Sergey Kuznetsov. Cultural guide. Issue 69.

Cultural guide. Issue 69.
Sergey Kuznetsov

Publication date: February 29, 2000

Today 's survey has nothing to do with the topics of the issue. It just got interesting.

"Cultural Guide" over time

is improving
remains the same
getting worse
I can not answer

Private opinions are welcome

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Movie

From a critic's point of view, the main drawback of The Sixth Sense is the uncertainty when writing a review. In an ordinary film, it is enough to retell the plot and leave the viewer to guess how it will end. In The Sixth Sense, all the most important things happen in the last minutes of the film - and writing about everything else is not very interesting. Therefore, I decided to write two reviews this time: for those who have not yet seen the film and do not know how it will end, and for those who already know what the secret is.

Review number one.

At first glance, the story of a psychotherapist (Willis) who takes advantage of children and teenagers, this time trying to deal with a boy who sees long-dead people (Haley Joel Osment, an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress), resembles The Color of Night (Willis) put together as PT) and "Mercury in Peril" (Willis and the Little Boy with Extraordinary Talents). But if in “Mercury” or “The Color of Night” there was a detective plot and Willis sometimes even had to run around waving - a la Die Hard - a pistol, then this time nothing criminal happens. Throughout the film, Willis walks, talks, tries to gain the trust of a young patient and understand his visions. In a word - the routine of psychotherapy. Since the viewer knows that he is watching a film, he guesses from the very beginning that the boy is not crazy, but is in fact seeing dead people.

Now the task: try to come up with an ending to such a story. It would be good if one of the dead told the boy something important (“Ghost”, “Stigmata”) - and the boy would act as an intermediary between the world of the dead and the living (the motive is present, but rather weakly: the late grandmother reports that really loved the boy’s mother, that is, her daughter; the scene is touching, but does not lead to a denouement). The CIA wants to take the boy under its wing, and Willis saves him (by). The boy turns out to be the messiah and begins to heal the sick by laying on of hands (thank God, by the way) Well, who else?

In fact, "The Sixth Sense" is reminiscent not of "The Color of Night" combined with "Mercury in Peril", but - if we talk about films with Willis - of Terry Gilliam's "12 Monkeys": the same gloomy flavor, the same unexpected ending, the same , in fact, hopelessness.

It's really a shame that Willis wasn't nominated for an Oscar for this role: regardless of his acting skills, he should have been rewarded for his willingness to star in more than just the numerous Die Hard clones.

Review number two.

Now that you've seen the film, you understand why it made so much money in America. I think that half of the audience went to watch it a second time to figure out what happened there. Vague suspicions that “something is wrong here” visited me in the middle of the film, when I noticed that Willis was breaking all the rules of the PT... - he was dating a boy at school and in the city (they can stick an abuser too!) , does not speak to his mother, and generally behaves strangely. Nevertheless, the ending came as a complete surprise even to me.

Note that this is the second major American film about a deceased person this year. The first - "American Beauty" - is still more traditional: although it is spoken from the perspective of the deceased, the film ends, rather than opens, with the death scene of the hero. In contrast, “The Sixth Sense” is a story about the ordeals of the soul... Moreover, the story is sad. The soul of Bruce Willis, who was killed in the fifth minute of the film, instead of flying to the Judgment or on a date with the angry and merciful deities of Bardo Thodol, is doomed to wander: Willis cannot believe that he is dead. And only the little boy finally explains this to him.

Of course, we know many films about the posthumous journeys of the soul - the most famous of them is probably Jarmusch's Dead Man. The achievement of Knight M. Shaymalan, a debut director, is that he was able to adapt the esoteric plot to the understanding of the average American, without sacrificing the main thing. In the film “Ghost,” the hero must also complete earthly affairs and then leave, but the center of gravity is shifted to the question of whether he can punish the villain and save the heroine. In The Sixth Sense, Willis's goal - of which he himself is unaware - is to find out that he is really dead. Unlike the detective-financial goals of the hero of "Ghost", this goal will probably one day confront us all: and the more during our lifetime we think about resolving it, the higher the likelihood that we will not have to, like the hero of the film, wander restlessly, waiting for a psychic boy who will reveal the truth to us.

