anachesa Reviews

Night Watch (2004)

Would prefer to see "Labyrinth of Reflections" being filmed

[6/10 · 25 August 2004]

Talking about the filming of Sergei Lukyanenko books, I'd prefer to see a movie being made from that one I've mentioned. It is far more original (was written way before "The Matrix" made it to the cinema...), it has an interesting and dynamic plot and would require a real creativity from the crew to get the filming job good done. Of course, it is much more easy to make a movie where there are par excellence dirty streets, psychotic characters and some (may be even decent) fighting scenes... I would be delighted if they would at least develop the plot into a grotesque, this could be at least funny, but it did not happen either...

I feel sad that films like this one are being made and popular in Russia. It looks like the country struggles to play along the "western" stereotypes about Russia and the Russians. If they had such a terrible urge to produce an epic, why take Lukyanenko's stuff then? He is not the best SF writer in modern Russia. There is Nick Perumov, there are H.L.Oldie, with much more nicer stories (I personally like their story of Heracles, it could yield - IMO - a way more stunning and interesting plot than what we've seen in "Troy"...), but Mr.Lukyanenko is the most notorious one and his books become a mass-culture phenomenon, so lets make the movie and convince everybody that this was the best we could do...

I guess I am not going to get a majority here but I do not think that I'll change my point of view regarding this picture.

Colette, une femme libre (2004– )

Nice, sad, romantic movie

[9/10 · 9 July 2004]

I've seen this movie (actually, part 2 only) late at night, and I found it quite touching. The story itself is not original (but then, how could a romance be?..), but the style itself, all those small gestures, nice colors, like an aquarelle. Something you'd like to look at if you are in romantic mood. Marie Trintignant played absolutely convincing. Such a pity that a real life turned out to be so ghastly for her, this makes a movie even more sad than it was supposed to be.

Also, having such a good impression after seeing only the second part of the film, I cannot be sure whether it would be the same if I'd seen it from the very beginning. Sometimes too much explanation kills the essence of the story. I know at least one other movie - namely, "Meet Joe Black", that left much better impression the first time, when I started to look a way after the prologue part.

Ronin (1998)

There is something

[8/10 · 8 February 2004]

Although the plot itself is not that great, there is something in this film that made me watch it several times. An atmosphere, perhaps. It is being played in somewhat imaginary world, that makes it close to a fairy tale. I would say, the film is about loneliness, when you can no longer find your place in the changed world, something great and important has disappeared, so you are doing odd jobs, any kind of jobs you could be suitable for because of your past expertise, and the only thing you have left is to look up for some amusement while trying to survive further.

Also, there is a great car chasing scene that beats the mock-up in the Matrix 2.

Doctor Zhivago (1965)

only good as an implementation of a western myth about Russia

[29 December 2003]

This film, in my opinion, has very little to do with a book itself and with a country and a time over which it had been written. I guess that it goes in line with what the western people think about Russia, and that is why it was a success. But for me, as a person with Russian background, it appears here too glamorous, there too simple, and somewhere else simply wrong. And of course, it misses the poetry of Boris Pasternak which was the real essence of the story, and the book itself only a lengthy comment. Sorry, but the film felt as a miss. 6 out of 10, only for the effort to make it.