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What the British comedian Armando Iannucci laughed in the film "Death of Stalin"

In Toronto, the TIFF festival ends, which is better than anyone else balancing between copyright and mass cinema. One of the most spectacular films shown at the festival is Armando Iannucci's death. At the request of Medusa, Yegor Moskvitin talks about the hooligan attempt by the British comedian on the Soviet leader.

Before talking about a film capable of offending someone's feelings, it is important to explain who his author is-and why Russia excites this person least of all, and the object of his satire actually acts as the current political establishment of the United States and the consequences of Brexit in Europe. Armando Iannucci is a British satirist, screenwriter and director. In his homeland he was awarded the title of officer of the Order of the British Empire, although he does not miss the opportunity to criticize the authorities from the beginning of the nineties and clearly regrets that in the time of Thatcher he had not yet written anything but school works. His main shows in England are the political comedies of “Gushch of events” and “In the loop” and the fantastic mockmentaries of Time Trumpet. His greatest success after moving to Hollywood-Sitkom HBO Vice President, who made actress Julia Louis Dreifus the absolute champion in the number of Emmy premiums-she has five of them in five years.

Iannucci really does not like Donald Trump and often swears with the president on Twitter. He started the “death of Stalin” and took off to the election of Trump - but, judging by all the last interview, he addresses him. In Russia, the film has not yet received a rental certificate, so it is likely that we will watch it without paying the ideological enemies of a ruble. It is impossible to imagine that someone will stand before the temptation to download it through torrents: this is a hilarious funny movie.

Real events in the “death of Stalin” are intertwined with fiction and with an assumption necessary to accelerate the rhythm of the plot. Stalin also dies because the guard is afraid to go to his office, while paralyzed, but still a living general secretary lies on the floor. The following in the Politburo following his death do not take months, but a few days, so that the climax coincides with the funeral.

The scriptwriters excavated real stories for the film, unfamiliar to the modern layman - for example, the death of a whole hockey team due to the fault of the son of Stalin - Vasily. Nevertheless, there will be enough weighty cranberries here to feed the whole country with vitamins: for example, Marshal Zhukov wears two “Kalashnikov” under the overcoat at once, and the cards, which is sent to him, brilliantly played by Olga Kurilenko, the trigger of the leader’s death. However, the film will be remembered by a male ensemble: Steve Bushemai (Khrushchev), Jason Isex (Zhukov), Rupert Frend (younger Stalin), Jeffrey Tambor (Malenkov) and many others.

Iannucci-of those people who believe that satire can change something; He owns the statement that England did without revolutions and guillotin only because it always honored comedians. But what a practical sense can be from the "death of Stalin" is not very clear. There is a risk that someone will want to repeat the operation of Matilda, but so that after this film someone becomes more enlightened or kinder-fire.

Therefore, judging the “death of Stalin”, then only as a tragicomic farce. In this capacity, the film exceeds all the full-length works of Iannucci and is almost approaching the radiant slander of the “vice president”. There are so many sparkling jokes and acting, as if recognized masters have gathered not to play, but to celebrate Christmas live-therefore, in some places the film is very reminiscent of the satirical special issue of some “Game of Thrones”, and not the interpretation of real events. For obvious reasons, the humor is predominantly black, but the actors are so neglected by observing the distance with the heroes that they even seem pretty. A huge number of terrible things, so as not to spoil the viewer, leave behind the scenes. With the exception of the two deaths shown with marginal physiological naturalism and deliberately close -up: Iannucci clearly remembers television portions about the murder of Gaddafi.

Amazing attention to the details of Soviet life naturally gets along in the frame C, for example, the inscription Exit in English in the Soviet office - so the authors emphasize that the theatrical bacchanalia is more expensive for them than realism, and Iannucci may once again recall Brexit compatriots. If it were not for the story that the Russian viewer will be very difficult to close his eyes, this film would be the perfect festive television test - it could have been laughed at it every year.

Egor Moskvitin