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Reviews
Gorod bez solntsa (2005)
Review from Premier at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2006
The drug movie is a familiar thing. We have watched countless unfortunate youths get high, come down, go through withdrawal, overdose, and betray each other on the silver screen. Of course, there was Trainspotting (1996) and Requiem for a Dream (2000), and Blow (2001) and Spun (2002) ... to name but a few. So what then should make Sergei Potemkin's film Sunless City (Gorod Bez Solntsa) Russia 2005, any different? Well, there is something.
The basic plot would not seem to reveal it, though. It relates the story of Lyudmila, or Lucy ( "
in the sky with diamonds" ), a talented artist/actress who spends her time with a group of creative but narcotic bohemians, including her somewhat pretentious artist brother Alex, . Then, she meets Yegor. She drops her portfolio in the icy street, and he very nearly runs her over. So he gives her a lift to where she needed to go. Yegor is about thirty years old, and an engineer in a tobacco factory. At first glance, he seems little more than a fairly uninspiring bourgeois, and we certainly wonder why Lucy has decided to see him (as does he, at first.) However, as the film progresses and we learn more about him, he appears increasingly sympathetic, and not quite as boring as we might have initially expected. And, more importantly, he loves Lucy. And genuinely. He will turn out to be a very good influence in her life, helping her to try and conquer the heroin addiction that has seized her, as she will have an influence in his, introducing her imaginativeness into his safe existence. They are complete opposites, but they balance each other out.
Generally, drug movies have a similar structure to each other, first making the drug seem fun showing it the way that the users believed it would be. However, their bliss inevitably crumbles around them and the truth reveals itself. Sunless City does not have this same structure. From the beginning, its characters gradually descend to their lowest point, before, if they are going to, picking themselves up again. Drug use is never shown as exciting and threat-free. The glamour of drugs, paired with their fatal danger, is perhaps why this subject is so commonly used - it is a very compelling combination. This film, though, does not glamourise them. From the first moment, Lucy tells how empty drugs are, and how, though she had at first thought they might, they will never bring you happiness.
This is one thing that for me distinguished Sunless City from other movies of its genre. But there were other things about it that particularly pleased me. There is a general sensitivity permeating the film, as the characters are striving for something higher. They reflect on life and happiness, and poetic gestures give the film depth. One of the most satisfying characters is the director of Lucy's theatre company, a tragic clown himself (though he claims to be no actor) and ever uttering wisdom and fairy tales. An interesting effect is created by the combination of a number of situations: Lucy's company is performing a play by Daniil Khrams, apparently for children, but dealing with themes that are quite adult. ("One shouldn't patronise them
") Also in the film, Lucy tells Yegor, "You know, if a child smiles in its sleep, it means an angel is coming to it in its dreams." The monk in the cathedral that they are visiting agrees. "Yes, angels only visit children. They are scared of us. We live too well." Is Lucy, then, as an actress for children, a fallen angel, or does this refer to the better life that she would like to live? Beside the angels, as well, are birds - doves and pigeons - set free from cages. (Lucy also appears inside a bird cage during one of the scenes of her play). The mixture of the theatre scenes with those portraying the characters' addiction also injects hope into the film. Their artistic endeavour helps them find their happiness, and a happiness that is deep and meaningful, and unachievable through use of drugs.
The setting, though, plays such an important role in this film. The name "Sunless City" refers to St Petersburg, and the city is almost another character. Beautiful shots of the city open the film, and occur throughout. Alex has given this name to the city. Though he loves it dearly, he projects his unhappiness onto it, saying that it is the cause of his claustrophobia. He calls it a 'sunless city', but the dimness of his rooms is down to the fact that he has stuck pictures he took of the city over his windows. He himself makes it a 'sunless city' and the darkness in his life comes from within. And more than just a frivolous notion of a decadent artist, this metaphor refers back to a tradition that has existed as long as the city itself of Petersburg as an oppressive, ominous city, of long menacing nights where fateful things can befall you, and of unconquerable nature. The first scene of the movie shows Alex and his girlfriend Karina looking out over the city and photographing it. While there, they see a fire somewhere in the city, and grey smoke billowing into the sky. Already at the start of the film there is an indication of the life that the city contains, and the sinister forces that lie in it.
