Dmitry Desyaterik. Lorca and Looper

Lorca and Looper
Heroes of the past on the current festival screen

Dmitry Desyateryk

Publication date: June 24, 2003

M Moscow-25 began traditionally pathetically. Although the anniversary issue of the MIFF itself did not particularly affect the atmosphere. No extraordinary actions or surprises - unless, of course, we include the promise of Yuri Luzhkov, who was present at the ceremony in the Pushkinsky Hall , to build a festival palace in the capital. Everything else is the same. Carpet at the Pushkinsky, flashbulbs, smart Mikhalkov .

And the festival week began with a scandal. At the very first press conference, there was a spat between the festival’s program director, Kirill Razlogov , and the director of the Russian film “The Walk,” Alexei Uchitel . Razlogov apologized for his careless statement about the film. However, this did not satisfy the Teacher, and he burst out with an angry rebuke: he accused Razlogov of violating professional ethics, inappropriateness for his position, and strongly advised him to leave his post. At the same time, all of Razlogov’s colleagues in the critical workshop also suffered.

However, it was a sin for the Teacher to complain, because “The Walk” won the festival no less - a rarity for a competition film. Being an opening film is something of a prize in itself. After all, “Walk”’s chances of winning a prize are not absolute. Fashionable components, such as: a jumping camera, massive participation of actors from the troupe of Pyotr Fomenko's theater plus Evgeniy Grishkovets in the role of the bowling alley owner - the result was not a very convincing product.

There are few discoveries in the competition today. Some hopes were placed on “Petersburg” by Irina Evteeva, winner of the Silver Lion for best short film at the last film forum in Venice. Evteeva unfolded on the screen a carnival of textbook St. Petersburg phantasms from Akaki Akakievich to Peter the Great, intricately intertwining material from old Soviet films with her own animation techniques. Sometimes truly bizarre and beautiful images flash through. In general, it resembles a bright mosaic, hastily scattered by a gifted but unassembled child. We are talking about dramatic lack of composure, first of all.

In most of the films in the competition, shortcomings in dramaturgy, however, are not obvious. Rather, some kind of general averageness prevails, perhaps, a fear of unexpected techniques - both plot and visual. So it remained in an uncertain position between black comedy and anti-war drama "YU" - an Austrian film about the visit of several Western scoundrels to the heat of the Yugoslav war. "The Owl" by the Japanese patriarch Kaneto Shindo, which at first promised an exciting phantasmagoria about witches and magic potions, turned out to be a banal melodrama, also unforgivably drawn out. The American-British "I'll Sleep When I Die" caused confusion with its presence in the author's competition - it is a completely commercial thriller about revenge. The Dutch "Moonlight", for all its politically correct pressure - after all, a story about the exploitation of children and drugs - looked like a fake from start to finish. An example of the Iranian social drama "Dancing in the Dust" could have been more or less interesting - but the extremely unfortunate choice of the actor for the main role negated all the merits of Asghar Farhadi's work.

So far, the Italian-Spanish “Divine Fire” is the most preferred . Director Miguel Hermosa has created a solid realistic fantasy built on a number of assumptions - what would have happened if Federico García Lorca had survived the shooting? And would you lose your memory? And he would have been picked up by some semi-literate eccentric? And then, 40 years later, would you guess who this poor, unconscious old man really is? The film is almost seriously disturbing in places, and the ending is genuinely beautiful and poetic.

Naturally, the main focus for now is on non-competitive events. A modest exhibition of graphics and collages by Sergei Parajanov in the Manege is on one pole, a sweeping exhibition of painted sculptures by Gina Lollobrigida is on the other. In a variety of programs, the greatest excitement surrounds the gala premieres. More precisely, two premieres: “The Suitcases of Tulse Luper. Part 1” by Peter Greenaway and “Dogville” by Lars von Trier . In any case, something close to mass hysteria was happening at their shows. Each of the masters remained himself. Greenaway, apparently, discovered the Internet - “Suitcases” looks like an interactive treatise mixed with an education novel. And von Trier is even more cruel to the audience than in Dancer in the Dark. "Dogville" could also be called a novel of education, but an extremely unique education. Trier gives Nicole Kidman's character Grace such a test of her altruistic ideals that it becomes unbearable to watch by the middle of the film. The gloomy tragedy of the absurd is discharged by a surge of monstrous violence, and the viewer is left alone with a lot of very difficult questions...

However, "Dogville" is a topic for another discussion.

So far we can say that the festival has already reached its peak. There are several more notable premieres ahead - the radically anti-American documentary "Bowling for Columbine" by Michael Moore, the latest films of the brilliant misanthrope Michael Haneke - "The Time of Wolves" and everyone's favorite Francois Ozon - "The Swimming Pool". As well as a three-day avant-garde “Media Forum”, a round table on the problems of Russian cinema and many premieres - perhaps not so noticeable, but important in their own way.