The Conductor (2012)

Directed by: Pavel Lungin
Country: Russia

Movie Review: Delivering less than it promised, “The Conductor”, presents a mix of stories inside a group of performers from a famous Russian orchestra that travels to Jerusalem to perform the religious oratorio ‘St. Matthew Passion’. The drama is centered on the feared conductor Slava Petrov (Vladas Bagdonas) who receives a fax informing about his son’s death in Jerusalem, a few days before his departure. Once there, he’ll learn that his artist son became member of a secluded group, having collected several debts that led him to hang himself. He just left a painting, a replica of the famous ‘The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb’, in which Christ is replaced by his father. In parallel, we can follow the insecurities of a lonely singer who believes he’s not wanted in the orchestra, and the end of a marriage of another singer, Sergey, who feels tied up in the relationship with his jealous and religious-obsessed wife, feeling attracted to Olga whom he met in the plane. Meanwhile, Olga will lost track of her two kids in the perilous market streets of Jerusalem. Despite its fine performances and appealing images, “The Conductor” revealed some trouble embracing the stories and giving them a final strong conclusion. The religious chants created a special mood (the most valuable aspect in the film) that not always corresponded to what the pic was showing us. Made of fatal coincidences and ‘deaf’ dialogues, it adopts serious tones in its attempt to balance all the guilt, pride, faith, and repentance of its characters, a goal that wasn’t totally achieved.

Read More

Stalingrad (2013)

Directed by: Fedor Bondarchuk
Country: Russia

Movie Review: Shot in 3D for IMAX format, Russian WWII blockbuster “Stalingrad” is excessively graphical and noisy, relying on a deficient narrative to depict the drama lived in 1942 by a group of Russian soldiers in order to keep a strategic building in their possession, after the German onslaught. Some images are grotesque and completely out of reality, like angered soldiers in flames shooting incessantly, and constant use of slow motion to depict the battle scenes, where extremely saturated colors and an ornate composition give a non-natural air to the picture. Through silent ambushes or explosive offensives, the war scenes conveyed fierceness but not exactly reality. At certain point, soldiers from both sides were fighting over the two women stuck inside the building, and not even the story about the five fathers of the narrator, or the explanation on how a famous tenor became cold and cruel after volunteer himself, were interesting enough. Filmmaker Fedor Bondarchuk preferred the elaborated methods, so misleading and exhaustive, to the simple ones capable to create a suspenseful atmosphere. I also can’t choose a performance that has stood out, since everybody seemed lost among the debris. The score composed by the acclaimed Angelo Badalamenti, widely known for his work in David Lynch’s movies, did its part without surprise. Assuredly, “Stalingrad” doesn’t make justice to one of the most important and bloodiest battles of WWII.

Read More

A Long and Happy Life (2013)

Directed by: Boris Khlebnikov
Country: Russia

Movie Review: Nominated for the Golden Berlin Bear, “A long and happy life”, is the sixth feature film directed by Russian helmer Boris Khlebnikov. The film depicts in gloomy tones, the sad story of Sasha, a farmer who is invited by the local government administrators to close his business, located at the Kola Peninsula, in exchange of a monetary compensation. Trying to fight for a land he put so many efforts in, Sasha realizes he is completely tied by the corrupt authorities and constantly struggles with the idea of having to open the door of poverty to his employees, most of them not so young. The situation gets more complicated when his girlfriend, Anya, who works for the government, doesn’t stay on his side when he decides to stand firm for his farm and workers. The film, with its contemporary story and paradoxical title, wasn’t so new in terms of plot, dragging itself in its heaviness for long periods of time. Don’t get me wrong with my previous statement, because good films not always have an original story. The problem here was simply technical. The direction was uninspired, presenting an excessively moving camera that was not always favorable, and shadowy images sometimes intercalated by two or three beautiful countryside landscapes. The uneven pace had a shake in its violent, yet somewhat predictable final moments, but this wasn’t enough to turn “A long and happy life” into a decisive and memorable film.

