Translated material
Death and the girl
The Kinotavr festival continues in Sochi
The Eighteenth Open Russian Film Festival continues to make an extremely pleasant impression - with the density of viewings, some kind of non-irritating Stoltsev-like composure in organizational matters, a nice cultural program (concerts of “Bi-2”, “Pakava It”, Butusov’s “U-Peter”, something like would be "AuktYon"). In the first half of the day, visitors to the cinema hall of the Zhemchuzhina Hotel, who despise the beach and therefore very infrequently (they can be counted on the fingers of one hand, and this hand will most likely belong to some Disney character like Mickey Mouse), have the opportunity to enjoy classic Russian films from a retrospective “50x50” - and they should be envied, because the impression made today by seemingly hackneyed masterpieces (oddities and rarities were not included in the final list of the best films of the century for obvious reasons) can hardly be compared with anything. To see this hall filled to capacity, mainly by the creators of the modern film process, who, frankly, clearly do not remember very well not only “The Strict Young Man” (which continues to produce an absolutely thermonuclear effect), but also “The Third Meshchanskaya”, “Trip to life" or even "Chapaev", perhaps only in a sweet dream, but the very opportunity to touch the eternal pleases.However, the main intrigue, of course, unfolds in the evenings, when the films of the main competition come into their own.
Kira Muratova's new film consists of two short stories. First, the assemblers in the theater spend a long time and persistently setting up the scenery for the evening performance, while being forced to come to terms with the fact that early in the morning one of the stage workers (Alexander Bashirov) discovered a hanged actor, for whom the police still did not come and did not come. And then the performance begins, flowing into the second story, which tells about a very rich elderly man (Bogdan Stupka), who on New Year's Eve harasses his daughter (Natalia Buzko) with sexual harassment. In the end, the daughter brings her friend (Renata Litvinova) to her dad, and as a result of events incredible from the point of view of a normal person, everything ends almost fatally, but not quite... In principle, both short stories can be considered the fourth and fifth addition to “Three Stories ”, also heavily mixed with the cheerful frailty of all things. It is unlikely that this film can be considered one of Muratova’s best works - the feeling of some optionality does not go away even in the most masterly moments. But even with all the claims that can be applied to the picture, viewing it leaves a feeling of incomparable happiness. It's truly masterful, unlike anything else and, for the most part, panicky, grueling and inexplicably funny. But questions still remain regarding the film's likelihood of winning awards. Ideally, it would be necessary to create some kind of special prize that would be awarded to Kira Muratova for each film she created. It could be handed over in advance, without even looking, because it is absolutely clear that this phenomenon is our main asset and achievement for today.
If there was an audience award at Kinotavr, then now it would be possible to confidently award it to the debut of Yaroslav Chevazhevsky, who came to the cinema from advertising - the film “Cook”. At the screening, the audience gave the film a standing ovation with hooting, and along the way more than once burst into laughter and applause. Chevazhevsky acted in the risky genre of “a movie about a small and precocious girl,” in which you can slip much more than you think. If this does not happen, you end up with “Paper Moon” or “Curly Sue”. If it’s the other way around... Although, judging by the reaction of the audience, it cannot be said that “Kuka” stumbled, but for some reason I don’t want to give her a standing ovation. The strange story about six-year-old Cook (Nastya Dobrynina), who, after the death of her grandmother, began to live an independent life, and was eventually adopted by a prosperous middle-aged girl (Dina Korzun), who, in search of herself, got a job in the social service, looks like a set of very dubious assumptions of a purely factual nature , which, given the presence of naturalness and charm in the film, it would never have occurred to pay attention to. But in this case, you only have to be internally perplexed about the reaction of others and reluctantly list to yourself the overlaps and inaccuracies of both factual and emotional nature. Although it is quite possible that the negative reaction to this “good movie” has nothing to do with the real state of affairs and is provoked by an overdose of true classics, which, at the whim of the festival managers, can be seen before the creators of the new films appear on the stage of the Winter Theater.