"Bridge Over Troubled Water"

THE CRANES ARE FLYING

Original Title: Летят журавли (Letyat zhuravli)
Year: 1957
Country: Soviet Union
Language: Russian
Number: 326
Director: Mikhail Kalatozov
Starring: Tatiana Samoilova, Aleksey Batalov, Aleksandr Shvorin, Vasili Merkuryev


Joseph Stalin's terror regime put an end to all creative groundbreaking movie making in the Soviet Union. All the films was purely propaganda, that only showed Lenin and Stalin's greatness, and during World War II this was used to sends millions of troops to the front, even more brutal than the Tsar Nicholas III did in the previous war. It was first after Stalin's death and Khrushchev's famous speech which criticized the Stalinism that the Russian cinema started to grown once more. And the subject that was brought up was the over twenty million soldiers and civilian that was killed during the war. This brought many director to make anti-war films, so that the soviet people finally got to morn over their loved ones.

The first film to do so was Mikhail Kalatozov's The Cranes are Flying in 1957. It tells the story about a young couple, who's barely in their twenties. Veronika and Boris are made for each other. But the war burst out, and Boris is enlisted, and have no time to say goodbye to his girlfriend. While he is away, his cousin Mark falls for Veronika, and since Boris is away she thinks it's her duty to marry Mark, because she hasn't heard from Boris and even assume the worst, and through the whole war she thinks of nothing but her lost love of her life Boris, whom no one knows is alive or dead. She volunteers as a nurse in Siberia, in hopes to find Boris among the wounded.

The Cranes are Flying isn't that we can call an original film in sense of plot, compared to the Americans they are twenty-thirty years behind. But the cinematography and use of hand-held camera is so superb. But it's also thanks to the good acting and the realistic art directions, which makes it more authentic then most of the anti-war films of it's time. And all the sad feelings, Veronikas grief and longings is so emotionally touching. It is indeed a very good anti-war film, that we can feel with our whole body. And it was the first in line of other russian anti-war films such as: Tarkovsky's Ivan's Childhood, Chukhrai's Ballad of a Soldier and Bondarchuk's War and Peace. All of them perfect anti-war films in any way, with no heroism nor any victory, just loss.


Grade: B+


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"Unpleasant Realism"

A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE

Year: 1974

Country: United States

Language: English

Number: 582

Director: John Cassavetes

Starring: Gena Rowlands, Peter Falk, Fred Draper, Lady Rowlands

John Cassavetes' A Woman Under the Influence is an amazingly realistic movie, to realistic, that one can be truly emotionally engaged and shocked, and scared of the out come of the characters themselves. Richard Dreyfuss have stated that he throw up during the film. This is a picture made from Cassavetes own soul, he spend his own money producing the film, and got some help from our leading man Peter Falk, who plays it's excellent along with Cassavetes' first lady Gena Rowlands who is even twice as good as Falk. They both really are those mentally ill people they are portraying.

A Woman Under the Influence is the story about the married couple Mabel (Rowlands) and Nick Longhetti (Falk) who is both what we can call mentally ill, though Nick is also insane, in are less harmful and more reliable way then Mabel is. Mabel seems to live in a different world than her husband which is not the real one. The only thing that holds their marriage together is their love for each other.

A Woman Under the Influence is one of those movies I like to call "unpleasant realism". It's a harrowing story, with real people and real issues, Insanity, and how it's effects the families, friends and specially the children which really horrified me, it was so terrible that If I had the power to really interact in a movie, it would have been this one, and the thing I would have done was called child services right away. Gene Rowlands delivers her sole greatest performance in her whole career.

Grade: A+


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"A real underground film"

UNDERGROUND  




Original Title: Подземље (Podzemlje)
Year: 1995
Country: Serbia and Montenegro/France/Germany
Language: Serbian, German, English
Number: 901
Director: Emir Kusturica
Starring: Miki Manojlović, Lazar Ristovski, Mirjana Joković, Slavko Štimac 


Emir Kusturica's Underground is one of those movies you never thought you where gonna see again. It's reminds me actually very much about The Tin Drum in that sense that it's more like a fantasy fairytale than the usual war drama film. Instead of a ungrownable boy, we have an intelligent chimpanzee. We have a orchestra that follow our main protagonist around every where they go. Due to all this, the story is amazing, and the subtext is just a wonderful and sad portrayal about the repressing conflicts between all the ethic groups in Yugoslavia.

Underground takes place in Belgrade in Yugoslavia durring world war II. we follow two best friends, Marko and Blacky who both works for the resistance, and they also are in love with the same girl, the actress Natalija who's at the beginning is in love with a nazi officer. But she eventually falls for Marko, and not Blacky who seems to bought the rights for her. Marko and Blacky's family and friends is hidden in Marko's basement, where they eventually starts manufacture weapons. He knows that he can't have the women he loves as long as his friend is around. So he come up with a plan of hiding them in the basement, and be sure to role the siren on a regular basis so all the people in the basement know it's not safe. He continue to do this even a long time after the war is over. The people down there thinks the war is still going on. While Marko has become one of the most powerful communist leader, while he makes his "deceased" friend Blacky a hero by raising statues of him and even gives permission to make a film about his life. How long will this charade go on?



I think I give a shot and try to tell you what's the symbolism is. The concept of hiding people in the basement, is to hide the truth of what really happened. Compared to the yugoslavian conflicts, not between yugoslavians and the germans, but rather croats against serbs and other ethic groups that isn't meant to live side by side in the beginning. The only reason that yugoslavia was united, was because of the lies. But it was immediately broken when the only thing that kept them together was gone; yugoslavia's president Tito. After that, all the old scar went back, like the humiliations after the war, when the serbs massacring thousands of croats as revenge for supporting germany after the war. But no one except the croats knew about it. It was first after the war that the anger of being pulled under the carpet or underground really had reached the topp. Lies puls all people together no matter what differences, but lies will not last for ever, and when it does people starts to remember their disagreement. The only thing that can pull them together is a common enemy.

Underground is simply a joy to watch. It's both funny and sad. It's funny to see the two best friends Marko and Blacky run around in Belgrade underground like Paul Newman and Robert Redford in The Sting. I also like the passionate love affair between Marko and Natalija. The whole movie is pretty much like a Fellini film, in that sense it feels like a circus and where everything is possible. It also has a great message about war, and never have I seen such effective scenes of how horrifying a bombing is, as much as there are some funny situations. I really enjoyed this movie, and I really hope to see it again soon.


Grade: A


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