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"12 Angry Men."
Don't be deceived by the title, these Russian men are even more angry then their American forerunners! I don't know why the director chose not to include even ONE woman in the jury but, hey, the guys all gave damn fine performances-- in the over-the-top Hollywood style. It is intriguing to see Russians chew scenery--- almost literally--- in a superior fashion to their American brethren: perestroika comes to acting.
This is not art, at all, but very fine craft-work and highly entertaining. Like all melodramas, there also is a MESSAGE. The tree is cut, the wood is chopped, the mallet is fashioned, and it is hammered into your head with panache.
The story? A young Chechnyan is accused of brutally murdering his step-father with a commando knife. Several eye-witnesses accuse him at the trial and there is evidence linking him directly to the murder weapon. Of course, were it all this simple, the title would stand for the number of seconds in the film. As they more closely examine the evidence, the jurors make some surprising discoveries, a la Sherlock Holmes (no special effects, no kung-fu--- but a hint of drugs.....).
Follow Ups:
He can shove his film us his ass. His father was scumbag, dead now... he is scumbag. The family of Kremlin ass lickers.
in which he also starred, as well as several other highly rated films. In "12," he towered over the rather amazing collection of actors though his role had none of the pyrotechnics.
Wikipedia has this to say about what appears to be a very distinguished family, with his father having many accomplishments:
"Mikhalkov was born into the distinguished, artistic Mikhalkov family. His great grandfather was the imperial governor of Yaroslavl, whose mother was a Galitzine princess. Nikita's father, Sergei Mikhalkov, is best known as writer of children's literature, although he also wrote lyrics to his country's national anthem on three different occasions spanning nearly 60 years—two different sets of lyrics used for the Soviet national anthem, and the current lyrics of the Russian national anthem. Nikita's mother, the poetess Natalia Konchalovskaya, was the daughter of the avant-garde artist Pyotr Konchalovsky and granddaughter of another outstanding painter, Vasily Surikov. Nikita's older brother is the filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky, primarily known for his collaboration with Andrei Tarkovsky and his own Hollywood action films, such as Runaway Train.
[edit]"
It is far more to the point.
"Putin's right-hand man in reviving Russian film over the last decade has been Nikita Mikhalkov, one of Russia's best-known directors and a former Unified Russia Duma deputy. His moody 1994 film "Burnt By The Sun" captured the grinding daily tension of the height of Stalin's purges and won the Oscar for best foreign-language film. Mikhalkov has headed the Russian Cinematographers Union since 1997.
Mikhalkov is a strong supporter of Putin. Last year, he produced a glowing television biography of Putin to mark the then-president's 55th birthday, and he provoked controversy by issuing an open letter in the name of the union urging Putin to remain as president for a third term, despite a constitutional ban on his doing so.
This week in Moscow, the Cinematographers Union held a disputed congress that Mikhalkov denounced as illegitimate. The union membership is sharply divided over Mikhalkov's authoritarian style and concerned that his close relationship with Putin could result in less independence for filmmakers."
dfs
.
not exactly the kind of paranoia which would serve us well in the WH.
He also acted like a racist while claiming not to be one.
"Reagan opposed certain civil rights legislation, although he later reversed his opposition to voting rights and fair housing laws. He strongly denied having racist motives.[52] When legislation that would become Medicare was introduced in 1961, Reagan created a recording for the American Medical Association warning that such legislation would mean the end of freedom in America. "
All in all, your hero did more damage to his country than Putin has done to his-- he was, in other words, both the actor and the president and did double the damage.
...you have my permission not to watch Ronnie's movies!Or Putin's... for that matter!
Edits: 01/22/10
d
Today, looking back, I can see the spots.
If you want to see a REALLY great Russian film, try to get a copy of Heart of a Dog. It may be hard to relate in places, and much of it will go over any foreigner's head, but as far as movie making goes, that one is simply superb, with absolutely record-setting acting by Yevstigneev.
Next to works like that Mikhalkov's opuses look like teacher's pet's lame homework.
d
.
mention and the commentary. Truly, the older Doc and Sharikov are very, very good actors, quite unmatched in gravitas by this generation of "ironic" American actors.
Bulgy isn't my cup of tea, The Master and Margarita I read but found too fantastic, too outlandish. That said, the first--- I'd guess--- twenty or thirty pages with that railway accident I found incredibly good. The conceits of Bulgy are too strong, too crazy to contain my interest for very long. It's not him, per se: I can't make it through the Central and S. American similar authors such as Cortazar and Marquez.
I couldn't tell the exact sequence nor link them so my viewing experience wasn't totally pleasurable, nor is my computer screen very large (20" Apple). Still, I saw enough and clearly want to find a dvd to watch in entirety and in proper sequence.
At this moment it occurred to me that perhaps if I think of Bulgy as a a mix of Monty Python and Bunuel I'll appreciate it more. Yes, that may be the key.
I started watching and couldn't stop...
By a coincidence, we were discussing Bulgakov's life the other day... I expressed my surprise that after writing this work in 1925 he managed to die not from a bullet but illness in 1940. People had been destroyed for much, much less.