"The Sixth Sense" is playing all over the city, so it's best to watch the poster here .

Music

The “Music” section is always difficult for me: there are still fewer good groups than there were issues of the “Cultural Guide”. Looking through this week's poster, however, I realized that there is a team about which I would like to say a few more words - at least taking into account its past merits.

We are talking about Agatha Christie.

After the success of "Opium"/"Heroin" came "Hurricane", which outright lost to "Morsky" "Mumiy-Troll", - and after that, the Ekaterinburg band began to gradually fall out of the sight of fans of "fashionable music". It got to the point that on its website “Agatha Christie” complains that music radio does not take their songs into its rotation. Meanwhile, summing up the decade, one cannot help but note their album “Shameful Star”, which I am inclined to consider one of the best albums of post-Soviet rock, but not in the category “music” (or, say, “words”), but in the category “general” conceptuality". I have long wanted to write about this - and now the opportunity presented itself.

The entire album is built around the metaphor of love as war. There are songs simply about war (“You know how to kill the enemy...”), although not just about love. But most of all - about love and war together. I’m on you, like in a war - climb on my bunk and we’ll fight - you’re the only thing that’s dear to me - the coolest thing is ahead . Among the many Russian songs that seem to be about love and sex, “The Shameful Star” stands out in that it accepts the war of the sexes precisely as a war - and finds it not only natural, but also pleasant. It's not "You're trash" and it's not "Love Bitch."

I love you because I love you
I love you because you don't love me
I'll kill you as soon as I kill you
I'll kill you as soon as I change horses.

If we consider that any love song is not only a song about love for a person, but also about love for music, then the comparative failure of the latest Agatha Christie albums becomes clear. These kinds of novels do not have a happy ending.

"Agatha Christie". Club "Permanent Residence" (Lublinskaya, 165, metro station "Maryino"), March 3, Friday, at 23:00.

Art

For a week now, Olga and Alexander Florensky have been showing their two-part exhibition at the M. Gelman Gallery. This exhibition continues the cross-cutting project of the Mitkovo group members, called “Russian Design”. The project began in 1994 with an exhibition of the same name, then followed by “Russian Album” (1994, greetings from B.G.), “Movement towards Yye” (1995), “Russian Patent” (1996), “Mobile Bestiary” (1998 ), "Local Time" (1999). In the glorious traditions of St. Petersburg with its Kunstkamera, these projects are built around various “rarities, curiosities and kunststyuki,” including various “automata” for the entertainment of the public.

This time we are offered two exhibitions in one. On the women's side there is Olga Florenskaya's project "Taxidermy", which studies the topic of "artificial animals" and taxidermy. Stuffed animals have long had an ominous aura attached to them - just remember Hitchcock's film Psycho. As if setting out to dispel this halo, Olga Florenskaya offers her own version of environmentally friendly, bloodless taxidermy - “alternative” stuffed animals made from scrap materials. Among the exhibits on display are “Stuffed sperm whale with a water fountain”, “Stuffed medium-sized crocodile”, “Working stuffed Pavlov’s dog with a light bulb, electric bell and fistula”, etc.

In turn, Alexander Florensky’s project is called “Humble Architecture” and is dedicated to such types of architectural structures as all kinds of booths, gazebos, sheds, turrets, etc. Its main exhibits are working models, for example, “Tower for the production of fireworks” or “Mast for maintaining the flag in an unfurled state.”

It is clear that in addition to the theme of rarities and curiosities stated above, both projects are united by an approach to contemporary art as a fun thing, within the framework of which one can create objects that are interesting not only to critics or, so to speak, adherents, but also to ordinary people on the street.

