People, animals and hobbits

For those who stay in Moscow for the New Year holidays, The New Times offers a small poster: what is worth watching in cinema, theater and exhibition halls

Shot from the film "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug"

A scene from the play "A Streetcar Named Desire" at the Kolyada Theater

Mikhail Grobman. "Russian sky", 2008

People, animals and hobbits

On New Year's Eve, distributors release films on the big screen that can collect the maximum box office. The New Times presents holiday hits

Let's leave aside the sequels of the domestic comedies "Yolki-3" and "Love in the Big City-3". The author of these lines is forced to sadly admit that he tried, but is not able to overcome and review such films, despite their obvious positive qualities, such as: kind and even good humor, positive morality and the belief that life in our country is getting better. , all the more fun.

Of domestic vacation hits, however, we note another (fifth, it seems) film experience of the witty "Quartet I" under the strange name "Faster than rabbits." A charming film trend of intelligent actors-authors (Leonid Barats, Sergey Petreykov, Rostislav Khait and others).

But your obedient servant loves, first of all, what has the right to be called the term "cinema". And who's to blame if the really good vacation movies are still made in Hollywood? Three of the four films that will be discussed should appear on our screens on January 2nd. Another one, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, is already (just) out, but it's also a special holiday bet. It has a circulation of 2200 copies, and according to the plan of the distributors, it should remain among the leaders in the post-New Year's ten days.

"The Incredible Life of Walter Mitty"

directed by Ben Stiller

Genre mixture of comedy, melodrama and adventure film, based on the famous short story in America by James Thurber, published in the legendary intellectual magazine The New Yorker in 1939. The story was about a man who is not very lucky in life, but lives, like many, in a fantasy world. In the film, the plot is immersed in modernity, moreover, in the current socio-political context: crisis, reductions, modernization, which requires human sacrifice and the destruction of the remnants of living (non-computerized) creativity.

Your reviewer would never suspect that he might be astonished by a picture ultimately made (when reducing its many genres to one) in the form of a romantic comedy starring the average comedian Ben Stiller. Yes, and filmed by this same Stiller as a director.

But The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a really good movie. Of course, it also captivates by the fact that it demonstrates a situation that is close and painful for any journalist: the sudden dispersal of a talented editorial office, to which many of its employees have devoted their entire lives, by newly sent boys, the so-called effective managers, who do not doubt their right to fire, break through the knee, not to know and despise everything that came before them.

These boys have their own anecdotal corporate culture, from which they are downright dragged: at Walter Mitty, for example, they all wear not only one-on-one jackets, but also the same short-cropped beards.

Speech in the film at the same time about the magnificent magazine Life. Stiller insists that this is not the real Life, but his logo in the film is genuine, and the printed version of the magazine was actually liquidated - back in 2000. Stiller himself plays the head of the photo service, and this is also significant, because Life was valuable primarily for life photo reports.

Classical journalistic culture is being destroyed in the world. Destroyed before our eyes. Ultimately, the film, with all its jokes, is about our time, which is unfair to true professionals. People who gave birth to great ideas, but in the era of cutbacks instantly became nobody. But the film is also about the fact (this is also relevant in an era of mass uncertainty about the future) that a person does not have the right to give up and dream all his life. Otherwise, not long to die at 80 as a dreamy 15-year-old offspring.

"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug"

directed by Peter Jackson

In the early 2000s, director and producer Peter Jackson released parts of the Lord of the Rings trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien. Each episode lasted three hours, and the last - all three and a half. Now, year after year, he releases the Hobbit trilogy, the prehistory of The Lord, clearly in December. And although, as a book, The Hobbit is much thinner than The Lord, each episode again lasts, if not three hours, but at least 2.40. After all, Jackson and his screenwriters (among them another unbridled movie dreamer and monster lover Guillermo Del Toro) added a lot of characters and situations to the film, most of which were found in Tolkien's drafts and diaries.

