President Dwight D. Eisenhower (who gets a mention in several Soviet-era films, though not this one) warned about the rise of a Military-Industrial Complex. What we have in this screenshot is something a little different: An Industrious Millinery Complex.
It’s from Tot Samyiy Myunkgausen. Duke Herzog (not the major character) is the industrious milliner. He knows about tucks, seams, hems, and waists, and hates it when the proper duties of his position intrude.
His aide has been trying to turn away the Baron Munkhausen’s estranged wife who is waiting outside, saying the Duke is busy with the most important affairs of state. But he reluctantly agrees to meet her. Everyone knows the drill — quickly hide all the dressmaking equipment and pull out the globe, papers, and books appropriate to the business of a duke.
It’s a minor comic theme in the movie — one of several. I was reminded of it by some wordplay on the POLITICS e-mail discussion list that I won’t go into here. It would be too hard to explain.
Though perhaps it is not as hard as trying to explain this movie. As in that other Mark Zakharov film, Obyknovennoye chudo, it’s hard to say which characters are in the story and which are outside of it.
This quartet, for example. Are they a kind of Greek chorus of the kind that Sophocles (whom the Baron has known personally) would have used in his plays to provide commentary? Or are they inside the story?
There may be a terminology to describe this technique of making the characters in the play conscious of those outside who are watching, but I don’t know what it is. Zakharov is a supreme master of it, whatever it’s called. It’s hard to explain, but that’s not even the hardest part of the movie. I’ll leave some of that for later, if I can figure out how to talk about it.