Alexander Florensky, "Humble Architecture"; Olga Florenskaya, "Taxidermy". M. Gelman Gallery, until March 12.

Interactive

Have you used the services of a psychotherapist/psychoanalyst?

- yes, and now I continue: 0

- yes, I completed the course and am generally pleased with the results: 4

- yes, I took the course and, consider it, I threw away my money: 3

- came in several times and left happy: 2

- came in several times and decided that was enough: 3

- I would love to go, but there is no money: 3

- I would love to go, but I don’t know who: 8

- didn’t go, but maybe someday...: 19

- I haven’t gone and won’t go: 33

The layout, as you can see, is strange. Those who went are divided approximately in half, and of those who did not go, half admit that someday they will be worthy, and half think never.

And now - impressions.

It’s a pity, of course, that the word shrink has not yet been translated into Russian. Not translated yet. (Everything has its time). It’s not “morel” to say, in fact, it’s not “roof expert”... In America, roof experts have already become firmly ingrained into the cultural layer. From our Woody Allen to the authors of the animated series "Dr. Katz, Psychotherapist." I watched such a wonderful cartoon product on the comedy channel during my stay in the States. This series went unnoticed amid the rampage of Beavis and Butt-head. And I remembered Dr. Katz while watching “Analyze This!” (terrible translation, don’t you think?). Dr. Katz also had an obese son. And things didn’t work out with my wife. True, there were no such terrible patients as Paul Vitti. And his approach was much more professional - 45 minutes - and be torn to pieces elsewhere. By the way, I still don’t understand why Ben Sobol behaves so blatantly. Against all norms of both orthodox and any other psychoanalysis. But the film is still very cute. I don’t know why almost all film critics disliked him. I guess you could call it “resistance.” What do you think about this? Masha Mitrofanova

Same thing, really. We can only add that it is absolutely no coincidence that in American films PTs do not behave according to the rules: if we assume that the whole of America is in psychotherapy, then the image of a PT who sleeps with a patient does not set strict boundaries, takes an active part in the lives of patients and so on - simply the realization of hidden desires. What client does not want to persuade his PT to the point of violating boundaries?

Most of the letters, as you might guess, came from opponents of the PT and are in the genre of “I haven’t tried it myself, but I don’t need it.” I can't resist pointing out that this is - at the same time - the most common argument against LSD and weed. “I haven’t tried it myself, but I don’t need it” (as you know, there are much more reasonable arguments against hard drugs).

I knew two psychotherapists. Unfortunately, the impression is that work for them is just an attempt to solve their own problems at the expense of others. So I don't trust it. ( Tatiana )

I wonder if I admit that for me work - writing "KG" - is also a way to solve my own problems at the expense of others, will Tatyana stop reading me? In my opinion, if a job does not allow you to solve your own problems, it is a bad job.

All psychotherapists are nonsense and the funny thing is that many of them know this well (Dima)

I didn’t go and I hope I won’t go. You need to learn to solve your psychological problems yourself. And it’s unpleasant to discuss any other problems if they are not already a thing of the past. (Maxim Svoboda)

To psychoanalysts - not a walker, not a walker, not a walker. :) Why? Because I can rummage through my soul and brain on my own and painlessly, and also for free. If I'm bored, I can call one of my friends in crying vests. And I also don’t believe that anyone can know me better than I do. ( blues )

I completely agree: you need to learn to solve your psychological problems yourself, and no one can know me better than I do. This is why you need to go to a PT - to learn how to solve problems yourself and get to know yourself better. Recognizing that the analogy with psychedelics risks becoming intrusive, I should note that many people believe (whether this is true or not) that certain substances have helped them better understand themselves. Don’t these people think that the molecule of lysergic acid deethylamide 25 “knows” something about them? A good PT is the same molecule: it doesn’t need to “know” anything at all, it only needs to interact.

