Void

Do not look for a black cat in a dark room

...For it's not there.

Apparently, that was the first thought that came to my mind after watching Enter the Void by Gaspar Noe. It is useless to find any suitable meaning for this movie, since there is none. However, I should admit, that the general topic of afterlife seems rather interesting to me. But the way this movie developed it is little less than abhorrent. The plot can be described in a few words: a drug dealer dies and experiences the afterlife trip, in which he sees not only events after his death but also his childhood memories. So simple, yet soooooooooooooooooo long. 2 with something hours mix together psychedelic frames which are absolutely prohibited to epileptics, explicit scenes and extensive use of red colour. Everything could be not so bad, if not the end: it was like a really bad long-drawn orgasm. It resembled a porn movie with a claim of meaning, plot and even highbrowism. I didn't feel any compassion for the heroes. Well, maybe it is difficult for me to understand all the significance of life vicissitudes of drug-addicts unwilling to work and develop, but this is my rating:

Director Gaspar Noe +3
Actors' performance 0 (forgive me, haven't seen any)
Scenarist Gaspar Noe +3 (for choosing afterlife theme)
Cinematography Benoit Debie +6 (for some interesting shooting: we observe everything through protagonist's eyes, even see how he blinks. Also camera penetrates into the streets, buildings, apartments of Tokio as a spirit would do)

Не ищите черную кошку в темной комнате

...Возможно ее там вовсе нет.

Это была первая мысль, которая у меня возникла после просмотра фильма Вход в Пустоту Гаспара Ноэ. Бессмысленно искать подходящий этому фильму смысл, его там нет. Однако замечу, мне интересна тема жизни после смерти. Это один из немногих плюсов фильма. Но то, как эта тема была воплощена - чуть менее чем отвратно. Сюжет стоит пары слов: наркоделец умирает и испытывает путешествие в тот самый край, где он наблюдает не только за событиями, происходящими после его смерти, но и за воспоминаниями детства. Так просто, но тааааааааак долго. 2 с лишним часа перемежевывают психоделоческие кадры, которые категорически противопоказаны эпилептикам, откровенные сцены и интенсивное использование красного цвета. Все бы ничего, да вот концовка совсем неладная: как неудавшийся затяжной оргазм. Казалось, что это просто порно с претензией на суть, сюжет и даже высокоинтеллектуальность. Я не почувствовала никакого сожаления к героям. Что ж, возможно мне не понять всей значимости жизненных перипетий наркоманов без желания работать и развиваться. Но тем не менее, моя оценка:

Режиссер Гаспар Ноэ +3
Актерская игра 0 (простите, не заметила таковой в фильме)
Сценарий Гаспар Ноэ +3 (за выбор тематики жизни и смерти)
Оператор Бенуа Деби +6 (за некоторые интересные решения: фильм мы наблюдаем через глаза главного героя, даже видим когда он моргает. Также, камера проникает в дома, улицы, квартиры в Токио таким же образом, как и дух)

It's none of your business, but I'm listening to

3eme sexe - White Horses

Industrial Symphony

Должна признать, давненько не видела достойных фильмов. Большинство были просто развлекательными, без особого смысла. Но неделю назад я посмотрела Красную Пустыню, до крайности смысловой, но абсолютно неразвлекательный фильм.

Микеланджело Антониони поразил меня сразу же своим фильмом Фотоувеличение, когда я только знакомилась с его искусством. Безгранично отчужденное, мрачное и одинокое его настроение проникает и в Красную Пустыню. Режиссер преподносит нам серость тонов, блеклость, выцвевшесть жизни как канву для своего фильма. Действие происходит в экологически заброшеном месте, где молодая, но одинокая женщина ищет любви и понимания, но сталкивается лишь с безразличием и холодностью близких людей. Внутренний мир Джулианы (главной героини) во многом походит на то, что ее окружает: ее сердце и чувства заброшены людьми, как и вода, воздух и земля вокруг. Она попала в капкан новой жизни - индустриального общества подлости и равнодушия. Ни муж, ни любовник не готовы разделить чувства и заботу с ней. Легко прочувствовать драму героини, настолько удачно сработал тандем режиссер-актер.