Read More

Gagarin: First in Space (2013)

Directed by: Pavel Parkhomenko
Country: Russia

Movie Review: “Gagarin: First in Space” is the first biopic of Soviet pilot and cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, the first man to reach the outer space, when in April 12, 1961, his spacecraft Vostok 3KA completed an entire orbit around the Earth. Presented in radiant colored tones that recreate decently the 60’s, this state-funded film doesn’t hide its patriotic exacerbation, reinforcing the Soviet strictness, military determination, and national enthusiasm about the man who would open the frontiers of unexplored space. The story focuses on the period right before the tough tests that Gagarin was subjected along with a competitive group of 19 pilots, until his return from space. However, some flashbacks take us to several episodes of his poor childhood, involving his humble parents and brother, and how he met his wife for the first time during a dance ball. Despite his irreproachable career, his private life didn’t reveal anything particularly remarkable, and even his unwarming relationship with his incredulous father was depicted exactly in the way he always behave when facing a stressful situation: cold and unemotional. The fact that production designer turned director Parkhomenko (who worked in Alexey Balabanov’s films) has left behind the last seven years of Gagarin’s life, including the jet crash that caused his death in 1968, and the speculations about conspiracy involving it, must seem incomplete in the eyes of many. Production values are strong, while the special effects aren’t exuberant but appropriate.

Read More

In The Fog (2012)

Directed by: Sergei Loznitsa
Country: Russia / others

Review: Sergei Loznitsa’s sophomore film “In The Fog” presents the same approach of “My Joy”, evincing the same depressive mood, the same desolated scenarios, cold interactions among the characters, and a strong psychological component, but without being so invigorating and opting for a dragging pace that leads to a difficult watching. Set in 1942, it tells the grim story of Sheshenya, an innocent Byelorussian rail worker, who was the only one to be freed by the Germans after being captured along with other three soviet partisans accused of derail a German train. This inexplicable fact made the partisans conclude that Sheshenya was a traitor. One day, without surprise, two partisans arrived to his place and took him to a forest to punish him with death, but along the way the plans were changed. Adapted from a short novel by Vasili Bykov, “In The Fog” presents an intriguing structure, reconstructing these men’s past in order to help us understand what was behind their actions. Even overlong and emotionally cold, its cinematography and non-moralistic story of despair, stick in our head and refuse to abandon us completely, which proves the strength of the tale. But when I think in its lack of pace, weighted delays, and excess of meticulousness, I see some limitations that could be easily avoided by shortening some long static shots and perhaps reduce the same grave silence used on every scene.

Read More

White Tiger (2012)

Directed by: Karen Shakhnazarov
Country: Russia

Review: Based on Ilya Boyashov’s fictional novel “Tankman”, “White Tiger” is an eerie tale that mixes war and supernatural to portray the improbable story of one of the best Russian tank drivers of WWII. During an operation against the Germans, this tank driver got burned in 90% of his body when he was hit by a mysterious tank known as White Tiger. Practically given up for dead, he has a miraculous recovery in a few weeks, revealing a strange sixth sense that will help him to accomplish his mission of destroying White Tiger and avenge his own fate. Having lost his memory, he was renamed Naydenov and promptly reattached to military service. As a ghost, only him could see White Tiger, which according to his words was an indestructible tank commanded by dead. After these spooky revelations, the hunt begins, painted in beautiful colors and alluring visuals of destruction and claustrophobia. The film showed nerve in the way that made the absurdity of the story seem naturally serious. The performance by Aleksey Vertkov was convincing, while the music of Richard Wagner enhanced the tense moments. Even using a minimal story and a few details in the plot that were hard to swallow, “White Tiger” spread some freshness with its exquisite taste, hypnotic war scenes, and final mention of an abominable philosophy described by the Reich himself. An absurdly original piece of cinema.

Read More