vladislavmanoylo Reviews

Progulka (2003)

Exhaustingly energetic

[5/10 · 28 November 2015]

The Stroll is different than most films, and is with most things that stand out there is a person that loves it and a person that really doesn't. But to figure out which of these two you are only takes the first 10 minutes of the film.

This movie is characterized by long unbroken shots of conversation, mostly only between 3 characters. The entirety of the films events take place over a single day, and we see years go by in seemingly improvised conversation as the main characters meet, fall in love, quarrel, make up, propose, and separate forever. And as the title suggests this entirely goes by in motion, and there is no stop to the movement until the last few scenes.

The pacing established at the very beginning doesn't stop, and depending on the viewer this will either feel energizing or exhausting. The only break from conversation and the jittery close-up camera is when the camera moves to a distance and the characters can't be heard, or when it briefly segues to another group.

It's really impressive that this movie created the feeling of an hour and a half of improvisation from the characters, as if it was actually a few interesting characters being filmed by a nearby person with a cellphone camera. It's an exciting glimpse into an imaginary life, and interestingly even much of Olya's dialogue was revealing a character that didn't exist even within the film's world. It's exciting, but also detached from reality, and the audience is left trying to understand characters from the fantasies and over-the-top personalities they present to each other.

Come and See (1985)

a great film, but not a pleasant one.

[8/10 · 14 November 2015]

A rough estimate of the content of Come and See is 30 minutes of irony and strangeness, and an hour and a half of surreal and nightmarish, suffering and cruelty. Come and See contains no enjoyment or relief for any of the characters until the final few minutes where by shooting a picture of Hitler we see footage of the war in reverse and get to briefly fantasize that none of it ever happened. And then the audience sees the movie end with tragic classical music that allows distance from the events and claustrophobia-inducing sounds that we've been experiencing for the past two hours.

Watching this movie leaves your emotions and senses drained from the sheer quantity of content intended to convey distress and misery, through the imagery, the sounds and the events portrayed. One of the most dense moments in the film for this is when the main character and a girl he's met are wading through water. This scene occurs some time after a bombardment leaves Flyora's hearing damaged, and a buzzing sound reappears here simulating near deafness. As Flyora drags himself and a girl through the thick swamp covered in a layer of mud thicker than skin, his voice and movements can scarcely be heard through the droning sound of birds, violins, and horribly dissonant piano reverb. And then after emerging from the swamp covered in mud, the thick surface of the swamp disappears, almost as if it was there only for him.

On a slightly related note, it's interesting that whenever a character tried to keep him stationary to avoid going out into further suffering, the place where he would have stayed, and in another case did stay, suffered a much worse fate.

In summary, this movie does a fantastic job on many levels of dragging the viewer into a place filled with misery. So whether that's something you want to experience should be considered before watching, because this is a great film, but not a pleasant one.

Mirror (1975)

Very atmospheric and encompassing

[9/10 · 7 November 2015]

The Mirror is a poetry of images and motion. It's the kind of film that probably needs to be seen several times to understand, but its enjoyable even the first time thanks to the imagery and atmosphere it can create. Instead of a traditional plot, this movie speaks through symbols, again much like a poem. Rather than following any linear story, the scenes are taken from various places in time featuring a handful of characters, and other scenes taken from documentaries spliced in between.

One of the most interesting elements is the camera. It moves like a ghost throughout the movie- gently gliding across extended single shot scenes, and sliding across characters and their reflections. Interestingly it maintains this effect when its shown from the first person, and other characters are addressing the character whose point of view were looking from. This is why I said the camera is like a ghost, because most of the movie is filmed like this it's as if this character behind the camera is always there, which is even made possible because the camera is capable of walking across dream-like sequences as readily as real ones.

One of the earliest scenes in the movie is of this time, and summarizes why this movie is so engrossing. After the scene of a house burning down in the rain, there is one of a woman washing her hair, which is ordinary on the surface but a very eerie atmosphere is created because of her very slow movements and the hair covering her face. The tension is brought up dramatically from the surroundings: walls scarred by flames but dripping with moisture. A connection is made to the burned down house from earlier, and later scenes in the movie take place in buildings with similar walls. Links such as these between disparate scenes of the movie create this impression of a poem, where all these separate elements where put in place to create a single meaning, but what that is is largely up to the audience to discover.

There are many more examples throughout, but that is just a glimpse of the atmosphere that makes this movie so interesting to watch even the first time.

White Sun of the Desert (1970)

Fun action-comedy film

[8/10 · 31 October 2015]

White Sun of the Desert is a very entertaining and bold movie, to put it simply it's a crowd-pleasing movie. This movie is very good at being what it is, so while it doesn't exist in the realms of high art or ground-breaking experiences, it's certainly worth watching to someone wanting to enjoy an action-adventure with some decent comedy throughout.