Лично мне повествование напомнило драматургию Чехова: огромная личностная драма, которая прячется под скудным лоскутком принятого в обществе этикета. Здесь нет криков, слез, рвания волос на голове, даже кульминация фильма - это скромный монолог Джулианы:

...Я не могу решить, потому что я не одинокая женщина. Хотя иногда я как-бы разведенная... Нет, не с моим мужем, нет! Тела разведены... Если вы меня укололи, то вы же не страдаете, да?.. О чем это я говорила? Ах, да! Я была больна. Да. Но я не должна об этом думать... то есть должна думать, что все, что со мной происходит - это моя жизнь... Вот... Извините за беспокойство...

Фильм оставляет чувство безысходности и подавленности. Философии здесь настолько много, что не хватает места ни на что другое. Скорей всего я бы не посоветовала этот фильм любому зрителю. Должно быть Красная Пустыня найдет своего зрителя среди философов и психологов. Но без сомнения, этот фильм настоящая жемчужина. А вот поймем ли мы это, зависит лишь от нас.

ПС Я не стану давать конкретной оценки этому фильму. Я предпочту оставить это эссе с нейтральной пометкой: для любителей.

Should admit, I haven't seen any decent movies recently. They were mostly entertaining, but meaningless. Some not even entertaining. But a week ago I watched the Red Desert, meaningful to extremes, but absolutely un-entertaining.

Michelangelo Antonioni at first stroke me with his Blow-Up, when I just got acquainted with his art. Absolutely alienated, lonely and sombre his mood penetrates into the Red Desert as well. The director presents us greyness of tones, fading, withering of life. The action takes place in an environmentally abandoned place, where a young, though desperately lonely woman is seeking for love but stumbles over indifference and coldness of close people. The inner world of Giuliana (the main character) is quite similar to what is around her: her heart and emotions have been as devastated and polluted as water, soil and air around. She is trapped in the industrial society of meanness and indifference. Neither her husband, nor her lover are ready to share their feelings and care with her. I felt every bit of Giuliana's drama, so well-depicted and performed it was.

For me personally the narration resembled Chekhov's dramaturgy: an immense emotional drama hides under a soft and smooth surface of etiquette. There are no screaming, no crying or pulling hair, even the peak of the Red Dessert is just Giuliana's shy monologue:

...I cannot decide because I am not a lonely woman. But sometimes I am somewhat separated... No, not with my husband, no! The bodies are separated.... If you pricked me, for example, you wouldn't be hurt, right?.. What have I been talking about? Oh yes! I was sick. Yes. But I shouldn't think about it... actually should think that everything that happens to me is my life... Here... I'm sorry...

The movie leaves the feeling of hopelessness and depression. However, it is so deeply meaningful that there is no space for anything else, except thinking. I wouldn't probably recommend it to every other person. The Red Desert perhaps finds its audience among philosophers and psychologists rather than average people. But without a doubt this is a pearl. But whether we realize it or not depends only on us.

PS I would try to avoid giving this movie a certain mark. I'd rather leave this essay with a neutral remark: not for everyone.

It's none of business, but I'm listening to

Malachai - Rainbows

Jidlo

The master of horror. Not the cheap one with masses of special effects and make-up. Jan Svankmajer creates something absolutely authentic. He has a unique gift to turn ordinary things into something strange and often scary. The short film "Jidlo" (Food) was created as a stop motion picture with clay animation bits. It might be not the best movie by Svankmajer, but definitely one of those surreal, nightmarish ones that emotionally haunt their audience after watching.

His "Food" is a case when the brain leaks out of your head, still leaving a funny mixed feeling of disgust and delight. Reality in front of us breaks down and reveals sickening world that we often fail to notice. We are turning into robotic mechanisms devouring food in 'Breakfast', ready to consume each other in 'Lunch', and finally giving our best parts in 'Dinner'.

I had to re-watch the movie twice. First time, I had rampant laughters here and there, and was almost applauding to the maestro for such an elaborate prank in the very end. The second time happened to be more in depth: scenes didn't seem such a fun any more, more like a gruesome story of insatiable stomachs. Food flashing in the frames between the scenes became less and less attractive. And in the end, I even lost any trust to it. Food became a monster itself. Being conveyed through these three lines, it became nasty and nauseating.

Of course, Jan Svankmajer's creations are far not for all. He is one of those directors that can be watched only if there is a flow. Otherwise it is insanity.

