For a couple of years we had this VHS tape lying about the place. Didn't know what was on it; I just vaguely remember that a friend once asked me to tape this Russian film for her. The rest: forgot to give her the tape, she forgot to ask, forgot all about the tape, and 90 minutes ago decided to put it in the player. Oh my god.
***spoilers ahead***
I am not into Russian anthropology, nor am I well placed to judge Russian acting qualities, but that's beside the point. The story's so straightforward, beautiful though downhill, and the visuals are so utterly stunning... some examples: the angle from the falling tree; the myriads of shots from below (shots from beneath the tree he's in); when he approaches the cross on his lover's grave with the goat: you see him, then a camera angle from between the grass, you think it's him looking, but then you see him coming in from the right.
This is not just artsy bollocks. It adds to the heathen atmosphere; you feel the ghosts are everywhere; that man is not a single unit but consists of multiple entities, permeating the forests, rivers and air (all the views of the sky!). All this culminates in two scenes: the old woman laughing after she's spoken the Christian blessing, and Ivan searching, and finding death in Marichka's cold hands, reaching for him from the realm of shadows & ghosts, which is not a bad place - it's just not for the living. All this is beyond Christianity. But the last scenes are even beyond primitive ritual. The burial ceremony is entirely superfluous (not to the film!), as Ivan has found his own way of passing, in the loving arms of Marichka's cold otherworldly ghost.
***spoilers finished***
It may take a bit of effort to get into, but this is not art for the sake of it, ah-ah. This is grand, this is beauty; it's what what our eyes evolved for in the first place. Don't be an amoeba.
***spoilers ahead***
I am not into Russian anthropology, nor am I well placed to judge Russian acting qualities, but that's beside the point. The story's so straightforward, beautiful though downhill, and the visuals are so utterly stunning... some examples: the angle from the falling tree; the myriads of shots from below (shots from beneath the tree he's in); when he approaches the cross on his lover's grave with the goat: you see him, then a camera angle from between the grass, you think it's him looking, but then you see him coming in from the right.
This is not just artsy bollocks. It adds to the heathen atmosphere; you feel the ghosts are everywhere; that man is not a single unit but consists of multiple entities, permeating the forests, rivers and air (all the views of the sky!). All this culminates in two scenes: the old woman laughing after she's spoken the Christian blessing, and Ivan searching, and finding death in Marichka's cold hands, reaching for him from the realm of shadows & ghosts, which is not a bad place - it's just not for the living. All this is beyond Christianity. But the last scenes are even beyond primitive ritual. The burial ceremony is entirely superfluous (not to the film!), as Ivan has found his own way of passing, in the loving arms of Marichka's cold otherworldly ghost.
***spoilers finished***
It may take a bit of effort to get into, but this is not art for the sake of it, ah-ah. This is grand, this is beauty; it's what what our eyes evolved for in the first place. Don't be an amoeba.