Normally, the sniffle when choosing movies to watch doesn’t fool me, but not this time. As someone who equally respected Russian classics and Soviet and post-Soviet cinema, she was deeply disappointed.
Even if we consider this picture not as a biographical film, but as an artistic element ' based on the life of a famous writer, there is nothing good to say about him. As a fan of the genre of biography and drama, to be honest, the film is quite bland. Still, such a genre involves a deep disclosure of characters through dramatic knots and catharsis, neither of which was discovered. Events that randomly succeed each other, sometimes absolutely logical, absolutely do not set up for empathy with the characters. The era itself has been perfectly recreated, but what about these beautiful manners, French speeches, if they do not hide the disclosure of the characters? It feels like a beautiful ' highly artistic' picture-deception was the usual flat vulgar love novel. For those who want to watch the film without knowing the details of Bunin's life, this viewing would be a mistake. You will not learn anything new, you will not enrich yourself with any feelings about the life of the writer, you will not pity his wife or mistress, let alone friends.
This hour and a half lasted like three, in the thirtieth minute because of the monotony of the narrative I already wanted to turn off. I don’t recommend this film to anyone who can watch a movie for three hours, if it’s beautiful and well done, if there’s an element of empathy, there’s absolutely nothing. The dog will be very sad.
“Problems” of the intelligentsia through the eyes of the director and screenwriter.
I watched the film 3 years ago, but then I did not write a review. For that would be 'ton of bricks'. A good theme was chosen for the story, to show the fate of the Russian intelligentsia on the example of Bunin, how it developed away from the Motherland ... the land where the echoes of the Russian Empire were no longer objectively needed by anyone.
But after watching it ' creation' I have no sympathy ' problems' Ivan Alekseevich did not appear at all. The screenwriter and the director (and, at their command, the actors) created an image of the worthless existence of the fattened Russian intelligentsia abroad.
The same events could be shown much better without unnecessary scenes of hysteria and inadequacy of the characters. Especially outrageous to me was the thought where, according to the authors, the viewer should feel 'patriotism' Ivan Alekseevich for Russia (let us not forget that the war was on the territory of the Soviet Union) during the Second World War. But what did patriotism mean in this film? How did you get caught broadcasting banned broadcasts in a warm house in France? And that Ivan Alekseevich managed to squander the entire Nobel Prize? About how he was hanging out with women? Do you care about the feelings of others?
The authors, unknowingly, created a contrast between 'patriotism' and personal problems ' on the female part' a great writer (despite all my bile of this review and views in this part...I believe that Ivan Alekseevich is a really significant writer for our culture).
We wanted to make a film for people who praise emigration and its figures, to convey the idea that people who loved it wholeheartedly left Russia. About the difficult fate of a man doomed to live in emigration and his spiritual problems. But this is exactly the opposite.
I have always loved Bunin’s work. His prose is subtle, lyrical, as if the tulle develops due to the breath of a slight breeze. What colorful, 'live' landscapes he painted...
And I didn't care what kind of person he was. In fact, it doesn't matter now. Creativity matters. Each great (albeit relatively) creator had their own strangenesses, these are their personal problems, it is ugly to get into other people's personal affairs. But the Master took and poured on the viewer alien and personal. Made it gorgeous and ugly. No, there were pleasant moments (for example, shooting by the sea), communication Galina and Marga in the twilight of the late evening, but, in general, the film resembled a tabloid novel. All someone ' love', everyone wants something, the main character, aka Bunin, has no idea about morality. Literature knows people who, being such creatures, wrote piercing and soulful things, so I will not judge his behavior. His writer. But I was pissed off by this movie Bunin. An old and bloated womanizer, spitting on his wife and her feelings, simply confronted her with the fact that his young mistress would now live them. Horrible. And she endures, they say, for the sake of greatness, for the sake of genius, well, her choice, there is no one to pity. But I always feel sorry for people who are alien to pure relationships, loyalty and true love, and not the thirst for thrills, which they call ' loupofey'.
