Well another great movie that I have seen in class, and quite a unique one at that. I can't say that I have seen a movie before that starts off in the past and ends up in the future. What really struck me is how the movie also takes a serious position in the begining but in the second half of the movie it starts to feel almost like watching Irony of Fate all over again with the comedy aspects blended in to a serious storyline.
So basically the movie starts off in the 1950's and is centered around Katerina and her friends. Now they all live in a workers dormitory and work in different factories on very low wages. But something comes up, Katerina's Uncle is going out on a trip and needs her to tend to his apartment room for a while. This sparks Katerina's friend Lyudmila to have them actually stay there and tend to the apartment. But during this process Lyudmila convinces Katya to lie about being the professor's daughters and bring bachelors over to the house. This is where Katya and Lyudmila meet their lovers. But as the viewer finds out Katya gets pregnate from the man she falls in love with and he won't agree to marry her or take care of the child. Lyudmila on the other hand eventually gets married to the man she falls in love with. After that the movie goes probably about 10-14 years into the future where Katya becomes very sucessful and is now director of the factories. Her daughter has grown up and her friends relationships have changed quite a bit. Lyudmila is now divorced because her once sober husband had become an alcoholic and Tonya is actually in a very stable relationship. But something is lacking from Katya's life and it starts to become apparant that she is desperate for a partner even if she doesnt realize it. Then comes the day where she meets Gosha on a train. Pretty much from then on it's them falling in love with each other. But twoards the end Gosha kind of shows a side that most people today would find very sexist. Gosha tells Katya to never speak out against him like a lady should. So Gosha has an old fashion side to him where the male is dominate to the female in every aspect. In the end Gosha and Katya make up and are together and in love. It ends with them at a dinner table which pretty much says that they are back together and going to be with each other and get married.
From what I see this movie has no real techniques or metaphores that are apparent. Though one thing I noticed is the lack of communist ways shown in the movie, the only time I could see it was what appeared to be a picture of Lenin. This was a very great movie from what I could tell, the love story was inticing and the plot twists did have me going for awhile. I didn't have an instace where I wasn't paying attention to what was going on. The acting was absolutly amazing too. Overall I have to give this movie a 9/10.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Glad you enjoyed it! And you're right that Gosha's character is a bit tricky. On the one hand he seems like a clear good guy and a hero--and he really does seem to be exactly what Katya is looking for in life. Yet his views on conjugal relations do seem highly sexist in nature (though one senses he may eventually tone down on those attitudes once he's been with Katya and Alexandra for awhile?).
ReplyDeleteWhile there may not be metaphors or cinematic technique in this film as we see in, say, Tarkovsky, I think one of the really neat things about the film is its presentation of details. Every object on the screen is evocative of the period being described. I hope we can take a look at a couple examples of this tomorrow. It's a very carefully crafted film through which one can learn a lot about Russians just from looking at the backgrounds, the clothing, and the ceremonies (for example, those great wedding feast scenes, which are sooooo Russian!).