While the film is definitely very contemporary, it also ties itself to an old tradition, and aspirations that are somewhat eternal (people have always been aiming for some higher happiness, and seeking escapism). It is this that distinguished this film from others of its kind for me.
Reprise (2006)
review from Premier at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2006
Reprise is the story of two aspiring writers, Phillip and Erik, who both submit their manuscripts to a publishing house, resulting in the acceptance and overnight success of Phillip's novel, while Erik's is returned to him rejected. "It confirmed what I had always thought. I have no talent whatsoever." The film tells of youthful aspiration, unanticipated tragedy and what consequences this has on young people as they try to make a path for themselves through life.
The film opens with Phillip and Erik standing by a postbox, preparing to send off their literary efforts. Already the scene is tinged with the dreary greyish blue and grey shades that colour the whole film, the two boys clothed in black. The dreariness of these colours (trendy as they are at the moment) add to the film's style but also stains the action with a frustrated melancholy that reflects that of the protagonists', as they come up against failure and difficulty. In this first scene, however, the post box shines out against this backdrop in deep red, a beacon of hope. Already we see the controlled aesthetic beauty of the style, and an attention to detail with which the emotions of the characters are portrayed through visual means.
Six months after Phillip's book is published, we see Erik and Phillip's other friends pick him up from a psychiatric hospital where he has been since a mental breakdown that eventually caused him to come to blows with a glass door. The film treats the issue of madness sensitively and thoughtfully, inspiring empathy and understanding. The young Anders Danielsen Lie is excellent as Phillip, playing the troubled but gifted writer subtly and powerfully. The events are not shown chronologically, to give weight to those things that made the most crashing impact. For example, it is not until Phillip's return form hospital that we learn of the existence of his girlfriend Kari, whom he loved so intensely that it, according to the psychiatrists, triggered his mental disintegration. This side of the story is told separately from the progression of events, giving it a strength that shows just how much it affected him. Similarly, Trier makes use of flashbacks and mixes up viewpoints of situations to show them in the way that they would be remembered - allowing us to understand and associate with the characters all the more. Also, when we see conversations between Phillip and Kari, they are often shown to not be speaking, while their voices play in the soundtrack, and only occasional words are mouthed out. Such techniques portray a scene filled with emotional closeness, and show it how it might be remembered - after all the mind does not retain all details with photographic precision, but holds on more tightly to those which have some emotional importance.
However, the film is not entirely pervaded by this intense mood, which might make it too heavy. Trier still has a sense of humour, and that is what gives the film its completeness. He portrays the charming silliness of the youths with empathy - for example, their great admiration for their literary hero. They find his house, and seeing that he is walking his dog in a nearby park, take a picture where it seems like Phillip is jovially discussing some fascinating topic with his hero. The next shot cuts to their discovery that the photo is completely black. "It helps if you take off the lens cap." Trier's gentle mockery of the protagonists endears us to them, with their youthful ineptitude. I also particularly liked the use of text - when they discover that said hero will probably be present at a book launch party they are invited to, his name flashes up in white lettering that fills the screen in a news headline manner that captures their innocent joy perfectly, and also pokes slight fun at it. In general the film captures the vivacity and excitement of the characters, though still in a controlled manner. After we see them post their manuscripts, Erik narrates a black and white passage which excitedly reels off all their dreams and hopes where they jet off across the world, meeting weird and wonderful women and sparking literary debate, and eventually accidentally find each other again in a café, no, in the street, no, in the metro.. It becomes all the more tragic of course, after all of this, to see how things actually turn out. By showing not only the events of the story, but also the characters' thoughts and memories, Trier gives a full account of the emotions that the characters endure. In addition, the importance of friendships and relationships is also shown through the characters' banter and teasing and stumbles as they try to find the right way to deal with other people. Their hearts are open and we are let into them and bond with them as they are swept along by events.
In the introduction to this film, the audience was told to be kind to Trier and the rest of the delegation, as this was the international premier of this debut film - and the director had never had a feature film shown to any audience ever before. Cheers welcomed them into the hall. And I have to say, I think they are deserved. This is an extremely proficient effort for a first film, which combines sensitivity and dry humour, style and emotional understanding, excellent acting and cinematic control. It is certainly one of the strongest films in the competition this year.