Category

Pokayanie

• 04.26.09
  Music for Pokayanie
  Pokayanie (0)

  Pokayanie has some really strange musical references. Here Yelena breaks into a singing of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," in German. The effect is sinister. It comes after she tries to "comfort" Nino by saying the following: Of course, the arrest of Sandro and Mikhail is a mistake. We must summon up patience, both you and I. You'll see, Nika will do everything. They'll look into it and free them. You must be strong, Nino. Don't forget that you have Keti. I'm sure it will end well, everything will be all right. They're ...
  
  
• 04.23.09
  The end of Pokayanie
  Pokayanie (0)

  Tonight I finished the first watching of Pokayanie. If I hadn't been told that this film was produced in 1984, I would have guessed it was a production from the mid 1990s or so. It's that prophetic. Most of the way through, while being surprised that such a film had been produced at all, I kept telling myself that it certainly wasn't subtle. Yes, the guards are dressed in medieval armor, the jurors and lawyers have medieval clothing, and there are other surreal elements to keep this from being any kind of docudrama. But it was pretty obvious ...
  
  
• 04.19.09
  Repentance
  Pokayanie (0)

  I've started to watch Repentance (Pokayanie). Unfortunately, the language spoken is Georgian, not Russian. Nothing wrong with that, but I understand not a syllable of Georgian, so I'm listening to the Russian overdub while reading English subtitles. I've had a little practice in watching movies this way, but not enough to be entirely used to it. I got about as far as the above scene, at about 41:50. A delegation of people has come to the mayor (a Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini character) complaining that the scientific experiments are destroying the church. ...
  
  
• 03.22.09
  Glasnost movies
  Moy drug Ivan Lapshin, Pokayanie (1)

  This Family Circus cartoon for March 22 reminds me of me when I'm reading anything in Russian. The little girl goes on for 7 frames reading her book -- sitting up, lying down, shifting positions, enjoying herself all the time. Then she reports to her mother: "This is a GOOD BOOK! I've been reading the first sentence and it's interestin' already!" I've sometimes wondered whether I've already seen most of the good Russian movies. But in reading Anna Lawton's book, Kinoglasnost, I'm learning that there are a lot of good ones in store for ...
  
  

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