The subs do not accurately convey the Bulgakov's acidic sense of humor, and there are obvious errors in spots, but overall it is there, and I am very glad it is available.
Dying to hear your reaction... that movie is extremely dear to me.
pretty amazed that this book and movie could have been openly produced at any time in the soviet era. I'm equally puzzled that the film isn't better known. Apparently the book was "banned" from publishing for 60 years. As you say, one is compelled to wonder how in the world did Bulgakov escape a quiet state bullet in the head?
The political overtones of it are blatant.
Brilliant, surgical, for-the-masses insight into the simmering chaos and inevitable breakdown of revolutionary man's creations - technological, social or otherwise, absent humility. Whether on a personal or committee level.
There were times when I stopped action or turned the sound off to gauge my impression. The strength and character of the story is still there in the sheer images. What vividly-drawn characters, including the weather, the spare street life, the rickety contraptions, the imposing little desperation in everything.
I may read the book but my intuition is that the film is a successful adaptation and carries Bulgakov's weight very well. I'm still mulling the film and want to watch again. In seeing it for the first time last night I thought of Chaplin, Renoir, the Marx brothers, Carroll, Bunuel......
For me it is top rank movie making. Everybody who loves film needs to know about it.
I am glad you liked it... like I said, I consider it a very special movie.It seems like you have been able to grasp the essence of it, and yes, the movie does great justice to the wonderful book.
I wonder, however, with the subtitles between you and the Bulgakov's prose, how much falls the prey to untranslatable cultural undertones. Bulgakov's language is thick, every word is important, one misses one word in a long sentence and it loses its sharp focus.
A case in point - one of the most poignant parts to professor's monologues was the subject of Disruption... or "Razrukha" in Russian. One will not be able to fully feel the depth of the cuttingly sarcastic remarks without knowing the role that word has played in Soviet propaganda, its importance in the endless rhetoric. "Razrukha" was the all-encompassing excuse for all the bad things that the Revolution brought to the country... of course the bolsheviks "inherited" it, it was "forced" on them, imported and installed by the international aggressors. The professor goes to the heart of the problem, and his analysis is one of the many bright sparkles that populate Bulgakov's work.
The directing, the cinematography, the acting are all outstanding - including the discovery of Vladimir Tolokonnikov - Sharikov, totally unknown to that point.
If you liked this one, you might want to find his other works - particularly his Master and Margarita, and Idiot.
Edits: 01/23/10
but don't know about this claim you make. Where can I find some documentation on the subject, editorial or otherwise?
Seriously.
It is easy to find materials supporting that view point in Russian, that is common knowledge. I don't know how much is available in English.Mikhalkov-the-Elder has been a dedicated Party servant for over 60 years. Stalin loved his poetry - the man had talent - and Mikhalkov did his best to maintain his top position in the Soviet literary establishment. He served all other leaders after Stalin, and wrote the text of the ridiculously clumsy Soviet anthem, glorifying Stalin... then, after Stalin's fall from grace - Lenin, and then finding new master in Putin. Boris Yeltsyn decided to drop the old Soviet anthem, and to switch back to old traditional Russian instead. But that did not sit well with the new communist guard, and Putin brought back the Stalin anthem, but now with some words changed for the third time by the ever loyal Mikhalkov.
For his anthem achievements the Russian sharp tongues had coined rather insulting nicknames for the guy - gimnochist and gimniuk, hybrid words, both of them having to do with the fact the Russian word for anthem can be easily modified into the word meaning shit. Therefore lied people's opinion of the man.
Masters changed, but Mikhalkov always remained at the helm of the Union of the Soviet Writers, and there he destroyed his name by conducting one smear campaign after another, aimed at the writers and poets who for one reason or the other deviated from the party line. He was instrumental in virtually destroying the lives of people like Pasternak.
Almost as much can be said about his son. One of his latest achievements was the open letter to Putin, begging him to be a good father and leader to the lost and weak members of the Russian cultural intelligentsia. It immediately brought back the memories of Stalin time, and killed all the doubts about the moral fiber of the author.
Today he is not much more than an old school party apparatchik.
I am sure you can find plenty of links on Internet, here is one interesting analysis:
Edits: 01/22/10 01/22/10 01/22/10
How does it compare to the original?
-Wendell
d
in a melodramatic kind of way. Characterizations were boldly drawn, if not at times over the top.I'm not familiar with the Russian justice system but it seemed to be a Russian film exercise on a thoroughly U.S. theme. We all know the outcome; the getting there did not carry the same serious tone or gravitas as did the American film. It is somewhat a rolic. A novelty for a Russian audience, maybe?
Did not quite ring true to my American sensibility. As if someone were speaking a non-native language perfectly as far as grammar, rich vocabulary, etc. are concerned but with an incongruous, non-ironic heavy accent.
There's an unexpected, not terribly original little twist at the end but for the most part it's not quite believable that 12 Russians of such disparate backgrounds would reach such an equitable, idealistic decision.
Some highly accomplished actors who have all done more satisfying work elsewhere.
Not worth a second viewing for me.
Edits: 01/21/10
d
as you say, all the delicious scene-chewing. A Hollywoodish effort from some deservedly popular, familiar Russians, who probably had a high old time showing off for the audience and one another.
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