The hero is a slightly more Russian classic action hero - impossibly competent and reliable, full of charm and wit, trying to get home to his peaceful life and adored wife but is entangled into a mess caused by the villain. A picture of his character can be almost entirely given in two scenes- while he has the villain cornered he nonchalantly releases a rope resulting in a henchman being knocked out on the other side of a wall; and in a scene where he is cornered instead and the enemies ask him if he would prefer a quick death or a torturous one, he naturally and nonchalantly answers that he would prefer torture- and almost immediately afterwards escapes from his captives with his reflexes and good aim.

The villain is of course capable of despicable acts, talks very friendly to the people he is trying to kill, and is bound to lose. There are of course other characters and aspects to the film, but the hero is the driving force to the extent that, much like James Bond or Sherlock Holmes, another setting with him would produce a very similar film.

Other than the conflict between the characters of the hero and villain, another central conflict is the one between cultures of the two. But that conflict is presented through characters and not necessarily philosophy or politics as might be expected from a soviet union film.

Overall this movie is just fun. It's comfortable trading realism for more exciting scenes, and somewhat trading complexity in characters for likability. It's enough to make the audience care for what happens to the characters and their struggles, and its worth watching.

The Commissar (1967)

A very small and personal scope used to talk about much more

[9/10 · 24 October 2015]

Many elements in this film are about getting closer to the story, and the characters. One of the earliest indications of this intent is the camera- it is very lively throughout the film, and one of the repeating motifs is of it coming closer to scene- first physically but then much closer than even that. The camera moves like a person in the scene, only one unafraid of proximity, and very early on we can even see the camera take the viewpoint of a character being pushed inside a building; but strangely that's still the second closest it comes to a character.

During the childbirth scene in this movie, the camera is able to enter a metaphysical place as a metaphor for the main characters current experience- scenes of soldiers and horses. But the movie is just as much about the reality that was used as a metaphor as it was about the 'actual' events.

The scope of the plot is incredibly small as it follows a single family and Klavdia over a few days. but through this very small scope the movie speaks about something much more- about the treatment of Jews, about war, and about the revolution.

This movie gets very close to a few characters and creates an emotional bond between them and the audience. In a word, this movie is very human, creating scenes that are very warm and others that are very sad. And through these few character and events is capable of talking about much more.

Ballad of a Soldier (1959)

Worth watching for its collection of characters and stories

[9/10 · 17 October 2015]

In discussing the horrors of a war, Ballad of a soldier spends its time on the tragedies and victories outside of the battle. The film starts with an exaggerated encounter of a man running from a tank, and eventually stopping it and another tank. That strange scene, with its equally exaggerated camera angles, is pretty much the only direct reference to the war, and after that the war is something that bleeds into life but doesn't cover it. The war is tragic, but because of what it does to life, not what it does to politics. And the heroes are heroic because of who they are as people, not what they've done for the cause.

In this movie the casualties of war are the families forced to leave their homes, the wife unfaithful to her deployed husband, the almost soul-mates separated by a train that has to leave on time and the mother who has to see her son for the last time. And the beautiful moments are made of honest love between people.

This movie is clearly against war, not just because of what happens in battle, but because of what it does to lives outside of it. The framing and lighting of the scenes frequently emphasizes the individual in the scene, letting an expressive face and its context tell the story. And much like its protagonist, this movie's story is very tragic, but it does not always feel that way because of how earnestly and sweetly it tells its story, and its worth watching because of that.

Yunost Maksima (1935)

well written and well acted

[8/10 · 3 October 2015]

The Youth of Maxim is a film driven by its raw humanity. Through the disparate events and characters in the movie, the linking thread for us members of the audience is the empathy that the film creates for the main characters. Choosing to keep the plot simple worked to the film's benefit because it allowed more scenes to build the characters. In particular the introduction of Maxim and his two friends is interesting.

After the brief, and somewhat out of place, prologue, three men are introduced by having one of them call out for his friends. And of the three friends, the titular characters is the fourth to appear- arriving with a dog in front of him. One of them talks about his dreams, Maxim arrives singing, and they all enjoy each other's company. The film takes time to show emotion in its scenes and gives a view into the hearts of the characters. This allows us to see the central transformations in the characters and makes many of the scenes more powerful.

One of the best moments of driving a scene by emotion is during the strike. The entire sequence relies on an implicit understanding of what all of the members are marching for, and because of the events leading up to that one, and because of the deliberate moments spent immediately prior to the strike the scene works tremendously well. With barely a word spoken there is conveyance of the intense emotion felt towards the cause of the grief, towards the owner of the factory and towards the system that allowed the events.

Outside of just plot, the movie characterizes well using the actors physical movement and their voices- both in dialogue and especially in song. The clearest example is inside the prison where the characters are trying to sing while they are being physically restrained by the officers there. The movie does not try to be to subtle, and whether that is good or bad in the eyes of a viewer is probably the deciding factor for their enjoyment of the film.