I used it once, but since I am studying to become a psychologist myself, the session did not have any effect on me. It’s just that when you know the mechanisms of working with a patient, you get the impression that they are selling you snow in winter. The secret is simple: a professional psychologist never gives advice, but in every possible way pushes the client to answer all his questions himself. And sometimes you just want human advice :-) Psychologists are needed, and if there are serious problems and mental disorders, then it is better to turn to a professional. And for advice you will have to go to your best friend. Ishimova Irina

The psychoanalyst is a substitute for that spectrum of “professions”, the ends of which are the jester and the priest. Anyone who needs a planned acting out of their psyche is their potential patient. Perhaps that's all. ( A.Madison )

It’s very likely that my opinion will be extremely banal, but since you “accept it with joy,” then go ahead: Psychoanalysts, as well as “democracy,” can hatch here only after two or three generations have died out. In any case, we won't see this again. ( danila kovalev )

A funny thing is the Internet: it is absolutely impossible to guess whether Danila is happy about this fact or upset - that is, he loves “democracy” and psychoanalysis or vice versa.

And, in conclusion, the most adequate, in my opinion, letter.

Psychotherapy - or PT as you say - is one of the most interesting journeys you can take in your life. As with all other trips, the problem is a good internal mood and the right agent. Unfortunately, it seems like pure stuff is easier to find than good PT. But here, as they say, seek and you will find. (Vadim)

Past

Impressions from German's film "Khrustalev, the car" from Yuri Erdukov .

Here in Chelyab we had a festival of new Russian cinema in memory of Obolensky. Everything is very provincial, but very nice. There were many new and not so new films ("Time of a Dancer" for example). Naturally, “Khrustalev” could not be missed.

What to say? I really don’t know what to say. Half the hall was gone, although it was a festival viewing and the audience seemed to be prepared. The first impression is a brilliant, but incredibly boring film. Moreover: it’s unbearable to watch and impossible to tear yourself away. How can this be? But I don’t know how this can be. When I watched it, I made a titanic effort to sit through to the end.

This film reminded me of the works of A. Platonov. I love it, but it's difficult to read more than 20 pages at a time. The density is extraordinary. Overwhelms. It's like eating honey. Tasty, nutritious, healthy, but not much.

So is Herman. I stuffed so much that my body doesn’t have time to “digest.” It turned out that I looked, as it were, in passing (due to overflow), and “digested” and comprehended it later.

I am still walking around under the impression - I have already “tormented” everyone at home by talking about my impressions, remembering more and more new episodes, describing more and more new details. :)

Here are the scenes that stood out to me:

- At the very beginning of the film there is a recitative of some lesson “I don’t look back, I don’t look back...”. (Isn’t this the reason for all our troubles?) Then, when this same idiot tries to get a bull through a hole in some garage (through the Iron Curtain!), and a foreigner pushes it towards him with an umbrella (!). Here you can write a detailed paper on all topics. And the foreigners’ planting of false “values” and the animal instincts of the Russian people, etc. and so on. :) - The grandmother who kept asking “Where is the sweet pie? Sweet pie - where did they go?” Here you can simply write dissertation about “The Russia that we have lost...” - Another grandmother who, after Khrustalev’s arrest, sat in the entrance near the elevator and said: “I’m waiting for the metro. The parrot is completely Jewish. He doesn’t eat anything” - Khrustalev’s “Love” scene with what something like an overripe virgin. I’ve definitely never seen anything like this and I’m unlikely to see it in the future.

The culmination for me is when a prisoner, having served his time, is released. Here I just had deja vu. Reminded me of the army, demobilization... :) Joy, delight, freedom. Here is Casanova from “Cops” on the firewood. It seems a new life is coming. Everything bad is in the past. But Herman doesn’t give a chance for a happy ending here either. Right there on the train they peeled their turnips for no reason. And here follows a rhetorical question for all time - “Why do they beat?, Why do they always beat?”

Brilliant film. But I would be careful not to recommend watching it. There's too much chance that you won't like it.

New impressions will also be accepted with joy.

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