Cinematic Bunin is not only a good bastard, he's also a hysterical, vulgar dude. I can’t imagine that this person wrote the same 'Antonov apples'. The entire timekeeping, the actor playing Bunin, yelled, bulged his eyes and tried to prove something to someone, although, in fact, he does not need anyone but himself.
I think the main character is clear. He's weak, he's disgusted.
The most adequate heroines are Galina and Marga, in whose love you believe.
The film absorbed all the clichés of small ' bourgeois' art form, so popular at the beginning of zero. Many loud words about love that cannot be seen because it is not, hypertrophied and theatrical suffering, dark halls, rooms, boudoirs, mouthpiece, languid look, 'ah, this intelligentsia ...' The usual stereotypes that this is what Russian writers in exile lived and breathed. No halftones for you. Cliche in all its glory.
It's a fake, it's a photocopy of art. The same story could have been told differently, deeper, more tragic, the same Bunin could have been less disgusting. How much truth is in this movie? Not too much, I'm afraid. But they could shoot much better, even if this is just a fairy tale about a poor emigrant who already does not get caviar down his throat when fierce battles were going on near Stalingrad. Why are you doing this to the intelligentsia? They were the right people.
At times, the creators struck a slight poeticity, so soon washed away by waves of boulevardism, to which I want to answer: 'fi'.
On a quiet peaceful villa, on the background of an endless and brooding sea, passion, love, madness, hatred flashes...
At first glance, this whole story looks very strange, unnatural, abnormal. At a second glance, it becomes nervously funny when you realize that in principle these are real lives of real people ... Who is Bunin? "The Sun and the Moon of Russian Literature", as he calls himself in the picture? A little crazy, but brilliant creator? An ironic, unhappy and lonely man? Old but in love like a boy? Bunin is all of the above and still a little more. This is some huge force, a hurricane that captures the fate of other people, weaving them into one wild tangle, where everyone is unhappy in his own way, and yet Jan himself, as his relatives call him, is always the most unhappy of all.
We see a 63-year-old writer living in a villa on the French Riviera with his wife Vera and a young poet Galina. In this strange trio, everyone feels a little uncomfortable, except perhaps Bunin himself. You will say that it is disgusting and it went to live with your wife and mistress together, but when watching for some reason, you do not feel the slightest “possession”. Everything seems simple and correct.
A man arrives with news about the possible award of the Nobel Prize to Bunin and ... stays. Galina’s new friend arrives and stays. On a quiet peaceful villa, against the backdrop of an endless and pensive sea, passion, love, madness, hatred flashes ... That man loves Vera, Vera loves Bunin, he loves Galina, Galina loves her friend. Everyone loves, everyone suffers, because they cannot free themselves, unravel, separate, and life brings them together again and again.
The picture, of course, is about Bunin. Not the author of sensual and heartfelt stories, but about a simple man yearning for his homeland, hating death, wanting love. He is a terrible egoist, sometimes cold, sarcastic, mockingly indifferent, easily infuriated, often melancholy, sullen. Often performing strange antics, not listening to anyone, closed in and living thoughts about the past, living in the past. Yes, he, not wanting to worry his wife, still constantly causes her pain and suffering, he does not want to let Galina go, because he needs her as the last hope, the last passionate love. And yet, after all, you begin to sympathize with Ivan Alekseevich when you laugh at his bitter jokes, when you see this detached expression in which the eternal saying is written: "What vulgarity, what a stupid drama around!" It’s a drama that becomes his life. And this is not languid disillusionment, this is a sincere suffering of the soul, which forever remained in that old pre-revolutionary Russia, remained there forever, realizing that that Russia has long gone.
The film is called "Diary of his wife", and immediately think: "Is the film only about Bunin made?" Maybe the main character is a miserable Vera, complaining, indignant, but constantly patient, waiting, forgiving. Faith that loved her husband all his life, submitting to his whims, desires, sorrows, quirks. A woman whose voice we hear from time to time in the background who tells this story of love and loneliness. First of all, my love. And your loneliness.
In the film, an amazing acting game: Andrey Smirnov as Ivan Bunin is so natural, so ideal with an indifferent expression, the sound of an aristocratic voice, leisurely movements and a long look in which something different, distant, is read. Perhaps for his sake alone, I am ready to revisit the picture. I also want to mention Olga Budina for her subtle intelligent, almost marble beauty. Her image of Galina - airy, elusive, elusive, elusive as a youth - allows you to finally understand the passion that the writer had for the girl.
