Sergey Kuznetsov. Cultural Guide. Issue 65

Cultural Guide. Issue 65
Sergey Kuznetsov

Publication date: February 1, 2000

Interactive

Your favorite Moscow cinema:

35 mm
American Film House
Horizon
Hanjonkova House
Zaryadye
Illusion
Kodak Kinomir
Cinema Museum
Under the dome
Pushkinsky
Roland
Arrow
Drummer
Art

Your comments are, like, welcome and all that.

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Movie

Like "The Flying Dutchman", Alexei German's mysterious film "Khrustalev, car!" pops up here and there. This time I managed to detect his call signs in time - all week the legendary and elusive picture will be shown in the Khanzhonkov House at 14:30 and 20:00. Here, reader, is the long-awaited review.

From the reviews of the lucky ones who managed to watch the film before its release on the wide screen, one might get the impression that what awaits us is a very boring movie, highly artistic, but long and drawn-out. Something like Andrei Tarkovsky or the film "Humanity". In fact, there is nothing of the kind. In fact, you won’t be bored - this is a real movie, in that forgotten sense of the word, when it seems like nothing is happening, but you still can’t take your eyes off the screen. Either the cameraman is good, or the music is chosen correctly, or the director is just a genius and it’s not so important what he films.

In fact, it is very important. For me, all the shortcomings of the film (if it has any at all) are redeemed by one extra-plot episode: snow is falling, a car is driving, an orchestra is playing in the garden, some people are flashing by, late evening... and suddenly I was struck by déjà vu: I realized... that was once there . There - I mean in this space-time, in the cold snowy time of 1953, many, many years before I was born. Maybe I caught something, maybe I heard something. Maybe it's genetic memory. In short, it’s hard to believe that even one European/American can experience this feeling.

By the way, the reaction of the foreign public to the film is not surprising and not only predictable - but simply predicted by Herman. Among the film's many characters is a Swedish reporter. For half the film he wanders in the space of Moscow in 1953, not understanding anything - and in the end he stupidly dies. Also, not understanding anything, the foreign viewer does not live to see the end of the film. In fact, what can he understand when a boy walks around the school yard and mutters: “Yesterday Red Star wrote that we are not against Jews, that we are only against Zionists...” - and the Russian viewer immediately understands that , which means that now we have the “doctors’ case”, 1953, Old Man will soon die... The foreigner does not understand anything through this muttering... and my children will no longer understand anything.

Understanding is made difficult by the incoherence: people appear and disappear, plot lines are tied and not untied, everything is fragmented, and in general it is not clear what happened to whom... In fact, the only way to perceive this film is to recognize it as memories of childhood, when you remember how Grandmother went out onto the stairs and said that she would not return home - but you don’t remember how she returned, although it is clear that she returned in the end. It doesn’t matter whose memories these are - Herman, his hero, his screenwriter and wife Svetlana Karmalita... It’s like a psychoanalysis session, and the only legitimate complaint about the film can only be that the session did not end in anything. The underlying trauma has not been opened, insight has not occurred. Although insight is catharsis, speaking in the language of aesthetics, it is a personal matter. For some it didn’t happen, for others it happened.

Thanks to the efforts of Yuri Gladilshchikov, the climax of the film (insight-catharsis) is considered to be two scenes: anal rape with a mining shovel and the death of Stalin, dying in his own shit. Perhaps because I was prepared for the appearance of both (and now you are prepared), for me they did not stand out much from the general series of the film. The Swedish reporter was actually killed, but General Klensky was simply “let go”...

Of course, in the last minutes it turns out that the film does have both a plot and a story. The story is disappointing: a fallen general, even raised from the bottom by omnipotent power, cannot become what he was before. He himself goes into nowhere, only to emerge ten years later on a freight train with a glass of mumbo jumbo on his shaved head. I would really like to see in this a plot about “refusal”, about “new life” and about another Russian departure - Alexander I in the form of the elder Fyodor Kuzmich, Leo Tolstoy in the form of a nameless wanderer.

But Herman does not give this chance - even five minutes of this “new life” is enough to understand: having changed his social class, the general remained himself. Somewhere on the periphery of consciousness an image flashes: Tolstoy, who did not die in time, among the tramps, inspires the tramps to live. You can try to deceive the authorities, you can leave your family and work, you can leave your hospital and your pocket clearing forever - but you cannot leave yourself.

"Khrustalev, car!" - "Khanzhonkov's House", 14:30, 20:00, daily.

Besides:

The newly opened 35mm cinema (where it was said it was impossible to get tickets for Fight Club) hosts the Spanish Film Festival. Detailed program - here . Also, oddly enough, I highly recommend watching the movie American Pie . Contrary to what wrote about it Afisha magazine , this is a very touching and intelligent movie. If you are over thirty, it almost brings you to tears. Look for a review in the next issue of the Cultural Guide.

Music / Clubs

Music lovers can't wait for the release of Mumiy Troll's new album "Exactly. Mercury. Aloe", which should be presented directly in GUM on February 4. I would like to believe that the title is simply three compositions of fifteen minutes each (one is called “Exactly”, the other is “Mercury”, and the third, of course, “Aloe”), of which the album consists, but probably still, the meaning is some other name. Those who have heard it say that it most closely resembles the music of the seventies and eighties. Let's wait and see.

On the same Friday, Leonid Fedorov and the Volkov Trio will once again perform at the Tabula Rasa club - if anyone has not heard them, then it’s high time to do so.

But the main club day this time was Saturday. The public is offered three programs to choose from: one is nostalgic, the other is seemingly relevant, and the third is radical. However, in order.

