Translated material
Now we're waiting for Mockingjay
'Hunger Games' fans fill movie theaters
Slit another's throat and you're a champion! The jaded Capitol - a wild combination of high technology and barbaric customs - requires thousands of sips of blood and circuses from the "players". Stylists and trainers work for you, an anthem plays in honor of you, and the tyrant president himself shakes your hand. Cruel and immoral games will ensure the unity of the people and the government...
The March screen, like the Cheshire cat, is ready to amuse you, frighten you, puzzle you with philosophical reflections ... on the playing field. Snow White with Julia Roberts, The Lorax with Denis de Vito, John Carter with Burroughs' son. "Turin horse" trailing behind...
But the main fees are made by The Hunger Games, the prologue of a new movie franchise, the first wave of another fan boom.
Fun hunters, as always, are in a privileged position. Julia Roberts herself is trying for them, from the "beauty" reincarnated into the evil queen in the new version of Snow White ( "Snow White: Revenge of the Dwarves"). The prudent Tarsem Singh took up the task of rewriting the old, old fairy tale. A master of balancing on the verge of dream and reality, originally from magical India. Now, if Tarantino's hands had reached Snow White, the revenge of the dwarves would have been a hundred times more fierce, the queen would have been "buried" or "shortened". Denis DeVito took a crash course in Russian phonetics and now delights Russians with his pronunciation in a clever 3D adaptation of Dr. Seuss' fairy tale The Lorax . The puffy-whiskered Lorax, the spirit and keeper of the forest, protects nature from greedy businessmen, sellers of air. A funny moment is the resuscitation of the young hero Ted, who has never seen a living tree in his life. In order for the boy to come to his senses, the Lorax has to rub the backs of two bears and awaken Ted's heart with a charge of electricity received. The environmental manifesto, spiced with humor, is making huge collections in America.
Burroughs fans have been waiting for the full-fledged film adaptation of the eleventh and last book of the Barsoom series of the American classic about the Martian adventures of John Carter . Lucas himself dreamed of filming this book. The film of the same name was directed by Pixar animation artist Andrew Stanton (Nemo, WALL•E). The film adaptation is painstaking, filmed at a good pace, though a bit dusty. But if you consider that in fact the book about the descendants of the royal family - the heirs of the Jeddak, about the adventures of a short microcephaly, four-meter natives and intelligent monkeys was written not by the classic himself, but by his immature son ... the film can be considered a good teen action movie "for his own." If teenagers fall for the action-packed science fiction movie, they've already been promised two more episodes.
But intellectuals also have something to do in March. Gain strength and go to the "Turin Horse" - black and white, the last (as the author proclaimed) work of cinema from Bela Tarra. Artistic treatises are composed about this film and its Old Testament wisdom. A grandiose fresco 150 minutes long, with a minimum of mounting glues (about 30). Long shots, like long stanzas, call the viewer to concentration, immersion in the frame. The precise geometry of mise-en-scenes separates materiality. The external numbness of the action hides the injection of metaphysical overtones. Behind the wretched, almost wordless way of the rural existence of the Father and the Daughter, there is a rite of life at the time of death. The Food ends, the Hearth goes out, the Water in the well dries up. Life expires, but the owners of the House, in defiance of Death, perform the daily rite of life. Sometimes it seems: the action freezes, referring to Heidegger's idea of "standing in the lumen of the truth of being."
And, finally, the loudest premiere of the month, and perhaps of the film year - the teen thriller The Hunger Games - the first wave of another fan boom is rolling in on us. The film by Gary Ross is routinely compared to the Twilight saga, which lured millions of young maidens into love vampire snares. Perhaps because the novel of the same name, which was on the New York Times Best Seller list for over 130 weeks, was written by Suzanne Collins from the perspective of 16-year-old Katniss. But the Collins bestseller itself, and even more so the film, are different from the sweet-voiced love adventures of "Twilight Bella" with the "wonderful smell of blood."
"The Hunger Games" is the story of the opposition of the individual to the "big brother" - the totalitarian state. Dystopia, dressed in a heap of fantastic intense adventure. Not being a fan of this kind of films, I pay tribute to the professionalism of the authors who made a strong genre, meaningless picture.
