It´s very difficult to subscribe movie like this one in such small review. I think I would need big essay to say all of my emotions and opinions regarding "A Place On Earth". It was a pretty hard journey watching this movie, because of it´s explicit existential and philosophical visuals and themes, but the feeling I´ve got when I left the theater was astounding. Than I had time to think and realize what exactly did I just seen. "A Place On Earth" is a wonderful movie, brilliant study of a man´s place on earth (and in universe), complex mixture of religion, philosophy, psychology and myth, along, of course with the great directing from Russian director Aristakisian. The best films are those that stay with You forever, and this is one of them. I´ve seen this one in Sarajevo, Bosnia, at "8.Sarajevo Film Festival", august.2002., and the director Aristakisian was also at the projection, explaining that his movie we should explore as a book and not a piece of cinema. And he was right. Watching this I had a very literate feeling and I think that it´s what is the best about "A Place On earth". Surely a master-piece.
5 Reviews
Excellent film - hard to watch sometimes but essential
Tristan!-221 August 2006
This is a very powerful film. Admittedly parts of it are hard to watch, but it is an outstanding piece. In a nutshell, it is about a hippie commune that has been set up by someone who believes that the best way to help the homeless and often deranged cripples in Moscow is by offering them sexual love. I did not realise (because of the black and white, and the fact I watched this film before looking up to see when it was made) that this film was shot recently in Moscow, using real homeless people in their real situations. I assumed, because of the black and white, and the whole hippie commune idea, that this was the 70s. Shockingly, this includes his real-life footage of the current situation of the marginalised in Moscow, and that upset me to the core. Obviously some of the characters are actors (or, rather, are acting), but many are simply being shot in their everyday surroundings. Let's hope that some good comes out of films such as these, in the same way that Cathy Come Home helped change the situation for many in the UK all those years ago.... Is Aristakisyan Russia's new and very own Ken Loach? We shall have to wait and see.
This Temple of Love more closely resembles the Temple of Doom.
ElijahCSkuggs20 December 2007
Warning: Spoilers
The story is about a delusional man who had very high hopes and aspirations to help as many people as he could be creating a hippie commune of sorts called the Temple of Love. It is a community of people that all live together and thrive based on sharing love with one another. An idea of such magnitude has the ability to work for some people, people with no financial worries or basically just people that can truly can take care of one another in a mature manner. When such an opportunity has an open door, the people that will come knocking are the people who are looking for love the most, such as homeless people, carefree hippies, the crippled and sick etc. The idea is a loving gesture and it's very evident when watching the film, there is love everywhere. But even though love is abound, it doesn't mean the situation is a safe one, a healthy one, and one where people have no worries. Unfortunately this Temple of Love, more closely resembles a Temple of Doom. And by the end of this film you are incredibly aware that this is truly the case. Hopes are dashed, lives are lost, dreams are broken, you get the idea.
A Place on Earth is a strong picture, and a slightly difficult one to fully grasp. Mostly because the footage being filmed felt so damn realistic, and most of it was. I've heard that almost all of the people in this film were actual homeless/needy people. And I'm guessing here that the only actors were the ones who spoke any lines. I'm also guessing and praying the children in the film were also actors. The building/home of the community is basically an abandoned, dilapidated building that looks to be falling apart. It's dirty, gritty and messy, it has holes in the ground. But they did have a working stove and what appeared to be running water. Not sure how they paid for it, but I'm guessing they were just lucky to have these things available. But those issues are minor when it comes down to the feeling this movie gives off. This is anything but a happy film, there are scenes when joy is displayed and you'll share that, but almost every other scene concern is the major theme.
I'm not entirely sure why this film was made. But I'm glad it was. Everyone and their mother's know about the problem with the world, how millions of people are in need, but the percentage of people who actually step up and help, that's a much, much greater number. It's a film to maybe open your eyes a little wider, a film to make you appreciate what you have. A Place on Earth is a smart title for the film, and a title that fits. Because it really is only one place on Earth out of many that closely resemble this sad atmosphere.
Really good stuff here. Hopefully, they release it with with better colored subtitles one day, because the version I saw had grey subtitles. And when you have a black and white movie with grey subtitles...yeah it's tough stuff. Be careful to who you recommend this to, it's a slow-burning film, with some mature scenes. But if you're into powerful, thought-provoking films, this is one you should try to see.
A Place on Earth is a strong picture, and a slightly difficult one to fully grasp. Mostly because the footage being filmed felt so damn realistic, and most of it was. I've heard that almost all of the people in this film were actual homeless/needy people. And I'm guessing here that the only actors were the ones who spoke any lines. I'm also guessing and praying the children in the film were also actors. The building/home of the community is basically an abandoned, dilapidated building that looks to be falling apart. It's dirty, gritty and messy, it has holes in the ground. But they did have a working stove and what appeared to be running water. Not sure how they paid for it, but I'm guessing they were just lucky to have these things available. But those issues are minor when it comes down to the feeling this movie gives off. This is anything but a happy film, there are scenes when joy is displayed and you'll share that, but almost every other scene concern is the major theme.
I'm not entirely sure why this film was made. But I'm glad it was. Everyone and their mother's know about the problem with the world, how millions of people are in need, but the percentage of people who actually step up and help, that's a much, much greater number. It's a film to maybe open your eyes a little wider, a film to make you appreciate what you have. A Place on Earth is a smart title for the film, and a title that fits. Because it really is only one place on Earth out of many that closely resemble this sad atmosphere.
Really good stuff here. Hopefully, they release it with with better colored subtitles one day, because the version I saw had grey subtitles. And when you have a black and white movie with grey subtitles...yeah it's tough stuff. Be careful to who you recommend this to, it's a slow-burning film, with some mature scenes. But if you're into powerful, thought-provoking films, this is one you should try to see.
The marginal way to change the world. What has a beggar got? Nothing but his body.
jcc-2929 November 2006
Warning: Spoilers
This is one movie to knock you off our feet. From the first scenes it unsettles you, puts you in a shifted state of perception. It is a movie where you don't see yourself, in fact you don't see anything you're used to. There's just no way, no scale for you to measure the images you get to see. Because if there would be one you'd be probably one of those people shown in the movie. And they just don't go to the cinema. Quite shocking, yes. But it's nothing but naked truth, there are just a few professional actors - the main parts, all the others are real people living their usual (heavily UNusual for a 'normal man') life in front of the camera. A life that you don't know about or don't wanna notice. But there it is - a hippie commune, about fifty people living together in a deserted house as one body, one flesh, sharing everything, learning the idea of free love. And yet it's impossible. Love's impossible until a total self-denying. Sleeping with cripples, with people who literally don't exist, could it be the right path to a total self-oblivion? And is there a hope after all? Seeing this movie makes you forget your social thinking, aims, prejudices. It leaves you naked one on one in front of the simplest acts and senses of human behavior. Or it doesn't - if a movie isn't much more than an entertainment or on the other end a cause to play with your intellectual muscles. This one isn't the case. Not a movie for 'movie-lovers', nothing to speculate about, but a message. It doesn't make faces, doesn't jingle, it simply speaks to your heart. Deep and moving.
Yuchh!
XopenairX5 August 2002
Disgusting,just disgusting.By the way,who was the Chinese actor?How did it end?With Marija and the hippie headguy living together?I think it was quite moving in a way,because of the sad stories of the homeless Russians,but many scenes were really disgusting(like the one where the guy eats the dead rat,not mentioning the other hideous ones).
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