Alexandra
Director Alexander SokurovO
Director Alexander SokurovO
riginal story Alexander Sokurov
Producer Andrey SigleCo-producer Loran Danielou in association with «Rezo Productions» France with support of the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography of the Russian Federation and Centre National de la Cinematographie France
An old woman named Alexandra comes to the military unit to see her grandson – the officer of Russian Army, who serves in Chechnya. A long talk with her grandson - a young officer – like a complicated way to each other, a chance meeting with an unknown native woman and a walk around the “wounded” city… - all these events of the latest two days moved her heart deeply. The film tells about the delicate gist of human relations.
Critical reception
The film received positive reviews from critics, although other critics found to be slow and difficult to sit through.[
The film received positive reviews from critics, although other critics found to be slow and difficult to sit through.[
Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 84 out of 100, based on 5 reviews.
Manohla Dargis of The New York Times named it the 3rd best film of 2008[4], Michael Philllips of the Chicago Tribune named it the 6th best film of 2008 and Bill White of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer named it the 8th best film of 2008
However, David Fear of Time Out: New York wrote: "Sokurov prefers the sort of deliberate pace that tests ADD-afflicted viewers. This isn’t an opinion: He’s an unapologetic practitioner of crafting “difficult” films, and a proud member of a slow-and-low legacy that extends from Antonioni to Akerman, from Tarkovsky to Tarr."
Movie review
From Time Out New York
One of the few roaring lions still producing genuine art-house cinema, Russian director Alexander Sokurov prefers the sort of deliberate pace that tests ADD-afflicted viewers. This isn’t an opinion: He’s an unapologetic practitioner of crafting “difficult” films, and a proud member of a slow-and-low legacy that extends from Antonioni to Akerman, from Tarkovsky to Tarr.
So to laud Sokurov’s latest film for being accessible is faint praise, as if the fact that you don’t need a Ph.D. in Russian history to watch it constitutes its worthiness. Alexandra’s story of an elderly woman (Vishnevskaya) who visits a remote military outpost may seem more straightforward than the director’s usual knotty, gnostic parables, but it’s neither simplistic nor a sellout. Even though Sokurov brings the characteristic symbolism—he might have titled this Mother Russia and Her Sons—the emotional aspects aren’t overshadowed by the intellectual ones. The balance makes all the difference.
As Alexandra tours the grounds where her grandson (Shevtsov) is stationed (the location is never specified, but it’s obviously Chechnya), the filmmaker paints a delicate portrait of soldiering: the banality of barrack life, the way machinery takes spatial precedence over human beings. The “enemy” is also given a face and a voice, but politics eventually plays second fiddle to the bond between the woman and her ward. That’s where the heart of Sokurov’s moving allegory beats loudest, paying off in a climactic sequence of hair-braiding that boils down nationalistic nurturing to a single tender, devastating gesture.
Author: David Fear 2008-03-25 16:28:34
Source:Time Out New York Issue 652: March 27–April 2, 2008
Alexander Nikolayevich Sokurov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Соку́ров) (b. June 14, 1951, Podorwikha, Irkutsk Oblast) is a Russian filmmaker from St Petersburg who has been hailed as successor to renowned director Andrei Tarkovsky.
Sokurov was born in Siberia into a military officer's family. He graduated from the History Department of the Nizhny Novgorod University in 1974 and entered one of the VGIK studios the following year. There he made friendship with Tarkovsky and was deeply influenced by his Mirror.
Most of Sokurov's early features were banned by Soviet authorities. During his early period, he produced numerous documentaries, including an interview with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and a reportage about Grigori Kozintsev's flat in St Petersburg.
Mother and Son (1996) was his first internationally acclaimed feature film. It was mirrored by Father and Son (2003) which baffled the critics with its implicit homoeroticism (though Sokurov himself has criticized this particular interpretation. In the Wellspring DVD release, critic Armond White cited Sokurov's defense of the film against charges that it is "homoerotic". White explicated Sokurov's artistic and spiritual style, noting "To accept Sokurov's images without fear or limitation--to think love not smut--points lust in the direction of progress".[citation needed]. Sokurov has also filmed the first three installments of a planned tetralogy on prominent 20th-century rulers: Moloch (1999) about Hitler, Taurus (2000) about Lenin, and The Sun (2004) about Emperor Hirohito.
Sokurov is a Cannes Film Festival regular, four of his movies having debuted there one by one. Although he has been somewhat reluctant to cast accomplished actors in his features,[citation needed] the Russian Film Academy awarded several Nika Awards to him. His most commercially and critically successful effort to date has been a semi-documentary Russian Ark (2002), acclaimed primarily for its visually hypnotic images and single, unedited, shot.
Alexander SokurovOriginal
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