FYSP 113: Recent Russian Cinema

I read a short precise of the plot of “Night Watch” before watching the film last Friday, and came into the viewing with quite a bit of preemptive reticence. Vampires, the dramatic good-evil dichotomy that the film runs on, and excessive amounts of overtly visceral gore are all film elements that I have been happy to miss out on since coming into this FYS. I’m not sure that I can expand on anything positive or worthwhile in terms of the plot of “Night Watch”, since, even looking at reviews on the internet and watching the film in class, I’m just not sure that I totally understand it. On the other hand, I did happen to notice, and was able to resonate with, the range of techniques explored by Bekmambetov. The film is put together in such a way that there is this constant undercurrent of cultural media as the action plays out. Rather than using token 21st century effects, Bekmambetov utilizes alternative tactics for expressing action: the video game that simulates a car chase, a crash test dummy depicting a vampire being killed by one of the Seers, a Russian pop concert interjecting with the Night Watch pursuit. These techniques, while not necessarily high-tech, provide a melange of film angles and innovative styles that engage the viewer, in spite of the somewhat-mystifying plot. Because of Bekmambetov’s outreach to cultural media to express the action of the film, “Night Watch”- a film that could easily have been made into an epic film of sole interest to vampire enthusiasts and suspense-thrillers lovers from Petersburg to Siberia- becomes both accessible and entertaining. It is through these accessible means that the surreal elements of the film, too (the opening scene in which the strange old woman casts the spell on Anton’s wife comes to mind), can be of interest to, if not wholly understood by, the viewer.

I’m not sure if these thoughts are at all cohesive or coherent, but this is the only semblance of a critique regarding “Night Watch” that I am ready to come to at this point. I hope that I’ll have more to expand on and review once we’ve discussed and elaborated on the film’s plot in class.