Ian’s Wonderful Blarg:

Holy hell, a happy ending. A lot of the little coincidences in this film felt a bit contrived, but for the first time it almost had a depressing ending that felt like a cop-out, rather than the other way around. I sort of like this whole move towards a brighter cinema in Russia, although that might partly be from having watched so many dark and muddy films previously. It must be nice for Russian audiences to have their homeland not look like a wash of gray and brown for once in the past couple of decades though. The upbeat music was a nice change too. I would not be surprised if more film like this appear as Russia moves to a more commercial cinema, and I don’t think it would necessarily be a bad thing either.

Alive reminded me a lot of Vietnam-era American films that dealt with the life of soldiers and ultimately I think it is an anti-war film. The life of a soldier returning after a war, his psychological problems, inability to leave the war behind, the toll on the average family, and the irreparable physical damage done to the main character were all themes dealt with heavily in Vietnam films like Born on the 4th of July and the question of morality and reasons for fighting were central to films like Platoon and Full Metal Jacket. In a similar vein the film also does not try to absolve or humanize the enemy, rather focusing on the damage done to the Russian people. However, the film still offers up a nice critique of a widely supported war through its muddled morality and portrait of a damaged soldier.

Having watched the American version of Nightwatch, seeing a different cut of the film was a good look at a different direction the film could have go. Many parts from the Russian version were either translated differently or cut from the American version. The whole subplot of the shapeshifter, his wedding, and his attempt to romance the cursed woman was completely gone in the American version. Conversely, the American version has Anton being a seer, or someone who can see the future instead of a vampire like in the Russian version. Also the fact that the baby is Anton’s is given to the audience when the Nightwatch comes after the attempted curse at the beggining. It really changes a lot of the dynamics of the film, especially having Anton be a vampire. Also his sight of the vortex in the subway is fairly unexplained without him having the ability to see the future.

The lack of exposition in Return was striking to me. I love it when a film presents the viewer with a situation that completely changes the lives of the characters, then offers no explanation as to why it took place. When the father dies, with him dies any hope of knowing why he came back, where he was going, and what he wanted to do with the children. The children don’t find out, and neither does the viewer. Beyond the metaphor of being led around blindly by authority, I feel it’s just a more realistic way of doing things. In life, things happen, and the vast majority of the time you don’t know why.

An interesting thing that struck me as we were talking in class about Yaya modeling for the artist, specifically what she was modeling as. Yaya is posing as Shiva, who in some Hindu traditions is known as the destroyer or transformer. This is actually a pretty subtle and clever detail unless I’m reading too much into it, but that offers a bit of insight into Rita and Yaya’s relationship, as well as the impact Yaya ends up having on Rita’s life. It may be harsh to call her the destroyer in Rita’s life, but she definitely ushers in large changes as the transformer. I just thought that was a really clever detail on the part of the filmmakers if it was infact intentional.

    The film had two major problems for me: its lax characterization of even the main character, and its muddled social commentary. For the first objection, I never felt there was a clear sense of motivation for any of the characters. None of them seemed to want anything beyond basic goals of killing one another. Danilla in particular seemed like a sort of cargo cult-like imitation of an action hero, which would be fine if the movie weren’t attempting to be more than that. I never understood why exactly he stayed a gangster. He didn’t seem to be hellbent on becoming rich, nor did he seem to feel glamorous or particularly happy about killing people. His initial confusion and subsequent falling into the trade makes sense, but inevitably I think a character should have some motivation for maintaining a job like that if the film aspires to be more than cheap entertainment, which, with as seriously as this it takes itself, the film seems to try.

I thought the social commentary in Brother sent a mixed message too. With all the jabs at the corruption and hedonism of the westernized youth of new Russia (the McDonald’s at the end being a nice touch), it sends the message of a moral panic film. Gangsters control the city, and the youth have nothing better to do but take drugs, have sex, listen to loud music, and become gangsters themselves. That’s a fine and clear message, but the film contradicts itself with the glorification of Danilla. He’s clearly the hero of the film and is looked up to despite his actions. It is clear that he has his own internal morality that he adheres too, but it isn’t that much nicer than that of the rest of the world around him.

The thing that stuck out the most to me in The Thief, and what to me was its biggest flaw, was the loose end in some of the narrative, particularly the little girl that Sanya develops a relationship with in the first apartment. She plays a seemingly large role during the first act in that she’s a love interest for the central character and much of the narration plays up the connection between the two, but then by the second act she is completely removed from the film and never referenced once in the narrative after they leave the apartment.

This could be symbolism of some sort with the promise of Sanya and the girl’s relationship being the optimism for the future the Russian people had, and then the inevitable reality of it being taken away. However, without another reference to her by Sanya, it leaves an emptiness in that thinking. As far as straight pathos goes, it becomes an empty emotional ploy at the viewer if we’re supposed to feel something about their young romance and then left hanging without any other mention of it or seeming effect on Sanya.