| The updated Kinotavr has reached its zenith The competition program of the Open Russian Festival has passed the halfway point, and there is very little time left before summing up the results. Of the films known to the public and already discussed many times in the competition, “Shadowboxing” (also shown in the square and, judging by the reaction of the large public, the audience’s favorite so far) and “Dead Man’s Bluff” took their course - it is clear that at the upcoming outdoor screening there will be no less whistling, laughter and hooting from the sky. But while the general public was enjoying a reliable product, the guests of Kinotavr received special attention from completely new films, almost never seen by anyone.
First of all, this is a sequel to Maxim Pezhemsky’s cult film “Mama, Don’t Cry!”, filmed seven years after the first part, which entered the millennium as one of the few films of the 90s awarded the status of genuine folk cinema. The most surprising thing about the film is that it is actually a continuation of the first film, and not at all a free variation on the theme, as one might think. The destinies of the heroes are tightly connected with the first episode - so much so that not everything and not always will be clear (and funny) to the viewer who has not learned the original by heart. Yes, to be honest, none of the characters familiar from the first “Mama” ever surpasses the bar set then - with the exception, perhaps, of the quite grandiose Sergei Koltakov in the role of the city prosecutor, who had the imprudence to get involved in the election fight. Newcomers also perform at his level: a couple of capital political strategists supporting the prosecutor’s campaign. Mikhail Efremov and Fyodor Bondarchuk, who played them, according to those in the know, are in fact very similar to real political strategists, but even those who are familiar with the world of black PR firsthand will get a lot of pleasure from their paired entertainer, at least of a purely physiognomic nature. And another duet acquired by “Mama” - Vladimir Epifantsev and Spartak Sumchenko in the roles of bullish “confidants” of the prosecutor’s competitor - the same criminal authority Tourist, who last time received a chair on the dome from the Sailor. Unfortunately, the attempt to transfer the story from a purely criminal dimension into the cynical spaces of modern media can hardly be considered completely successful. There are several absolutely enchanting, pearly moments in the film, which, alas, are lost in the general vague fatigue. What a shame. If the film had kept to the level it declared itself more than once or twice in an hour and a half, it would have had no price. As it stands, unfortunately, the only analogy that can be made is Be Cool, a recent attempt to resuscitate the myth of the multi-figure gangster comedy Get Shorty. However, in this case one should not rush to conclusions. The cinematography of Maxim Pezhemsky is valuable and unique in many respects also for its cumulative nature. Few people now remember that the first “Mother” did not immediately become the population’s favorite film. Only inexorable time will put everything in its place in this case. And it is quite possible that the second series of “Mama” will have its turn - maybe not like “precious wines,” but at least like a foggy bottle of light domestic beer taken from the refrigerator in the morning.
Another competitive premiere - Larisa Sadilova's film "Nanny Wanted" - unexpectedly pleased with its obvious, although clearly unconscious, references to genre classics. At first, remembering Sadilova’s previous films (“Happy Birthday” and “With Love, Lilya”), you don’t expect anything more or less extreme from the film: it seems that the maximum that the story of the provincial Vera (Marina Zubanova), who comes as a nanny, can end with to a little girl in a family of middle-class businessmen (Alexey Makarov and Victoria Isakova) - this is an innocent class melodrama. But not even half an hour has passed before the mood changes quite masterfully, and from the unsteady road of the “film about simple and good people” the picture taxis onto the country road of a psychopathological thriller, along the edges of which rise the phantoms of Joseph Losey, Claude Chabrol and Taylor Hackford.
Vera extravagantly raises her young ward, instilling in her an unhealthy curiosity about death and funerals, before bedtime she tells the little one terrible stories about her bloodsucker aunt, and creatively and rationally quarrels with the girl’s parents and puts them in a state of permanent tension. Unfortunately, in order to turn “The Nanny” into a full-fledged thriller about the omnipotence of the hand that rocks the cradle, radicalism was still not enough - the intrigue unfolded with a rather banal blackmail in the spirit of a sideline of a modern television series, and the infernal Vera disappeared from the frame in an unknown direction.
There was a glimmer of hope for an ambiguous, almost mystical ending. For too long the camera was fixed on the gaze of Vera’s ward, forced to play alone. The lessons learned from the nanny were all too clear to see in the baby’s eyes. And at that moment the off-screen melody was too reminiscent of Krzysztof Komeda’s unforgettable lullaby from “Rosemary’s Baby.” But, unfortunately, the matter did not end there - the piercing lullaby analogies were suddenly replaced by pathos orchestration, and the finale from Toys, which was much closer to our viewer than “Rosemary’s Baby,” was glued to the film. Only the role of Pierre Richard in the tear-squeezing episode was played by an Uzbek guest worker, who wisely remained silent throughout the film somewhere on the periphery of the plot. Stanislav F. ROSTOTSKY, Sochi |
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