Director Jan Svankmajer +10
Actors' performance +8
Plot Jan Svankmajer +10
Camera Svatopluk Maly +9

Design Jan Svankmajer +10

It's none of your business, but I'm listening to

Listen and you will see

This is one of those masterpieces we, humble observers, are hesitant to judge. Of course, tongue wouldn't turn to point out those weak sides that great god Andei Tarkovsky allowed. But did he?

I, as a common cinema lover, perceived this piece of art as one of those that make you think. Think about our existence, about role of art in our lives, role of forgiveness and tolerance, role of being a Human.

It is considered that Tarkovsky's Solaris is inferior in many respects to Lem's Solaris. To my great disgrace, I have not read the book, thus cannot compare. But well, the movie managed to become one of those few that make me want to read the original. While working on a thesis in the field of scientific fiction literature, I just managed to read a couple of Herbert Wells and Isaac Asimov. But Solaris was so stunning and hypnotic, that it couldn't be anything less, but worth investigating and wanting more.

People tend to think they have been on the Earth for ever, they are eternal and blah. Nevertheless, the movie points out how tiny we are in our Universe. Our civilization is just a little island in the ocean of Solaris, our lives are just someone's memories lost in time and space. Constant desire of the mankind to learn and comprehend the incomprehensible turns out as a failure, the same as portrayed in Babylon by Bruegel. Tarkovsky masterfully depicts the role of art in human development. The most striking scene was the one of weightlessness. Accompanied with the prelude of Bach, with floating books and candles, symbols of light and knowledge, this scene becomes the key one in the line of art representation.

Of course, it is impossible to bypass the role of Hari, protagonist's deceased wife. In the beginning she appears as a memory, drawn from Kris's head. But with time, she becomes a separate creature, and her words "This is not me! It is me, not Hari!" show how much her understanding of being a human changed. Observing people in the picture "Hunters in the snow" she learns that she is one... and it is not important what material she is made of. She feels, she loves, she lives! And she forgives cruel words of scientists. She, being forgetful, serves as an example of a high "quality" human, though she is not one physically.

Forgiveness is another indispensable trait of a person to which the last scenes are devoted. Kris's parents accept him and forgive his mistakes in the past. Kris turns to his roots, which is the result of thinking on the station near Solaris. Now, he became a wiser person, and hopefully a better son. Tarkovsky shows their reunion using another classical masterpiece - The Return of the Prodigal Son.

Everything seems to be on the right place. Human values are determined, mistakes are forgotten, men turn to their origins. But!.. we are still on the island in the ocean of suspense.

Director Andrei Tarkovsky +10
Actors' performance (Natalya Bondarchuk, Donatas Banionis) +10
Plot (Stanislaw Lem, Andrei Tarkovsky, Freidrich Gorenstein) +10
Camera Vadim Yusov +10
Music Eduard Aremyev +10

It's none of your business but I'm listening to

Liars - Sailing to Byzantium

De Te Fabula Narratur

What are you laughing at? You are laughing at yourselves!

Act V, sc. viii

The genre of cyberpunk, without a doubt, came from the West. And, of course, without any doubt, Westerners would never think that a good cyberpunk movie can be created in such a country as Soviet Union. Why not though?

Georgi Daneliya created Kin-Dza-Dza which was unfortunately accepted by masses only as an extravagant prank of a talanted director. Practice shows that people tend to accept things as they are, omitting inner substance, signs and allegories. The movie on its own is full of symbols showing the comical similarity of the Pluke civilization to our own life.

"Patsak" - "Katsap" in reverse, which is an offensive name for Russians in Ukraine. Patsaks work for Chatlanians, who turn out to be just people having money, chatles.

"KeTse" - "TsK" in reverse, which is an abbreviation for Central Committee (highest administrative body in USSR). Both KeTse (which are simple matches in our life) and TsK symbolise power in the country. Whoever posesses KeTse possesses crimson pants - the symbol of respect and authority.

"Tsappa" - "TsAp" which is an abbriviation for central apparatus (central office). A very prominent conversation shows authors' attitude to it. Chatlanian Wef asks to repair Tsappa. And earthling Uncle Vova asks which is Tsappa. Wef replies "- The rusty detail. - But everything here is rusty. - This one is the MOST rusty." The authors impy that Central Apparatus is the oldest and the most worn out detail in the whole body of the government.

"Ecilop" - "Police" which is in no need for explanations...