The nostalgic program is Sergei Selyunin, aka “Strength”, and his group “Vykhod”, legendary people of the eighties, who managed to slip unscathed through the boom of ten years ago, during which most rockers, unable to withstand stadium concerts and excessive earnings, broke down. Even CounterKultUra, a radical rock magazine of the early nineties that preferred Letov and Menager, spoke well of him, citing Viktor Tsoi as an example. In the mid-nineties, Silya continued to calmly sing in small clubs his songs that had become classics - about the continuity of simple things, about the traffic police inspector and about “you invite me to marijuana.” Today, when for most listeners both Letov and Tsoi look equally like yesterday and a memory of the past, it is interesting to listen to Silina’s new program “No Exit.” Intuition tells me that he will do just fine without the group's hit "Spleen".

It’s like a relevant part of Saturday’s program: Rada and “Ternovnik”, performing on the unusual platform of the House of Journalist. Personally, for some reason I have a rather calm attitude towards the Rada, but a large number of my friends of various political and aesthetic views love her madly. That’s why I always announce it, especially since this time there seem to be fears that its audience won’t find out about DomZhur and won’t come. It will be a pity: a two-hour program and the premiere of the song “Cold Times” are promised.

And finally, the radical part - at the "Edge" club there will be another demonstration of the film "The Green Elephant" + celebrations and entertainment on the occasion of the anniversary of its producer, artist Oleg Mavromatti (it is also worth mentioning Sveta Baskova, the author and director of "The Elephant"). Details are available at drugie.here.ru/supernova . The movie couldn’t be more radical, with Vladimir Epifantsev and Anatoly Osmolovsky in the lead roles and all the joys of death in the advertising slogan. The evening will also feature video and music from Oleg M., reading of texts by Ilya Masodov and music from the groups “Egyptian Magician” and “Breath”, as well as a DJ with S. Pakhomov.

Friday, February 4th. Mummy Troll. Presentation of the disc "Exactly. Mercury. Aloe." GUM at the fountain. 19:00.

Friday, February 4th. "Wolves-trio" + Leonid Fedorov. "Tabula Rasa", Berezhkovskaya embankment, 28, 23:00.

Saturday, February 5th. Sergei "Silya" Selyunin and the group "Vykhod". "No Exit" program. "Forpost", Khamovnichesky Val, 28. 19:00.

Saturday, February 5th. Rada and "Thorn" (http://rada.rinet.ru/). "Cold Times". Presentation of the album "Russian Epic". House of Journalist, Nikitsky Boulevard, 8, 19:00.

Saturday, February 5th. Oleg Mavromatti and "Green Elephant". "The Edge", Spartakovskaya Sq. 14, 21:00.

Art

Untitled

Dana Wise's exhibition is called "Untitled". The exhibition has not yet opened, and therefore, instead of a review, here is an excerpt from a press release , fortunately it’s worth it:

If a pill cures a cold, why can't it cure bad language or homosexuality? And at the same time stimulate the emergence of new useful qualities and knowledge. In general, to satisfy any desire that a normal person might have. All that remains is to find out who a normal person is. That's what Dana Wise does.

The result of many years of research by the Canadian artist has taken on a more pharmaceutical look than a traditionally artistic one, and it turns out that you can find out the degree of normality by doing the opposite, with the help of treasured pills, by tracking your own reactions to the offer to get rid of this or that vice or, on the contrary, to acquire something good.

In fact, Dana turned a cultural trip to the exhibition into a visit to the supermarket. The coveted product is pills. Probably magical. Packaged with brief instructions-annotation, which explains the effect of a specific drug. Everything seems to be harmless to physical health. Sold without a prescription.

In fact, this is by no means the worst forecast for the coming Consumer Society, where everything necessary will be offered to the client in the most convenient form (a sweet pill). And EVERYTHING will be fulfilled in the blink of an eye.

Of course, after purchasing a tablet, a lot of questions arise. Should I swallow it right away or should I wait? Believe the promise or laugh? In the end, to have or to be?

The second part of the project is called “Memories for Women”, since some pills are intended for women obsessed with the search for their own identity and the desire to constantly improve themselves. Dana suggests experimenting with memories, erasing uninteresting ones and recording new, more colorful and exciting ones. You can have absolutely realistic memories of meeting an alien, having a successful career in modeling, having sex with Leonardo DiCaprio, etc. In general, with the help of a pill, all the seemingly impossible dreams that TV and Hollywood create are loaded into the consciousness, convincing that these are the desires a normal woman should have .

Dana Wise, Untitled. Aidan gallery. From February 2

Interactive

Which way of representing gender relations on screen do you find most interesting?

Hard porn: 20

Other: 13

Romantic Comedy: 11

Melodrama: 8

Soft erotica: 7

It was necessary to make it possible to indicate gender! Eh, I didn't guess!

There were, let's say, few reviews:

Which way of representing gender relations on screen do you find most interesting? interesting? interesting to anyone? If I’m in the mood of a “carrier of everyday consciousness,” then I want melodrama, a romantic comedy, or, at worst, soft erotica... Well, if I’m a fan of the Italian school of neorealism, then, without hesitation, hard porn. Well, in the case of common sense, I prefer to have sex outside the representation of relationships between the sexes on the screen. Those. I fuck not with the screen, but with my loved one. What “sin” is in love (read - in sex), and in human life in general - I don’t understand, and I’m unlikely to ever understand. Be happy and have a good fuck everyone!!! ( Mike )

We could talk about what “sin” is... but in any case, we shouldn’t swear that “I’m unlikely to ever understand.”

Past

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