Of course, for the public, The Hobbit is still the same Lord. The second series of The Hobbit, which has now been released, is considered the fifth part of the film cycle. But surprisingly, he does not get bored. The movie attraction, created by Jackson, still fascinates with grandeur, beauty of landscapes, battles of heroes with all sorts of freaks and, by the way, elegant cinephile humor. The second series is transitional. The heroes (thirteen dwarfs, the wizard Gandalf the Gray and the hobbit Bilbo Baggins) have already faced the main representatives of evil: the dragon Smaug and the Necromancer, but it does not reach the decisive battles. Bilbo, by the way, barely takes his feet from the Dragon, who is having a Jesuit discussion with him. Since Bilbo is portrayed by newfangled TV Watson Martin Freeman, and the dragon is voiced by newfangled TV Holmes Benedict Cumberbatch (we dubbed him, but every literate viewer knows about Cumberbatch's role), their duel takes on additional humor.

Here it would be possible to cut off the story about the Hobbit, if not for an unexpected topical detail. At some point, the characters end up in Laketown. For the first time in two series, they find themselves among people (humans are just one of the races in Tolkien's books, along with hobbits, dwarves, elves, orcs, trolls, etc.). It turns out that the social structure - specifically among people - is totalitarian. Let it be anecdotal. In the City of Lakes there is a cult of personality of the burgomaster, who is played funny by the famous English writer, actor and public figure Stephen Fry. Surprisingly, the miserable appearance of the town is reminiscent of a medieval settlement, where the action of Alexei German's film "It's Hard to Be a God" develops. Jackson couldn't see Herman's film, but he could easily stumble upon footage from his set on the Web. The inhabitants of Lake City, according to Jackson himself, are dressed like Siberian peasants from old films. Burgomaster-Fry, condemning his subjects, says: "Give them free rein, they will create committees, make inquiries, look, they will start talking about elections." There is a complete feeling (although this cannot be) that Jackson and Fry are hinting at our near and dear.

"47 Ronin"

directed by Carl Rinsch

The author of these lines has always loved his colleagues and did not approve of those who, in their articles, vilify the film criticism community for nothing. Moreover, there is no community (although the Guild of Critics exists). There are people who write about cinema, and they all have complex relationships with each other in different ways.

The display of "47 Ronin" for the Moscow press forced me to change my own principles. Right behind, as luck would have it, several well-known critics sat down. From the second minute of viewing, they began to moan throughout the hall: “Stupidity! Cretinism! Impossible to watch! Cinema for kids! ABOUT!!! I'm leaving the room now!" At least one of them came out. So no, they looked, indignant, further.

Strange reaction. Yes, 47 Ronin is a bit childish (but any movie is slightly childish, unless it's Sokurov). But at the same time, it's extremely cinematic.

This is a film adaptation of the famous legend about how in the 18th century, it seems, 47 former samurai who became ronin (that is, outcast samurai who did not save their master) took revenge on his powerful killer, contrary to the prohibition of the shogun ruler. And they deserved all-Japanese fame for this, which continues to this day. Moreover, after revenge, all 47 committed seppuku - ritual suicide. Honor and pride. Pride and honor.

This story has a lot of refractions in film and book culture. In the new "47 Ronin" history is immersed in mysticism. But I really, really want to believe in the real Japan of the past centuries and that spirits, witches, werewolves, dragons and even unicorns really once lived there.

In fact, this is a film about the essence of Japanese culture and its important component - sacrifice. It also contains a relevant phrase - without them, as it happens, not a single New Year's film can do: "If the crime remains unpunished, the harmony of the world is violated." Like this. Backhand. Truly Japanese. We should think like that in Russian.

Of course, this is Japanese culture adapted for the world by Hollywood. But carefully adapted. Japanese culture, unlike Russian, is conquering the world. Japanese history, sword fights, the samurai spirit are becoming - even in Hollywood - more and more popular. It is no longer necessary to explain to most readers and viewers what ronin or seppuku are (although we were reinsured - we explained). The most amazing thing is that Japanese actors are becoming popular. The only acting concession to the world audience in "47 Ronin" is Keanu Reeves in the title role.

