Aug 212008
I’m not keeping up with my movie-watching lately. But I enjoyed this segment of White Bim Black Ear. (And did I really call it Black Bim White Ear a few posts back?).
Here are the parts I liked:
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I liked the winter scenes with effects you get with the mid-day sun low in the sky. Makes me wish I was there, almost. You can’t do that kind of filming in California, even if you can get the snow.
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Ice fishing. But why was the guy fishing when he said he was going hunting? And what kind of rig does he use? Do the Russians drill their holes the same way we do? What kind of bait or lure was he using? And do Russians have darkhouse spearfishing like Minnesota does? (Non-residents are not allowed to do it, so it has been almost 40 years since I’ve done any of it myself.)
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Firewood. In this and other movies and documentaries I’ve seen, it appears that Russians who burn firewood for heat have their wood split up into pieces of smaller diameter than we tend to use here in Michigan. But I wish I could smell their wood stacks when the wood is still fairly fresh to see if I could identify what kind of wood they’re burning. Some of those stacks are large enough to suggest wood as a primary source of heat — if the wood is a good quality hardwood. (We’ve burned wood as the primary source of heat in our home for 30 years now. A typical Michigan mix of firewood is mostly oak and maple, with a little hickory thrown in (if you’re lucky) and maybe some cherry. Occasionally there will be some ash or walnut, too. White oak is better than red oak (and doesn’t smell the same, either).)
The storyline? It’s so-so. A bit Rousseauian in that the kids are all virtuous and some of the older people are corrupt meanies.