Russian Ark

I'm not sure what to say about Russian Ark, mainly because I don't think I really understood it. I had a hard time distinguishing the different time periods. I couldn't really make sense of some of the rooms - sometimes it felt like he was just walking through a museum commenting on random pictures and talking to random people.

This film is very different from the montage technique we are used to seeing. This is probably the first film I've seen that is done entirely in one shot, which must have been difficult to accomplish. One major difference is that we see everything in real time. Instead of using a montage technique to show Marquis de Custine's (and the narrator's) journey through the museum, we actually follow him as he walks through it.

I would say that the atmosphere changes with each room the narrator enters. Some rooms are full of visitors all talking about the art work, other rooms only have a couple people in them. Towards the beginning, the narrator looks in a room as sees a man being abused, and in another room a man is building his own coffin. But at the end of the film there is a ball, and everyone is dancing and having a good time. There is a definite difference in the atmosphere from room to room.

The Return

When I think back on the movie The Return, the first thing that comes to mind is the color blue. There was water in almost every scene. The sky was always blue or gray, and it seemed to rain a lot.

You could have told me that this was a film by Tarkovsky and I wouldn't have known the difference. The influence Tarkovsky had on Zvyagintsev is obvious from the beginning. This film focuses a lot on the elements, much like Mirror. There is water everywhere - the boys live next to a lake (or ocean?), every time they stop to camp with their father they are by a body of water, and there are many scenes where it rains. Fire is in many scenes also, and there are a lot of shots of the wind blowing through fields. I also noticed the use of mirrors in a few scenes, like the father looking at Ivan in the back seat of the car through the rearview mirror. When Andrei went off to ask someone where they could find a restaurant, his father watches a woman walk past the car through the side and rear-view mirrors. Also, when the camera pans out through the woods at the end of the film, it is almost identical to the end of Mirror.

The area where The Return was shot looks much different from where Brother was shot. In Brother, St. Petersburg was very run-down and industrialized. But in The Return, the outskirts of St. Petersburg seem to be very calm and undisturbed.

I don't think the father is easy to describe. I still don't know what he came back to town for. It seems like he thinks he was doing his sons a favor by being so hard on them. He knows he isn't going to be around to raise them, so he wants them to have a few memories of him while he is visiting, even if they aren't really good ones. He knows that one day his sons will look back on their trip, and the way he treated him, and they will understand that he acted that way to make them stronger.

His sons seem to have very different reactions to his return. Ivan comes to hate the time he is spending with his father, and even says that if his father touches him again he will kill him. Andrei, however, will put up with his father to stay on his good side. I think Andrei has missed his father and will do anything he asks in hopes that he won't leave again. Andrei's relationship with his brother is also strained because of his father's return. Ivan does not understand why Andrei is so willing to obey their father.

I'm not sure what to make of the photos at the end though. They looked like they came from Andrei's camera, but a man in one of them (maybe the very last one) looked like it could have been a younger version of their father.

Brother

I'm not usually into mobster-type movies, but I really enjoyed Brother.

I found it odd that Danila had no problem murdering people, yet he never went back on his word when he told someone he wouldn't kill them. I think that shows that the gangster life he is living really isn't for him because most gang members will shoot anyone who gets in there way without thinking twice. He seems to downplay the fact that he was in the army, but that's obviously where he learned everything he knows about killing. But the reason he is different from the other mobsters is because he seems to have a conscience.

It seems that Danila would do anything for his older brother. He even forgives him for betraying him at the end of the movie, after he saves his life. Danila also seems to feel very strongly about the use of the word "brother". When he pulls a gun on the men in the train who refuse to pay the fee, one of them calls him brother, and he coldy replies, "you're not my brother". Also, at the end of the movie after he shoots Sveta's husband in the leg, her husband calls him brother. Once again, Danila says, "You're not my brother."

Music seems to be the only thing that is keeping Danila sane. He doesn't really seem to enjoy any other forms of entertainment (except getting stoned). When he goes out anywhere it is usually to a concert or a record store. Even when he watches television, it's a recording of a concert. Because Danila is caught up in the gang activity of his brother, he doesn't really get a chance to do things normal teenagers (young adults?) do, so listening to music is his way of staying connected with the normal outside world.

Little Vera

Little Vera is very different from the other movies we have watched. I didn't seem to center around the war or the Soviet regime as much as everything else we have watched did.

I noticed that the city where the family lives is very industrialized. Every time we are shown the skyline it is always full of pollution and identical apartments. I also can't recall a time in the movie where we see a shot that is just of nature - even when the family goes to the beach to get away for the day, their truck is in the background. The apartment Vera's family lives in is very small, much like the apartment Katya and Alexandra live in in Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears.