"The wolf of Wall Street"

directed by Martin Scorsese

The only one of the New Year's films that could not be seen before the signing of this issue of The New Times. There has not yet been a traditional preliminary screening of the film for the Moscow press. Yes, and distributors change their readings all the time. Perhaps the fact is that the editing of the film was delayed. Scorsese loves epic films, but four-plus hours (the length of the original version of the picture) is too much. "Wolf" had to be cut to three hours, at the same time reducing the most explicit scenes, so as not to get a harsh rental rating. At the same time, the scenes were deliberately shortened in such a way (Scorsese's editor Thelma Schoonmaker told The New York Times) so that the audience clearly understood: here the authors clicked the scissors - and they themselves thought up the unseen.

We have already talked about the essence of the film. It is about the cynical life of New York brokers. In the center is the fate of the real Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio once again plays the main role in Scorsese), who got rich in his twenties, created a large company and quickly became mired in all serious sins - from financial scams to wild sprees. Apparently, the film genre for Scorsese is not quite common. It seems to be a satire on the mores of Wall Street. However, elements of satire were found in Scorsese before. They are in "Casino" (a satire on the mores of Las Vegas) and "Goodfellas" (a satire on the customs of the mafia).

Whatever the film turns out to be, it will definitely be interesting to watch. Not only because Scorsese does not lose his directorial form. Not only because of DiCaprio, who is always good. But also because this film ... yes, again, is relevant. After the crisis, Hollywood is very picky about multimillionaire thieves, for whom profit is everything, and the country, the world, people are nothing. See the second part of Wall Street, The Limit of Risk (a film about how the crisis began - how a group of managers of a large company collapsed the market for their own benefit) and even Woody Allen's Jasmine. A separate theme of these films is the debauchery that accompanies big dishonest money. You involuntarily think: when will we have films about real corruption and multi-billion dollar theft? One thing is clear: not before TV stops advertising Gazprom as our national asset.

Frame from the film "The Wolf of Wall Street"

Hamlet is immortal

From The New Times Theater Reviewer: January's Top Premieres

Dead Souls, Gogol Center. Dramatization, scenography and staging by Kirill Serebrennikov. Composer Alexander Manotskov.

All roles in the play are performed by men. Chichikov - One Byron (USA) and Semyon Steinberg, Korobochka - Oleg Gushchin, Plyushkin - Alexey Devotchenko. Kirill Serebrennikov staged a performance based on Dead Souls in 2010 at the National Theater of Latvia (Riga) in Latvian. The 2014 version is not a copy of the previous performance, although it will retain the magnificent zongs and the main artistic solutions invented by the author.

Hamlet Collage, Theater of Nations. Author and director Robert Lepage (Canada), main performer - Evgeny Mironov. The debut of an outstanding Canadian director on the Moscow stage. The time of action has been moved to the 60s of the last century, the time of “post-romanticism”. The main themes of the performance, according to the director's intention, are spy mania, "paranoid fear that you are being watched all the time", incest as a possible explanation for Hamlet's reflection and doubts, vanity as self-destruction. The main artistic image is a transformer cube, inside which Hamlet transforms into different heroes of the drama. The use of all possible latest multimedia technologies also determines the genre of the performance - this is Hamlet in 3D.

Kant, Mayakovsky Theatre. Directed by Mindaugas Karbauskis, play by Marius Ivashkevicius, artist Sergey Barkhin. Starring Mikhail Filippov. By genre, this is a dinner performance for 12 people and for 140 spectators. Spectators and actors are inside the huge scenery of the amphitheater, built on the stage. The play takes place in November 1784 in the house of the great philosopher. The Critique of Pure Reason does not shy away from emotion or humor.

"Number 13D", Moscow Art Theater. Chekhov. Directed by Vladimir Mashkov, play by Ray Cooney (translated by Mikhail Mishin). A new version of the long-term hit of the theater "Number 13", invented by Vladimir Mashkov in 2001 and for ten years has consistently collected full houses. It is a rare case when a tabloid sitcom turns into high art thanks to acting passion and directorial inspiration. The new version of the performance is not only a new cast, but also an attempt to correspond to today's time - with its rapid speed, information overload and technological revolutions.