Aelita, the Queen of Mars (1924)

has some interesting sci-fi elements

[5/10 · 26 September 2015]

It's always interesting to see a work of fiction have sequences imagined by characters within the work itself, because it is an occasion to watch a story move along a sliding scale of "not real" to "also not real". "Aelita: queen of mars" is a movie outwardly comprised of two sections- the "real" parts on earth and the "fantasy" parts on mars. But of course the scenes on earth are just as much fantasy as the rest because of their very appearance in a fictional film. This imaginary line between the fake and the even more fake is especially carefully tread after our protagonist, Los, returns from his 6 months away from home. Los and his narcissistic fantasy (of the queen of mars becoming utterly infatuated with him) come crashing together after he shoots his wife. Or at least that is one perspective of the events, but stating that scenes up to that point were grounded in reality creates some incongruities.

I do not believe that Los shot his wife, instead I think that that scene was also in his mind. His ability to accept and forget his wife's death goes against the jealous and insecure character we've seen from him. His attitude towards his wife's murder doesn't make sense unless it's in the context of the rest of his fantasy.

There is an interesting dynamic between fantasy and reality throughout the film that is further emphasized by the over-acting in many of the scenes trying to be presented as real. The acting and the characters constantly give a jarring reminder to the audience that even in the 'real' scenes we are still watching a film, and unfortunately this hurts the experience. Other than the jumps between fantasy and reality, this movie is not very interesting and hard to watch.

Konets Sankt-Peterburga (1927)

Starts slow, but continuously builds

[7/10 · 19 September 2015]

This films editing style lends, which can jarringly cut between shots with little regard to space and time, itself well to scenes with lots of tension or aggression. This makes the majority of the movie very intense by using images transitions to convey emotion, but the early parts suffer for it. Noticeable emphasis is placed on the angles and content of shots to convey mood, which frequently works as an effective metaphor in the narrative. But before the story is set up, the meaning of many juxtaposed shots floats away without having another element in the story to meaningfully attach to.

I think too much time is spent early in the film on imagery the film deemed important, instead of offering context for the imagery. But after that it is quite enjoyable to watch. Montage used as metaphor relies heavily on a common ground between the language of images a film uses and the audiences understanding of them. But the impression and transition between images itself can enhance pacing and tension, and this greatly improves the movie. In particular the scenes where the younger protagonist attacks his employer is very powerful. In fact the content of the film after that point is enough to justify watching it. It takes characters to make a story enjoyable, and the film becomes aware of this and uses its editing to enhance the characters.

The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty (1927)

mostly interesting footage, some less so

[7/10 · 12 September 2015]

The strength of The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty is its collection of significant historical scenes, and that is probably enough to enjoy the movie despite its half-hearted attempts at delivering political and social statements. Despite what the title of the movie would have you believe, this is not about the Romanov Dynasty, or rather it is only incidentally about the Romanov Dynasty. What this movie is about is the tumultuous time of human history in and around the World War, the Great War, the first war of its kind. It's a subject with such weight that it is best expressed through images and motion, making it ideal for a silent film.

An actual documentary of the Romanov Dynasty would need additional context to express its point, but hundreds of soldier marching across a crowd many times that size, or an enormous ship sinking, are both scenes that can be understood without narration. The bulk of the film is a collage of these sorts of scenes, and choosing to watch that is sufficient reason to watch the film, but unfortunately there's more. The film decided it needed a message and motive, and the one it chose is the evils of luxury and capitalism and they're disregard for the common man. For a person that subscribes to the ideology some of the imagery can incite righteous anger, for a person who doesn't some of the phrases used feel a lot like propaganda In either case the effect feels inconsequential when compared to the other subject of the film, similar to how the gravity of the moon is important not nearly as relevant as the gravity of the earth.

TL;DR: The movie has great historical footage of war and some of the important characters involved, but also scenes of workers, capitalists, estates, government officials, etc. that appear unnecessary and maybe even unwanted.

After Death (1915)

Strange, but enjoyable

[8/10 · 5 September 2015]

A more modern film tells a story through the characters, but Bauer tells his story primarily through the camera- through the motion, the color and the framing in the scenes. This results in a surreal, though not entirely unpleasant experience. This is fitting to the story as well, because of its emphasis on the supernatural. The connection between Death and the human psyche plays a central role in the story, and it treats the subject similarly to an Edgar Allan Poe story. The greatest similarity to Poe is how the film does nothing to establish the main character as a reliable narrator. Through the film the audience only briefly enters the main characters point of view, mostly resulting in visions of the deceased, but most of the time we are instead watching events as an outsider. There is a voyeuristic nature to many of the scenes, with the camera watching the events of the movie from behind doors or plants. This is especially evident in the party scene the camera walks slowly around the room, learning the story through the going-ons in the settings rather than through the main characters. Ultimately the same message is conveyed through this particular scene- that our main character is somewhat of an oddity in the room- but more indirectly. I think the film is brilliant because of the mystery it presents by not handing out information so simply. The camera intrudes on the characters lives and allows the audience to pick apart the events- and this elevates what would otherwise be a cheesy melodrama into an opportunity to explore the characters minds. It's enjoyable to watch because of how the story is told more than what is told.