The spritual poverty of the Plukanians is shown through the prism of art, which is money oriented. Contemporary pop culture is similar: compare meaningless love songs to the wild rasping on the violin in Kin-Dza-Dza Galaxy. People come to the art in the thirst for money, not being moved by their inner motives. "Workers" of art are purely random.

But not only art is being abandoned. Take a look at our language: curse words are spreading immensly and we substitute all our words with so-called "Ku". General cultural decadence on Pluke is blinded by the ligts of the high tech developments: spaceships, lasers, time machines and elaborate underground cities. However, this is not a proof of a highly developed society. Degradating minds, lack of spiritual power, hunger for money turned Pluke into a miserable and gruesome place which the Earth may turn into one day as well.

The movie is surely political satire. But without the planet Alpha it would stay just a bitter irony over modern state of things. Instead, authors split the evil into two types. The first one, low, coward, lustful and dirty is the Pluke civilization. But much worse is the Alpha: the world of endless pride, arogance and snobism. Alpha is a great depiction of outer welfare in connection with inner indifference and emptiness. This reminds me of the levels in hell in Dante's Divine Comedy. And Alpha stands much further away from Pluke in its sinfulness.

A trully sad and tragic movie.

Director Georgi Danelia +10
Actors' performance (Yuriy Yakovlev, Evgeni Leonov, Stanislav Lyubshin, Levan Gabriadze) +10
Plot (Georgi Danelia, Revaz Gabriadze) +10
Camera Pavel Lebeshev +10
Music Giya Kancheli +8

It's none of your business but I'm listening to

Giya Kancheli - Eine Kleine Daneliada

Maria, and... Maria

Two unbelievable crazy young ladies play a new game: who is worse between them.

- I don't love you!
- I don't love you either!
- No, I seriously don't love you.

Many times Vera Chytilová was accused of feminism, anti-totalitarism, non-conformism and many other wikipedia-type expressions. However, this movie will always stay in mind as a symbol of insane happiness and absolute youth. Although it is somewhat an imitation of Luis Bunuel and Jean-Luc Godard, but Vera Chytilová presented a purely New Wave movie that stands out.

The plot is simple, in fact, maybe seen as nonsense. But let's see in depth: recutting external reality to their own way, just like a light chintz fabric, pricking men with pins to their insane herbarium, fluttering in time and space like moths, two Marias are an example of the only possible relationship to the civilization of political gears. Final titles - a dedication "to those who can not refrain from tears at sight of a trampled leaf of lettuce." Only in two years, when Soviet troops invaded Czechoslovakia, there was not only lettuce crushed. These explosions shook the ancient Prague, and not collage pieces of stone and metal killed civilians on the streets.

Shock, provocation, symbols of extinction of fundamental human values, surreal humor, motives of the absurdity of life and destruction of the world, dynamic and unexpected combinations of images and, finally, aggressive fractional assembly of the video gives us the aesthetics of the movie. All this together has produced a frame for the film - sense of confusion and tragedy of the world well-hidden behind the irresponsible life.

Director Vera Chytilová +10
Actors' performance (Ivana Karbanová, Jitka Cerhová) +9
Plot (Vera Chytilová, Ester Krumbachová, Pavel Jurácek) +10
Camera Jaroslav Kucera +10
Music +8

Freedom to be Beaten

Bronson-2009
I have come to the theathre of one actor. A very good actor.
Compared by many smart critics to the Clockwork Orange this movie shows only one thing in common: the protagonist is a violent person. The themes disclosed in movies however are totally different. While Clockwork Orange is a psycho-social drama, with dominant themes as morality, law, consciousness, social acceptence and so on, Bronson presents a more or less comedian-type story of a rebellious prisoner who wants to be famous. The plot is as straight as the bars of the prison cell. Nevertheless, there are certain scenes that will stay in my mind for long time: disco in the looney bin, naked Bronson making an attempt to escape, episode with a proposal...

The performace of Tom Hardy is impressive. Don't think the movie would win without it. He is a lovely jerk. The direcor doesn't make a Hero out of Bronson. YOU will make a Hero out of him after watching this marvellous movie.

Director Nicolas Winding Refn +10
Actors' performance (Tom Hardy first of all) +10
Plot Brock Norman Brock, Nicolas Winding Refn +8
Camera Larry Smith +10
Music +10

PS Movie is not recommended to gentle ladies.

It's none of your business, but I'm listening to

My Chemical Romance - Blood