Hamlet, Theatre. Yermolova. Directed by Valery Sarkisov, translated by Andrey Chernov, starring a very young 23-year-old Alexander Petrov, a recent graduate of GITIS, whom the artistic director of the theater Oleg Menshikov considers "the discovery of theatrical Moscow." Valery Sarkisov is a director with vast experience, including Shakespeare's. The new Yermolovsky theater has not yet found its own face, so each of its premieres is expected with special interest - what if Hamlet becomes an application for its own theatrical style, its own style?

It is worth noting that this is the third Hamlet in a row on the Moscow stage, after the Gogol Center and the Theater of Nations.

Tour of the Kolyada Theater (Yekaterinburg) on ​​the stage of the Theater Center "On Strastnoy". Traditional January tour of the most famous Ural theater under the direction of director and playwright Nikolai Kolyada. For eleven days (January 15–26), the theater will play fifteen performances, including long-term hits loved by the Moscow audience (Hamlet, Boris Godunov, Marriage, The Cherry Orchard, A Streetcar Named Desire), and the last premieres that Muscovites will see for the first time: Dead Souls and Playing Molière.

Four floors of color

Exhibition Moscow in late December-January: bright southern colors, Perm antiquities, severe Soviet-anti-Soviet style, brilliant shocking

The exhibition of the Dutch graphic artist Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art is one of the most discussed events of the artistic winter in Moscow. Everyone loves Escher - both those to whom he leaked under the Iron Curtain, and those who did not find any curtain and doubt that he existed. Escher is elegant, you can look at him for a long time, marveling at more and more new finds - his own and his. The exhibition features Escher's most textbook engravings and rare archival materials from the M.K. Escher in the Netherlands - more than 100 works relating to three different periods of his work. It’s good to come here with children, who really enjoy intricate optical illusions. It will also be of interest to connoisseurs of mathematics, not to mention those who simply love graphics.

Until February 9

A huge (on four floors!) retrospective exhibition of Mikhail Grobman, the most prominent representative of the Russian avant-garde of the 60s - in the MMOMA halls in Ermolaevsky lane: bright southern colors, vital humor - four floors of color. The exposition is made in such a way that it will suit both those yearning for the "thaw", and those seeking national self-determination, and pranksters who are able to appreciate the sweeping gouache mausoleum of Solzhenitsyn and Trotsky. Grobman both sings of his Jewishness (the exhibition is held as part of the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the State of Israel), and makes fun of him. Particularly noteworthy are the book covers that mock the prose of socialist realism: like the usual junk headlines about five-year plans and hard work, but you get a grasp of it - these are the young builders of communism building "a female idol to put it in bed ..."

Until January 26

Exhibition of Viktor Popkov (1932–1974) at the Tsereteli Gallery on Prechistenka. Viktor Popkov, perhaps the most well-known representative of the “severe style,” snatched painting from the clutches of Soviet positivist discourse: being completely loyal, he was not deceitful, he never hypocrite. He was socially successful, but at the same time loved by both the audience and colleagues. In February, the exhibition will leave for Venice, then move on to London. We must hurry… At a chronological distance, the husk of ideology flies off the paintings, but expression and painting remain.

Christian antiquities from the Perm Territory have been brought to the capital: in the Historical Museum you can see the tangible and some kind of domestic magic of Perm wooden sculpture. The “angel with a trumpet” from the village of Sherya looks expectantly, the “Blessing Sabaoth” stands in the clouds, as in potato tubers.

Until March 9

The British artist, entrepreneur and collector, not beloved by everyone, Damien Hirst brought to Moscow his collection of contemporary art: Banksy, Picasso, Giacometti, Koons. The exhibition entitled "Freedom is not genius" at the Multimedia Art Museum is a holiday for admirers of everything bright, brilliant and relevant. Bring the kids, they'll love it! At the same time, they will open the eyes of blinkered parents.

Until February 2

Viktor Popov. "North Chapel", 1972

photo: Maxim Shemetov/ITAR-TASS