changes when the village is entered by a newly arrived family of Uzbek refugees who are the only ones who do care for the old women. The film consequently shows how the initial hostility to the aliens grows out into true friendship when the old women realize that these Uzbeks are their "comrades in distress" that has whirled most of the former Soviet population in the maelstrom of wars, alienation, privation, break of social ties and betrayal by their rulers, that was going under the propagandistic kettle-drums of "democracy" and national prides. Sadly enough, the high words have been used as a cover for corruption and marauding by political elites often, sadly, backed by the irrelevant (putting it mildly) and superficial advice by Western "analysts" and "consultants" willing to implement university-learned "theories" but hardly acquainted with real life in general and having seen Russia/Soviet Union only on CNN or from their government-sponsored elite apartments.
Politics aside, this is the personal optimism and desire to enjoy the life carried out by the main hero, an Uzbek, that revives the village. Extrapolating, personal responsibility and energy is the only thing that drives positive changes in the former Soviet Union countries where the settings of social darwinism are implemented by profit-driven "native" (including those praised by the West as "democratic") elites and contributed by fear-of-the-unknown-inspired hostility of the West.
Good art direction and brilliant work of the native village women who have never previously had any relation to cinema. It seems that even the dialogues are improvised because it is hardly believable that a modern script writer can invent such grains coming out of the very depths of the Russian language. This creates a minor problem of numerous foul (i.e. bitter and sincere) expressions coming from the bottom of the old women's soul (which, however, would hardly find their way to subtitles). In general, the old women's Russian is so colorful and spicy, it might be hardly understood by those (including some urban Russians) used to the literary form of the language and rarely encountering older or dialectal forms.
Overall, a refreshing example of a positive, optimistic and truly humanistic movie close to the Russian realities (unlike the official-optimism crap found today in some Russian TV series "created" by newly-born Russian TV producers).
7/10. Recommended.
Solntse (2005)
A hard viewing but psychologically interesting for some
Another part of Sokurov's "totalitarian" sequence, this is devoted to Japanese WW II-time Emperor Hirohito and his farewell to the old good times of imperial Japan and painful entry into new after-war realities of defeated Japan rising to "democracy" and subject to America's "civilizing".
Compared to the dictators previously depicted by Sokurov (Hitler and Lenin), Hirohito appears the least dictatorial: he sometimes is felt like a "hostage" of the desire to defend the country's own pass of development against the "corroding" influx of Western "plebeian" culture, the desire which led Japan into the fascist "axis" and determined its defeat when the old traditions of relying on the soldiers' spirit and honour and not technical power, and despising non-Japanese as barbarians did not justify themselves.
The film is a hard viewing even for art-house fans because of obscure (probably psychologically justified) coloring and virtually no exterior action. All the action is psychological depicting the way the Emperor comes to reality and to realizing (and publicly declaring) that he is a man, not God, and taking the disgrace of defeat on himself to save his country.
Overall, 7/10.
Selskaya uchitelnitsa (1947)
Interesting by supporting actor performances and by camera work, but the idea is not inspiring
Minor spoilers
A life-long story of a romantic school teacher who left imperial St.Petersburg for teaching country children. Driven by noble intentions to enlighten people and examples by 1880s revolutionary "People's Will" member teachers, a young woman spent her life in a village and evidenced the changes a Russian village has undergone from pre-revolutionary tsarist times to late 1940s.
Almost deprived of love (her lover/husband is almost always absent either serving a sentence for political crimes or fighting in the communist ranks), the woman devoted her life to enlightenment. The figure of her lover/husband is solved according to those times' official tradition of depicting Lenin (greasy, not winking eyes hypnotizing his victim, and sugary treatment of his wife) and today looks even not comic but really disgusting.
The best scenes of the film are those with villagers - unwilling money-driven elders ("We need workers, not pupils!") and curious, open to enlightenment children. The casting of villagers (if it ever took place) is brilliant: it is hard to find such real to village life people among actors.
The refrain of opening and ending ball scenes (perhaps not intentionally) bears a philosophical meaning: all the upheaval Russia undergone during the 20-th century resulted only in the change of elite, while the people hardly changed.
In sum, the film is interesting by supporting actor performances and by camera work (by Sergei Urusevsky of "Cranes are flying"), but the idea is not inspiring. 6/10
Vozvrashchenie (2003)
In its essence, the film is a confirmation/initiation story rarely shot today
Spoiler Alert In its form, this is one of several road movies that have recently hit Russian theaters. In its essence, the film is a confirmation/initiation story quite rarely shot today.
At the outset a young boy displays cowardice when he is afraid of jumping into water from a jumping tower. From now on he is a "coward" and a "goat" in the eyes of his friends, which means that he is a complete outcast in their teenage world. Even his brother is meant to reject him.
The two brothers suddenly encounter their father absent for a dozen of years. Who is he, is he their father, do they need him - these are questions that interest the young guys, especially the younger of them who right away displays hostility to his father. A good point for the film's casting crew - the younger son looks as a perfect source of trouble.
Next day the three heroes start a strange journey to a remote island, which develops in a wonderful three-side conflict. During their trip, the father tries to behave as an absolute power, merciless and equitable, and consistently tries to expose his sons to realities of the adult life and develop responsibility in the young guys. And how different are his sons' reactions! While the elder is ready to co-operate, the younger develops antagonism and hatred.
During the culmination moment the younger son elevates to the top of the lighthouse tower on the island (a refrain to the film's opening scene) - and he "is born" by breaking through his cowardice. As a result the father dies and the sons undergo remarkable changes! From now on, the elder behaves like the father while the younger at last understands that he is a man and undertakes responsibility instead of stubborn resistance.
Here, the name of the elder son, Andrei, raises an association with St. Andrew, the apostle who was the first to join Christ and, after the Christ's death, brought the right faith to the pagans in the lands where modern Russia is located (the younger brother's name is symbolic Ivan!).
An interesting point - when the sons look at the family photo in the father's car after his death you see no father on the picture. This might raise a question whether the father was real or just a nightmare - a severe angel sent to put the sons' brains in order.
A sad fact, the actor who has played the elder son has drowned soon after the shooting of the film. I mean, trouble makers never drown, never die young - they live a long life stubbornly causing chaos and death.
From a cinematographic viewpoint, the film displays an inventive script, good acting, a talented work of decorators, beautiful cinematography, and slow "old-fashioned" rhythm.
9 of 10.
Karmen (2003)
A nice modern adaptation of Merime's Carmen
A nice modern adaptation of Merime's Carmen. A cop falls in love - better say, obsession, with a young criminally talented woman - the love which drives him into the depths of degradation. Unable to even stand a male look at his lover, the cop starts killing, gets demoted and joins criminal brotherhood - and finally kills her facing a 20-year sentence.
A colorful and picturesque cinematography, added with the beautiful though disintegrating Crimean scenery, translates this scent of degradation through decaying environment, multi-language talk of native Crimean population having no choice to make living but to rob and steal, and junta-like looks of the Ukranian police.
A talented work of decorators and costume designers looks inspired by classic Russian novels by Lermontov and Paustovsky.
The plot is vivid but is systematically interrupted by the cop's confessions in prison, in which he explains his emotional state - which is clear enough without his comments - while his final pathetic remarks about destiny etc. only spoil a viewer's perception.
Overall, good: 6 out of 10.