One of the most brilliant films ever made, it is also one of the most challenging to watch. Alexii German's film about the Doctor's Plot of 1953, the Stalin-Beria machine, and anti-semitism is a brutal and farcical exploration that puts the viewer into states of disorientation, narrative panic - even induced paranoia - that captures the feel of late stalinism (where no one could follow the plot.) The mix of comedy and atmosphere of threat and brutality is not for the meek. It is a film of frenzied imagination that shifts registers (no one knows whats going on, thus no one person can relate the whole story) and genres (mystery, thriller, comedy, drama, historical, horror, melodrama.) It is never easy to follow, but also never random - all of the decisions work to leave clues to the plot while effortlessly conveying the tone of the period with each scene. Don't try for a complicated symbolic reading (when the "very semitic looking" twins dash in and out of closets at various points in the film they are playing out their own paranoid neurosis of having to hide in these closets when the authorities come, no symbols here.) The nonsense is very, very real. Be ready for a continual denial of certainty. Thankfully, it is beautifully shot to ease the challenge. Be sad (or sigh in relief, depending) that the original director's cut isn't available. Its even "moreso" in every way!! One of Russia's most daring and original filmmakers.
Review of Khrustalyov, My Car!