Just like in many other films we have watched, alcohol seems to be a big part of Vera's life. The family always drinks alcohol with dinner, mostly vodka, and Vera is left to care for her father when he has too much to drink.

I felt bad for Vera when Victor told her the only reason their father wanted a daughter was so he could get a bigger apartment. She was already in the middle of a meltdown, so I don't think her father should have told her that. But he does go to find her at the end of the scene before the family leaves, and we see him comforting her, which shows that he truly does love her.

The Commissar

When Commissar Klavdia first arrives at the home of the Mahazannik family, no one is very happy about her arrival. Yefim and the children strip the room of all their possessions, leaving the Commissar with almost nothing to sleep with. But after Yefim leaves for work the next morning, Maria and Klavdia have a discussion while they are eating breakfast. Maria starts to give Kladvia advice on how she should raise her baby, and the women start to form a bond.

The Mahazannik family seems to have a major influence on Kladvia. Both Maria and Yefim seem to be fairly happy people, despite everything they have been through. Kladvia sees that Maria is just a normal housewife whose life revolves around her children. We see how much see cares for them when she is washing her baby's face, and she calls him her "little angel". Yefim has the responsibility of keeping his wife and six children fed, yet he still sings on his way to work. Kladvia starts to sympathize with the family when she sees how difficult Communism and the war has made their lives.

I think that the way the Mahazannik children play is great indicator of the things they have witnessed in their lives. The scenes with the children playing is probably one reason this film was banned for so long, since it does not show the Communist Party in a very good light.

The Commissar was also a very artistic film. I noticed that the burning candle was shown many different times, often at different angles. We see it the first night Kladvia stays with the Mahazanniks, when she puts it out with her fingers. Many scenes either begin or end with a shot of the candle burning on the table. When the family is in the shelter and Yefim starts to sing and dance to distract the children, they dance around the table with the candle sitting on top of it. Also, while the family is dancing, we are shown only their hands, one person at a time, on a black background as they dance around in a circle.

I also noticed that when Kladvia is in labor, we are shown a flashback of soldiers in the desert and they are running until they get to a river, where they start drinking. Then there is a shot of Kladvia, who is still in labor, drinking a glass of water. Finally we see horses also running until they get to water.

I think that Kladvia leaves her baby with the Jewish family at the end because she wants to go back and fight with the Red Army, and knows her baby will be in good hands.

Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears

Overall, I enjoyed this movie.

While the three girls who were roommates in the worker's dormitory all have some similar qualities, they are also very different. Lyudmila is the party animal out of the three. When Katya is asked to watch her uncle's apartment while he is away, it is Lyudmila's idea to have a party and pretend they are very rich and successful women. We do not really see too much of Tonya, except for when she gets married. She seems to be the most serious of the three women, and she settles down very early in her life. Katya is very easily influenced by the people around her. It does not take much convincing from Lyudmila to get Katya to agree to throw a party in her uncle's apartment. She does not know Rudolph for very long before he gets her pregnant. Also, Gosha is constantly reminding Katya that he is in charge of their relationship because he is the man in the family. But I think the main reason the three women are able to remain friends is because they have all come to Moscow looking for happiness.

Gosha and Rudolph are very interesting characters. When Katya tells Rudolph that she is pregnant, he tells her that she should have been more careful. He says he will not be around to help her raise her child because it is not his fault. Gosha is very sexist, and even leaves Katya when he finds out that she makes more money than he does. Gosha intrudes on the lives of Katya and Alexandra, and is constantly reminding Katya that he is in charge because he is the man in the family. I don't know if Katya is really in love with Gosha or not. I think she has just been lonely for so long that she does not mind the way Gosha has taken over her life.

Kidnapping Caucassian Style, or Shurik's New Adventures

I'm not really sure what to say about Kidnapping Caucassian Style, or Shurik's New Adventures. I thought that it was funny at times, and certainly compares to the kind of slapstick comedies that have been made in the U.S.

One thing I found interesting was the names of the three thugs, Booby, Coward, and Experienced. I thought their names fit them well, since one was an idiot, one was afraid of getting caught, and the other seemed to boss the rest of them around, like kidnapping was nothing new to him.

I also noticed that Comrade Saakhov, a government official, was the trouble maker in this movie. He abuses his power by having Nina kidnapped so he can marry her. I'm kind of surprised this movie was allowed to be shown, because Gaidai is obviously portraying the government in a bad light.