“The Diary of His Wife” of 2000 resembles some Bunin story: sensual nature, ideal shots, heroes lost in life, their unhappy love and tragic fates. As if the creators decided to visualize the Bunin language: elegant female eyebrows, their hairstyles, dresses, large windows of the house, a semi-wild garden, deep coats, sea distance and bluish air ... Every detail is strung on top of each other, just as the words in the stories of the writer are easy, airy and sad.
9 out of 10
When you want to scratch your back, and the hand does not reach, you have to rub against the door joint, and this is not beautiful and annoying. The same is true of the movie “His Wife’s Diary.” But what do we do? As a student, when my interests were very different, I had this name on my ears, not as a writer or poet, but rather as a fashion fighter against totalitarianism. I couldn't stand it, I was crazy, I undertook to read Ivan Alekseevich, and I was stunned. I drowned in his “about the village” got lost in the “dark alleys” and even scared to think read his poems. Until now, the frightening charm of his stories and stories does not let go. Bunin himself seems to be a clear simple, friendly person. A man of peace. What about here? The director and the writer deliberately confuse the story at their discretion. Take a known name and how to string it to your chords. Great credit. I do not want to write about the skillful acting of actors, because they tend to do what is best, that is, to play themselves. Better two words about script and directing.
The great Russian writer was captured as a pictogram on a smartphone. The stormy clarification of relations is replaced by scenes of happy pastime right on the stopwatch as in Hollywood. The dish is cooked, the ingredients are observed, the salts are to taste. The film is designed for film critics for theatergoers, for those professionals before whom it is useful to identify, and not for us simple amateurs. Screenplay and directing are suspicious because there are no roughnesses necessary for creativity. There is a desire to self-actualize and only. To achieve plausibility, the technique of "detailing" is used, but it is too obvious, and therefore annoying, because dust is a detail of every speck of dust detail. Well, for example, could not favorite dog writer to run the bus because of the vehicles in that place several cars and a couple of yachts. Most likely, the dog died from a heartbreak caused by the immorality and liberality of the female half of this commune.
And the film is useful not for the viewer, but for the creator. A. The teacher taught to distrust scripts written at the level of feuilleton. I am sure Ivan Alekseevich would not recognize himself in this kino, and would be very angry.
For me, this film is primarily about women. We have two heroines – Vera and Galina.
Faith is a woman dependent on her husband in every sense, who takes care of him like a mother, serving him in every possible way and tolerating all the whims (and even a mistress in her house). We constantly see her serving tea, cleaning fish, rubbing dust - it seems that she lives in her house as a free housekeeper. Galina is a young mistress of Bunin, naive in her youth, an aspiring poetess. She settles in their home as a student of the writer, and in fact as the source of his fresh sexual impressions. However, despite her youth, Galina eventually finds the strength to overcome this emotional dependence and get out of unhealthy relationships.
Both women are very decent and intelligent, but still very different in character and life path, which they ultimately choose. In this sense, the scene in the twelfth minute of the film, where they reprint Bunin’s manuscript, is indicative. “Vera Nikolaevna, I’m a poet, not a secretary,” says Galina, to which Vera replies: “You know, I used to do chemistry too,” after which Galina puts the manuscript on the table and leaves.
Galina prefers to remain an independent person, and Vera - to be the unloved wife of a famous husband, forgetting about chemistry and even about her human dignity.
Films of this genre have always made a great impression on me. I believe that directors who undertake to show the audience the fate of a famous literary figure can make a name for themselves and find an audience for their film. After all, fans of Bunin will certainly want to look at their idol in the cinema, and if the director is talented, for example, as Alexei Uchitel, then you can not do without kind words. I cannot say that I am a mad fan of Bunin, but I am familiar with his works, which have always left a pleasant mark on what I read. It follows that I am not familiar with the biography of the author, so it was doubly interesting to watch. The life of writers is always something immense, as well as their works, as for reclusives, their fate is even more interesting, only about this film is difficult to shoot.
