Ben’s Blog

This post will be about the past two movies we’ve watched as I have yet to post about either.  I thought Cuckoo was really funny and pretty absurd at times, but that it still put across an interesting method.  Part of what worked so well for me was that it was shot so beautifully.  I was really impressed by the contrast between the extreme close ups of the different characters and the extreme long shots of the countryside in which the movie takes place.  One recurring motif I noticed was feet and boots.  The movie starts with Veikko being chained by the leg to the ground.  The camera also focuses on Anni’s boots when she is first introduced, and shows Ivan pulling the boots off the corpse of his fellow officer after the truck gets strafed.  All of these shots seem to establish some basic differences between the characters (Veikko and Ivan wear military boots while Anni has more traditional one’s).  I also noticed an emphasis on vision and eyes.  Numerous times we see things through sniper scope, which gives a sort of voyeuristic feel to the film.  Additionally, Anni seems to have certain superstitions regarding eyes.  She closes the eyes of the dead Russian soldier, which shows a general respect for the dead.  Also, she demonstrates a fear of the evil eye, which makes her seem more traditional and folkloric.  One thing in this film that didn’t work as well for me was the sequence toward the end of the movie where Veikko is being led into the afterlife by the little boy.  To me, this scene felt out of place, and while I guess it did serve a purpose, I felt it was over done.  Over all, however, I thought this was a very interesting take on the interactions between different people and seemed to give a pretty hopeful outlook on the world.  The Return  had a very different effect on me.  This was definitely one of the most depressing films we’ve watched so far this semester.  I think it actually left me feeling worse about life than The Thief, which is saying something.  Once again we’re given a film about messed up father-son relationships, and once again the film doesn’t leave us with much hope.  A couple aspects of the film reminded me particularly strongly of the thief.  The father (who’s name I don’t remember) seemed a lot like Tolyan in his use of force to carry out his will.  Like Tolyan, he is overbearing and controlling and often seems to have is own interests at heart.  However, I got the feeling that there is more depth to his character than there was to Tolyan’s.  At a few points during the film, he seemed to sincerely regret being away from his sons for so long.  It definitely seemed like he just wanted to spend some time with them.  However, he obviously had very faulty ideas on fathering and couldn’t really understand how to take care of his sons.  The connection to The Thief was also apparent when Vanya threatens his father with a knife, just as Sanya had done to Tolyan.  That’s all I can think of right now.

I was interested by the use of color in this film and the way in which it affected the overall tone of the movie.  In the other movies we’ve seen, the colors have been largely washed out, with a lot of grey and brown.  These gave a very depressing and dark feel which was apparently characteristic of Russian movies in the nineties.  In Land of the Deaf, however, it is much sunnier, with shades of red featured more prominently.  This was particularly noticeable in a handful of scenes.  The first scene, showing Rita and Alyosha sitting together in the bedroom is very bright, which seems to contrast the dour mood that is apparent in the scene.  The color red also shows up in the signs for the Casino and the Billiards Club, as well as inside the ship (when Rita rescues Alyosha towards the end) and in the roulette room where Alyosha gambles away all his money.  The use of this color seems to suggest more vitality and passion than the other movies (especially Brat), which lacked this liveliness.  I also thought the contrast between sound and silence in the movie was very effective.   In the first scene, for example, the silence between Alyosha and Rita is sharply interrupted by the the telephone ringing.  This is also apparent in a few scenes where the sound of footsteps seems to punctuate the silence.  The final sequence of the movie also exemplifies this contrast, with the boom of the gunshot immediately followed by the soothing sound of the waves.

I had mixed feelings about this film.  On the one hand, it worked well for me as a fairly simple crime thriller.  It had a relatively low budget feel to it, which made it more believable as a glimpse into the dark workings of the Russian underworld.  I also noticed that it dealt with the idea of the military acting as a replacement father.  Danila’s mother mentions that his father is in prison, so like characters from the other movies we’ve watched, Danila’s time in the army may have provided a stand in for his father.  However, his older brother also seemed to have acted as a father figure.  There are a view vague references to there child, but on the whole I had a hard time believing that there was any sort of real relationship between them or that they had shared any common experiences.  This detracted from the movie and made it hard to sympathize with the characters.  I found it particularly hard to sympathize with Danila, even though he is presented as the protagonist.  I realize that he was supposed to be an anti-hero, so of course he does some very objectionable things.  However, his blatant anti-Semitic remark early in the movie turned me off to him pretty quickly.  Additionally, although he is shown to be more compassionate than some of the other characters, he doesn’t show much emotional depth and I didn’t find his relationship with Sveta interesting.  That’s all I can think of to say right now but I may return to this later.

For this paper I will be focusing on “The Thief.”  Specifically, I will analyze the character Toljan and the ways in which he can be seen to represent Stalin and the Soviet government.   In a very literal sense, Toljan is a replacement father figure for Sanya, who never met his real father.  In the same way, Stalin was seen as a father figure to Soviet orphans, who were raised in state orphanages and indoctrinated with Soviet ideals.  Like the communist government, Toljan provides for his wards (in this case Sanya and his mother), while at the same time abusing them and forcing them into dependence.  By making himself their sole provider, Toljan ensures that Sanya and Katya will not actively resist him, for fear of losing their source of income.  This is comparable to the way in with the Soviet people became dependent on their government and were therefore unable to speak out in any way.  Like Stalin, Toljan also uses the threat of physical violence to enforce his will.  When Sanya stubbornly insists on sleeping in his mother’s bed, Toljan threatens to throw him out the window.  Fear of being labelled a traitor is also key in Sanya’s acceptance of Toljan’s control.  When Sanya expresses misgivings about breaking into the landlady’s home, Toljan tells him that he is betraying Stalin and is a traitor to the USSR.  Likewise, Stalin effectively used this fear and suspicion to control the Russian people and instill them with a blind patriotism that encouraged them to do things they would have otherwise found objectionable.  In the end, however, Toljans methods foster mistrust and hatred and drive Sanya to kill him.  Similarly, Soviet oppression created discontent which eventually became uncontrollable to led to the downfall of the USSR.