This is the second film I've seen of Daneliya; I sought it out after I saw Kin-Dza-Dza. This film is fantastic too, in very very different ways, but it seems to have a similar sentiment of humorous cynicism covering a serious hope at a center for human kindness. This makes for a tone that's both tragic and comic, and a film that's sincere but not doe-eyed.
As a the one-name title might suggest, this is not a plot-heavy film but a character piece about Afonya, a hero who seems to be making himself into a nobody. He gives the impression of a man doing everything wrong in his life -- demanding apprentices at work only to dismiss them immediately, insulting his boss, leaving a house to flood because he doesn't want to do overtime, causing his girlfriend to leave him by bringing home drunk strangers only to chase women who are uninterested in him and ignore the one who is.
And as he gets everything wrong for himself, he does it in a very funny way. And destructive as his actions may be, they are shown us in a tone perfect to make him seem likable and a bit pitiable rather than despicable. And slowly, with an imperceptible transition, we realize that he's not just getting everything wrong in his life, but that he;s just extremely depressed and indifferent.
Things get as sad as they can for our hero -- as he comes home to the aunt who raised him to find that he she is dead and realizes his own callousness at never writing him -- before they end with one bright glint of home.
Very fine and sensitive writing, acting, and directing to achieve the counterpoint of tone here -- the film is both very funny and very sad, the hero is both terrible and very likable. Very simple in its way but no small achievement.
As a the one-name title might suggest, this is not a plot-heavy film but a character piece about Afonya, a hero who seems to be making himself into a nobody. He gives the impression of a man doing everything wrong in his life -- demanding apprentices at work only to dismiss them immediately, insulting his boss, leaving a house to flood because he doesn't want to do overtime, causing his girlfriend to leave him by bringing home drunk strangers only to chase women who are uninterested in him and ignore the one who is.
And as he gets everything wrong for himself, he does it in a very funny way. And destructive as his actions may be, they are shown us in a tone perfect to make him seem likable and a bit pitiable rather than despicable. And slowly, with an imperceptible transition, we realize that he's not just getting everything wrong in his life, but that he;s just extremely depressed and indifferent.
Things get as sad as they can for our hero -- as he comes home to the aunt who raised him to find that he she is dead and realizes his own callousness at never writing him -- before they end with one bright glint of home.
Very fine and sensitive writing, acting, and directing to achieve the counterpoint of tone here -- the film is both very funny and very sad, the hero is both terrible and very likable. Very simple in its way but no small achievement.