Girls win – Vedomosti

by time news

The best author’s films of the last year were selected for the Kinotavr competition. Tverdovsky, Segal, Karas, Melikyan, Molochnikov – if there are star directors in the country, then today they are. Stars traditionally shoot stars, so you can see Svetlana Khodchenkova, Konstantin Khabensky, Chulpan Khamatova, and Anna Chipovskaya in the competition films. The last – a record four times.

Total matriarchy

The first thing that catches your eye in the list of Kinotavr winners is that the girls start and win. Russian cinema is becoming, if not entirely female, then at least equalized with male. Six out of 13 competitive films were shot by female directors, they were also judged mainly by women: the jury, headed by Boris Khlebnikov, consisted of director Nigina Saifullaeva, producer Ekaterina Filippova, actress Oksana Fandera and TV journalist Daria Zlatopolskaya.

As it turned out, women are best at talking about the eternal. Anna Melikyan showed the film “Three” (prize for the best cinematography). Yes, this is again about the love geometry of an isosceles triangle, which cannot be pulled apart. A man and two women: a man, rather useless, but intellectually charming, is played by Konstantin Khabensky, his wife and mistress – Victoria Isakova and Yulia Peresild, respectively. Girls are equally sorry – they are both smart, beautiful, and it is not at all clear why they need all this. After “Three” I really want to review “Communication” by Avdotya Smirnova or “Let’s Divorce” by Anna Parmas – films from the same “female” series, but with a more self-sufficient Anna Mikhalkova.

“Doctor Liza” by Oksana Karas is also a very feminine movie. Shooting a biopic of Elizaveta Glinka is not a very rewarding business: politics is indispensable here. But Karas, along with the lead actress Chulpan Khamatova, do not keep a distance between the heroine and what surrounds her: there is only a woman who makes decisions, often spontaneous and based on emotions. This is a macro shot that does not claim to be objective. This is not a biopic, but rather an ad memoriam.

However, the most discussed film of “Kinotavr” this year was the work of Angelina Nikonova “Has anyone seen my girl?”. The film will go down in the history of the festival not with prizes, but with record-breaking low marks from critics. Nikonova’s work began to be hated in advance, and the reaction of the jury could be foreseen. “Has anyone seen my girl?” is a film adaptation of the book of the same name by Karina Dobrotvorskaya, which she dedicated to her first husband, the cult Leningrad critic Sergei Dobrotvorsky. The book was published six years ago, and the entire circulation was instantly sold out.

In the book, Dobrotvorskaya spoke very frankly about her youth, either sanctified or crippled by love. Dobrotvorsky, an intellectual and esthete, a real rock star from film criticism (this happened in the 90s), preferred spiritual food, sat on heroin and periodically beat his beloved. Karina eventually left him for a wealthy and successful Muscovite from a financial newspaper and built a career, rising to the top manager of Conde Nast. And Sergey Dobrotvorsky died either from an overdose, or from a broken heart. Among the eternally poor and hungry intellectuals, this is usually not forgiven, but Dobrotvorskaya continued to tease and ignore at the same time. After the release of the scandalous book, she agreed to its film adaptation, in which the young Karina is played by Anna Chipovskaya, and the adult Karina, who cannot let go of the past, is played by Victoria Isakova.

Again, this is a very feminine film. In it, as in the film “Three”, the good girl is again in trouble, and the man is again a conditional aggressor and infantile. It seems that in this confrontation lies the key problem of our time, which women directors voluntarily or involuntarily groped for.

Desk sex and drug addictions

Such is the secret of Russian feminism, in the context of which the equality of women and men was successfully achieved immediately after the Great Patriotic War. To our days, men are so far behind that women ask for only one thing: guys, well, finally catch up! Tired of their own strength and self-sufficiency, women are forced to create their own parallel world, where there is no happiness, but there is wisdom and sadness of loneliness.

However, critics saw something completely different in women’s cinema. They did not forgive the author that, firstly, the male character has a cult name, and secondly, that this film is more similar in style to teenage melodramas. Sex on the desk, walks in the Gulf of Finland, roses and tears, violent aggression and drug addictions. Someone considered it vulgar, someone – unethical in relation to the idol, who died 23 years ago and can no longer answer.

Masculinity

“Has anyone seen my girl?” was not the only film in the competition based on personal memories. “The Blues” by Alexander Kamynin is a tragicomic day in the life of three friends who rent an apartment in Moscow. This is a new interpretation of the famous “I’m walking around Moscow” for the generation of the current thirty-year-olds (the working slogan of the picture was “I’m walking around Moscow”). The script is based on a series of short funny videos that a DJ, musician and director filmed about their life in a rented apartment and posted on social networks.

The name of the film “Tell her” by Alexander Molochnikov does not accidentally rhyme with the confessional “Talk to her” by Pedro Almodovar. This is a film about a divorce seen through the eyes of a thirteen year old boy. The child is faced with a choice: to stay after the divorce with dad or go to the USA with mom and her new husband. And although the director jokes that the film is only partly based on real events, you can’t argue with the facts: after the divorce of his parents, 13-year-old Sasha Molochnikov left for America.

Top Movie of the Year

Despite the obvious fashion trends, the main film of the year according to Kinotavr was the unfashionable Scarecrow. Shot by schoolteacher and leader of the Yakut art house Dmitry Davydov, this picture contrasts sharply with its rivals – there are no moral dilemmas in it, chasing money and unfaithful men, and there is no hot sex while talking about Godard. There is a dark story of a shaman woman who is feared and hated, whose name no one knows, but who goes to when it comes to life and death. The scarecrow can cure any disease – but he does it behind closed doors, where even through the camera lens it is impossible to look. The film is shot in the style of a classic documentary, and the Yakut film star Valentina Romanova-Chykyyray plays as if she were the real Blair Witch. “Scarecrow” is a unique copy made outside of fashion trends. Thanks to Boris Khlebnikov for this discovery! If a miracle does happen and this Yakut masterpiece is released, don’t miss an hour and a half of pure shamanism. Those who were especially impatient could watch the film on September 22 at the Garage.

You may also like

Leave a Comment