Piter FM

I found the film Piter FM was entertaining though it wasn’t as intense or thought provoking as some of the previous films we have watched. It really had nothing to do with politics in any form and it didn’t really relate back to Russian or Soviet History. I agree that the star of the film Piter FM was the city of St. Petersburg. Throughout the film there was great shots of the city that really captured its “personality.” I found the dynamic between Masha and Maksim quite interesting. They get so close to meeting and you expect them to figure who one another is but they get so close yet really so far. They’re relationship in a way reminded me of a pen pal as they had never met each other but had simply talked through the phone. 

The Return

In the film we watched, The Return, it has a very gloomy and dark atmosphere to it. No colors really come to mind other than black and white. This seems to center around the character of the father. I would characterize the father as a negative character. He doesn’t seem to like his kids that much, he always has an unpleasant demeanor about him and there seems to be something about his past that he wants to keep hidden and not talk about. It’s apparent he has been away from the family for a while and this seems to have a negative effect on his kids. Andrey, the oldest, doesn’t seem to hate his father but he is intimidated by him and does his best to impress him. Ivan, the younger brother, hates his father and does not do anything to hide it. He goes as far as to say he wants him dead and near the end threatens to kill him. The lack of the father throughout their lives has forced the brothers to rely on each other and this comes apparent when their father dies. Since they haven’t really had a father figure most of their lives the boys don’t seem to be shaken by their father’s death as if they were almost expecting it or simply were used to the idea of no father.

Brother

The film Brother centers on the character, Danila. I think Danila’s character is good at heart but it seems his experiences from the weather seems to have taken the emotion and feeling out of him. He seems to be immune to violence. I don’t believe he wishes to be violent but the army has engrained that in his nature to the point that he can’t go back. This is what makes him perfect for these mob assignments. His conscience doesn’t get in the way. He can go out and do a “job” and not think twice about it. We are meant to approve or sympathize with some of his actions. He always lets the innocent go even though most would take them out for what they know. He meets a German man who he helps from the continuous harassment he faces. Another instance of this controversial sympathy we may have is where he puts the men at gunpoint on a bus for not paying their ticket. He has a vigilante character to him. He helps the good people and kills the “bad” guys. What makes Danila character seem real is that music is his escape. I think at times when life is at a rough point music helps express that for us or it helps us escape from the world for a little bit. This is the case with Danila. His life has been rough and throughout the film it gets tougher and music is that escape.

Little Vera

In Little Vera, Vera starts out the opposite of a heroine. Her parents looked down on her because of her rebelling attitude toward them. Her older brother Viktor criticizes her for lack of motivation and drive toward life. She has an I-don’t-care and a tough guy attitude about everything. Throughout the film you begin to see her walls coming down before she has an ultimate breakdown at the end of the film. She takes care of her drunk father. She wants things to work out between her fiancé Sergei and her parents but Sergei also has a rebellious attitude and treats Vera’s parents disrespectfully which ends up getting him stabbed. Before her major breakdown, she is at the beach with her family when she loses it when her mother claims she never wanted to have her. Though it seems at first like Vera deserves the grief from her parents it starts to become apparent that her parents are too hard on her and she isn’t very wanted and that her breakdown is understandable. I wouldn’t say Vera is a heroine but she is a sympathetic character with the verbal abuse she takes from her parents. I also sympathize with her father. Yes he is an alcoholic but the mother seems like an extremely difficult person to live with. Sergei is not by any means a sympathetic character and seems to cause even more tension in the family then there already is.  

Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears

Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears was one of the longer films we have watched so far and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought it was great how the film was set in two significant time periods in Soviet History; the Thaw and the era of Stagnation. During both these parts of the films you really get a sense for what life was like in the Soviet Union during the time periods. I’m sure this film glorified a little was Soviet life was really like but for the most part it seemed like a fairly accurate portrayal. Women typically had lower end jobs such as a factory worker and men typically held the more high-end jobs. It was interesting how men seemed to be attracted or approving of a woman with a job of less status than theirs. They didn’t really seem to care what characteristics they had, just what their status was. Katya had deceived her first love, Rudolph, into thinking she lead a higher end life, which is what he was looking for in a woman. When he finds out it’s a lie he leaves her. Later on in the film, she meets the man of her dreams in Gosha on a train. Things seem to be going smoothly until he finds out she has worked her way up to a executive director he temporarily leaves her. During this temporary leave by Gosha I believed he would end up coming back to Katya. He loved her and I thought his heart was in the right place and that he would get over what a women’s status is suppose to be.

Ballad of a Soldier

Ballad of a Soldier was an easier watch in comparison to the most recent film we watched, Mirror. Though throughout the movie I was thrown for a loop here and there but it was still easy to follow and understand what is going on. Compared to other films we watched this didn’t have much of a Socialist Realist feel at all. Those films seemed to try and convey a message of propaganda and how the great the Soviet Union is more than the director conveying a specific message of his own or simply entertaining the audience with a story. Socialist Realist films were not as much about the individual but more about the Soviet people.  They didn’t want individuals rising above one another. In Ballad of a Soldier we see the focus on an individual, Alyosha. Throughout the film he is busy helping anyone he gets the chance to which hinders him getting home on time since he only has a short time to be home. He meets this girl, Shura, and they seem to have a connection of being more than just friends. To my surprise, we never really see that blossom into anything. They go their separate ways to never see each other. The ending also caught me off guard. He only gets a few minutes to see his mother and then he has to go and that is the end. It didn’t feel like a sad ending but it certainly didn’t seem like a happy one either. He goes out of his way to help others and doesn’t seem to be rewarded in the end. He falls in love and never gets to see the girl again and he only gets to be home for a few short minutes.

Mirror

Mirror may have been the strangest film I have ever seen. To be honest, I never fully knew what was going on. Though the film was strange and had me confused there were some intriguing aspects to it. At the beginning, after a man is leaving after asking for directions, the wind picks up rapidly. This puzzled me and I am still puzzled to why this is and what significance it played. Throughout the film it switches from color to black and white to signify a dream or flashback. Though we occasionally use this in films today it seemed to be used quite often throughout this film, which I found interesting. Throughout the entire film there was an eerie feel to it, which kept me intrigued despite being lost throughout most of the film. I am curious to know what Tarkovsky’s motivation to make a film like this was and to see what the deeper meaning behind this confusing film is.