iz talk aboot Russian cinemaz

I was lukewarm on the ending of this film; I didn’t love it, but it wasn’t awful. It felt a bit abrupt and slightly out of place. All of a sudden, Vanya finds his mother and everything is perfect and sunny. Realistically, this wouldn’t happen, so why, after a long, realistic plot would Kravchuk slap on a sappy, cheesy ending? Though the ending does leave the viewer with hope – the ending is happy after all – but, it could have been more artfully crafted. Instead Kravchuk leaves the viewer feeling kind of cheated out of the 2 hours it takes to build up to the stereotypical ending. Why spend the time and money weaving such a rich, engrossing plot to end it with an “everyone was happy ever after.” Overall, the film was great: Vanya’s determination to find his mother, to overcome the sad, hopeless orphanage and his independence are impressive. The visual quality of the film is fantastic, even my mother who didn’t like the story line loved the scenic shots of the orphanage and the general scenery, and the characters are all well thought out. Although the viewer doesn’t get to explore each character completely, they all tell their stories in enough detail so that the viewer can relate or at the very least sympathize. It seemed like the ending was forced, as though Kravchuk ran out of money or film. With only 10 more minutes, Kravchuk could have wrapped up the story in a way that did the plot justice. Perhaps, the viewer could have seen Vanya with his mother, or at least known that the two were actually together. The current ending leaves the viewer wondering if Vanya was truly reunited with his mother, or if it’s a situation similar to Mars where Grisha has simply gone off the deep end, and his ideal has become reality through the shear power of want.

Night Watch is a great vampire film. The special effects were really flooring, although sometimes a little bit showy; however, a little bit of “look what I can do” never hurt. If I knew Russian, I feel like I would have been able to follow the plot more easily. Maybe not. The film was very much like any sci-fi, vampire film, but the plot had many different vignettes taking place simultaneously. Night Watch didn’t strike me as being a Russian film, geared only toward Russians. The ending, where the son chooses the dark side, has been foreshadowed throughout the entire movie, so it is no surprise when it happens. Even the fight scene has been seen before in the video games. Even so, the scenes that have been almost painfully laid out in advance don’t seem to have been tainted by their previews: the action is still good, and even though the viewer isn’t surprised, there is a moment of fufillment in knowing that the plot holds true.

I was very confused by Cuckoo. At first I thought that Anni and Ivan were both Russian, but then I realized that none of the three characters spoke a common language. From there, I tried to figure out what nationality Anni was, but couldn’t figure that out. The plot, overall, was pretty linear, but it was interesting how it was broken up into segments focusing on each character before the three met. Like when Veikko is chained to a rock and sees Ivan get bombed, and Anni comes and drags Ivan to safety. Before the three characters met each other, this fragmentation was confusing, but once all three characters were united, the segmentation of the beginning scenes made sense and complimented the trio’s inability to communicate. Just as the three were in separate worlds when they were apart, they remain in their own worlds when they are living together. Because neither knows that the others are saying, they assume that they are carrying on a conversation that relates to their own, picking out words that sound familiar. The ridiculousness of the futility of Ivan, Veikko, and Anni’s communication is very funny, but at the same time, very depressing. Each desperately wants someone to talk to, but finds him(or her)self stuck with two strangers who don’t share a common bond. Ivan and Veikko’s refusal to give up their positions on the war, even though neither wants to carry a grudge, speaks to each of the other characters’ rejection of all languages but their own: Veikko is the only one who really tries to communicate – speaking to Ivan in literal references, otherwise the three just create meaning out of the others’ responses. Even though Cuckoo was suposed to be a comedy, I found that it spoke to the intolerance and the inflexibility of the people within Russia and Russia’s attitude towards foreigners and foreign cultures.

I think that the camera switched between a third person’s angle and from Rita’s angle. When the viewer sees only Yaya, or the other characters that are with Rita, the camera is most often shooting as though through Rita’s eyes; however, in scenes such as the one where we first meet Hog and the gangsters, it is clear that the camera is shooting in a third person’s perspective. This constant switching and inconsistency in the camera angle demands that the viewer be more alert and attentive to where the camera is shooting from. Also, the variation increases the confusion over who is the actual focus of the movie, Rita or Yaya. Normally, the camera would follow only the heroine, but here, it follows everyone more or less equally. There are scenes when the camera is solely on Yaya or Alyosha, but it is obvious that Alyosha is not the focus of the movie. The fact that the camera changes to a third person’s perspective is interesting in this confusion over the hero; perhaps the third personification of the camera angle is to suggest that the movie is not in fact about Yaya or Rita individually. Perhaps it is to make the viewer think about the deaf community as a whole and its relation to the greater society.

The element of fate in this movie was very interesting to me. Everything seemed to be fated: the characters didn’t seem to make a lot of decisions, things just happened to them. Danila appears not to be making choices throughout the film, it is as though he is controlled by impulse and fate. One action raises the need for another which creates a chain of actions making up the plot of the film: the plot is very linear. The cause and effect style renders the film almost emotionless. It is as if Danila doesn’t care about the people he is killing or the fact that Sveta’s husband abuses her, he kills people because he is told to and threatens Sveta’s husband because he threatens her. When Danila arrives in St. Petersburg, he has very little influence; mostly his brother and “The German” are the deciding forces for his life. However, as Danila rises within the gangster culture, he becomes more powerful, serving as the deciding force in Viktor’s and “The German”’s lives. Although, the power balance shifts, the characters are never really able to make their own decisions. The kill-or-be-killed climate forces them into a way of life that they cannot escape.

The film was so devoid of color, both emotionally and literally. I was struck by the use of earthen colors, except for those used to represent Russia, like the red flags and the clothing of the soldiers. The color seemed to reflect Sanja’s emotions: when he is happy and/or hopeful, the colors are richer and brighter like in the Black Sea scene the color is very saturated. However, when Sanja’s hopes don’t come to fruition, there isn’t a real change in color. The futility of attaining success are reflected in the color, no matter how much Sanja or the other characters hope for a change, they inevitabley return to their poverty and insatisfactory existance. Even though Sanja is still youthful and should, stereotypically, have a vivid imagination, which would be reflected by the use of bold, rich color, he does not spend his time in a fantasy world. The use of color in the soldiers’ outfits and the Russian flags could very well symbolize the characters’ hope in the Russian state. Katja hopes that Tolyan’s status as a soldier will enable her to have a normalized life after the death of her soldier husband and Sanja’s father. Although Katja holds out on the hope that Tolyan will bring her a better life even after she realizes that he is a thief, Tolyan’s outfit is not as bright as those of the soldiers who oust him in public. The color also reflects the despair of Katja and Sanja’s life: when Katja attempts to bribe the soldier to release Tolyan, the color seems to return to the station house; however, when Katja returns with the gold, the color is colder except for the new soldiers overcoat.

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