Every year, in punishment for the rebellion, the military dictatorship of Panem (the territory of the former United States) holds the "Hunger Games". Teenagers from 12 to 18 years old, elected from twelve districts (stricts), participate in the competition. After a short course of a young fighter "survival", the victims must turn into killers. As a result of the Hunger Games, out of 24 participants, only one will survive. Young Katniss Everdeen from the poorest mining streak No. 12 becomes a voluntary participant in the games instead of her younger sister, on whom the lot fell. Together with Katniss, her fellow countryman, the baker's son Pete, who is secretly in love with her, goes to the center of the totalitarian state, the capital of the Capitol.
"Hunger Games" (or "Harvest") - the main spectacle of the year, is held online. The inhabitants of the country are nailed to the screens, they are charged with the duty to enjoy a demonstration massacre as a reminder of the "dark years of the uprising." The Panemian despotism is a Minotaur in a dressed-down guise: but the bull's head of power craves sacrificial blood, which is reinforced by asserting itself. The "Minotaur" takes away the children for intimidation: those who tremble with fear obey unquestioningly. "Great Sports Games" - as the propaganda of the sparkling glass and gold of the capital's Capitol teaches - "a time of repentance and joy." Slit another's throat and you 're a champion! You deserve it! You will be given life, and your district will have an extra supply of bread. The jaded Capitol - a wild combination of high technology and barbaric customs - requires thousands of sips of blood and circuses from the "players". Stylists and trainers work for you, they dress you up in a fiery dress, an anthem plays in your honor, and the gray-haired tyrant himself, President Snow, shakes your hand.
"And may luck be with you!" - wish those doomed to a show-execution.
The games are cruel and immoral, the competition in the massacre to the last drop of blood will ensure the unity of the people and the authorities. TV vultures are watching you day and night. Cannon strikes in online mode herald new victims, holographic portraits of killed rivals light up in the sky. Killer wasps and quadrupedal monsters attack you. Under the threat of death from hunger, thirst, wounds, water, bread and medicines will have to be obtained. The glades around you are littered with the deadly poisonous Mornic berry. But most importantly, here, in the forest play area, behind every bush, a mortal enemy is waiting for you - one of those who are eager to survive at the cost of your death. You are all victims and predators rolled into one. Turn around, is the wolf's shadow following you yet?
The main dilemma that the characters of the film and the viewer decide is: in order to survive, do you need to erase yourself? No choice? You have a choice - to remain a person or stop being one. The managers manage the show, but only you decide whether there are masters over you.
Every day, the young hunter Katniss is forced to ask herself questions. Become an enemy to baggy Pete, who has been in love with her since childhood, or help him survive?
Gary Ross multiplied the politicization of the novel. Science fiction turned into a dystopia, a social thriller. What is the value of Katniss's raised hand directly into the cameras of the TV people - with three fingers closed: this sign of disobedience, the colliers from District 12 will respond with a riot of defiance.
The film, released under the heading "over 13", is moderately cruel, but with a clear humanistic message. It is known that the "fiendishness" was edited during editing. And yet, a movie about the fact that it is not "born killers" who win, but those who are able to believe and hope, raises questions. For example, why not only trained assassins, but also all other representatives of the districts kill so easily? Tyranny breeds enslaved, morally-deprived killers? The thought of the limits of permissible violence does not let go from the moment when the heroine is forced to kill for the sake of salvation ... But in fact, this thought is not reflected on the screen.
However, fans of the novel will applaud. Having retained the impetuosity, emotionality of the author's intonation, "... games" turn out to be a tense cinematic spectacle (and therefore, unlike "Twilight", they will also call the strong half of young humanity to the screen). In addition, it is clear to everyone that the film is the first part of a literary trilogy, the prologue of a new franchise, followed by Catching Fire and Mockingjay.
Of the many film analogues to which the Hunger Games appeal, I would name not even the obvious claustrophobic Battle Royale (on the island, at gunpoint, teenagers destroy each other in order to return to the mainland), but Running Man. In the adaptation of King - cruel TV games - showed the moral degradation of society. In fact, both King and Collins in their fantastic sagas confirm the identity of morality and life, almost forgotten today. The Hunger Games is shown live: it is not the beast that is terrible, but the man who has become a beast.