Polygonal love can happen to anyone, regardless of status or position. Insidious love, embraces all with its networks, interferes in discord and hates idyll. So it turns out that married Bunin loves his supposedly student, who in turn is a girl of non-standard orientation, and we have forgotten about Bunin’s wife, who is devoted to her husband, but she has a fan who can not without her. Love chaos, which consumes completely and does not let go until it ruins everyone’s life, on the other hand, shouting that it’s all rock, the easiest way. After all, everyone can pull himself together and run away from his vulgar desires, but no, we want to feel the sharpness of life. Also, once again we can make sure that the sweetest, always a bitch, you need to beware!
Alexey Uchitel, created an excellent atmosphere in the picture, fully conveyed the time and atmosphere. He selected the actors who got used to their roles in the best way and presented the world with an outstanding picture about a great man, the first Russian Nobel Prize winner in literature.
Disease, not love, or the role of victim in Russian culture
“Keep in mind, you have come to an extremely nervous house," – I.A. Bunin opens the doors of his house to visiting writer Gurov. And in the house, meanwhile, a tragedy is played out on a grand scale, feeding all its residents and guests. They live in this drama harmoniously, revelling in sorrows and claiming each individual award for their role. Therefore, the film does not look like a tragedy, but like a comedy, opera or farce, because in this house everyone is equally sick!
The main role here, of course, is played by Vera, the wife of Ivan Alekseevich, and not because of her narrative, but because here she is the most important, invincible victim in her devilish patience. The victim and the accuser, sometimes the persecutor. "Well, how else? How could you have endured all this? Who else could bear it? she proudly and cheerfully gives the foreword to the viewer.
In sacrifice, Vera has no equal here: she is both a quiet servant and a caring nurse, and a self-denial wife, adjacent to her husband’s mistress. Here she is a long-suffering woman, patiently accepting all the misadventures, while the other characters of the film ask the question that interests everyone: “Why does Vera tolerate all this?”
The image of a woman-martyr is widespread in Russian culture, therefore visiting Gurov and falls in love with the innocent Faith, suffering from genius. And Gurov’s pity is pleasant and necessary to her, but not his love, since her nominated lot is only patience, in love she is equal with all, uncertain and aimless.
And indeed, when the triangle falls apart, she is the first to advocate the return of prostitutes to the house, for in the role of an ordinary wife, sufferers live more sorrowfully than in the role: the tragedy that went like a feast is exhausted, and the gray life becomes really wretched and sad. Here, in the simplest life, begins the tragedy.
In general, the film is replete with victims, each of whom periodically passes into the role of accuser and persecutor, this is noted by IA Bunin and Gurov, and Galya. And everyone in this role is happy in his own way, found himself and therefore remains. Well, except that Galya continues to seek love and finds it, however, in the arms of a woman.
The theme of crippling, disfiguring, decapitating love goes through the entire cycle of Bunin’s stories “Dark Alleys”, written by I. A. Bunin in exile. It is not for nothing that in one of the scenes the writer reads an excerpt from his story “The Raven” (one of the best in the whole cycle) to the dog that replaced Galya.
A woman giving, maimed, deceived - such she is in dark alleys and in the film "The Diary of His Wife". I remember the words from the story of I. A. Bunin “Late Hour”, which he himself wrote about the best: “If there is a future life and we meet in it, I will stand there on my knees and kiss your feet for everything you gave me on earth.” But it will be only in the future life, so the life of the writer in this film symbolically (historically not exactly) ends on the train on the way to the future life.
10 out of 10
I loved this movie! It looks very easy. Such sunny, beautiful shots, as always with the Master, and the filling does not suffer. Here we are talking about Russia, the irretrievably gone past, love, suffering, and hopelessness. The fact that these people now have no place, but they are all connected by one fate and one misfortune, and therefore are not strangers to each other. Where there is laughter, there is life.
Olga Budina is lovely. I always love her, but here she's just a young Snow Maiden. I always associate her characters with me.
I don’t understand women like Vera, but in this story she doesn’t cause pity or contempt. She's in her place. That’s the way she can’t do it.