What do you see outside? What if we take a closer look? It's a story about the inside and the outside. We see in the frame atmospheric 'household'very peculiar institution, the owner of which is an elderly, but extremely attractive ' abbot' mother of Lyuba. Fair and sensitive, she treats the world as if she were really a mother in a decent house of God, and not in an Odessa brothel. Empathizing with people and even insects, she takes to heart what is happening around, sensually enjoys the sun, the sea and thunderstorm, as well as the company of the elderly, mad, and besides the beggar romantic philosopher Adam.
The film is pure existentialism. Life flows in its way, people think as they were taught, projecting a seal of contempt to the representative of the ancient craft. And only the viewer revealed pieces of the soul of the heroine of mother Lyuba, her compassionate nature, and then you understand why she is a mother. Not her special status by occupation, but her maternal nature. And what is the value of her redemptive visits to the village to her mother, where she performs uncharacteristic physical work, tolerated by the local population? I take off my straw hat in front of her, she almost merged with the image of the daughter that her blue-eyed old mother wanted to see. You could say she was practicing karma. This is life, continuous service, redemption for having gone his way in spite of the censure prevailing in society.
Returning exhausted from pilgrimage to her native places, she peacefully falls asleep to the sounds of thunderstorms, and the white curtain covering her face hints at the pure and blameless nature of the representative of such an obscene, seemingly, craft. The blue-eyed boy staring sullenly at the camera is finally smiling. The moral of this fable is not all that black we think.
C'tob Wee knew, mutersha Ljubka keeps a den in the area of the 5th fountain and does not like fucking sobs. It's a nice environment. Among the clients - not the kukutnya, which from the Perespy, but legitimate seamen in ranks. Zinka-Hitler and Zygota work there, but mutersha bix does not offend. The carbach herself has, and the girls have enough for blueberries in a pot. Breathing spirits and fountains, courtesans play sea battle at work noon. Lubka does not deny himself anything either. Walking down Feldman Boulevard in a fielder dress. With a pont under an umbrella in a barberry bay drinks wine "Perlina stepu" with a patient on the head Adam Savafovich.
Adam is a shlimazl, who recently reclined from a kitschman, but still not the last in Odessa potz. Although he failed the installation of Katyusha to the fascists, Adam is a prophet, even with talent to Alexander Pushkin himself, something from the Cold Beam. He will not play checkers with simple whores for a bottle of schmurdil. Love through this respects him, and all the time eager to wash his stinky socks.
But not everything is so smooth in the work of the female team. It's 1958 on the street. Sometimes you get such a fuzen, God forbid. Chlamydniks and prosecutors from the Water Transport District are fooling their heads. Envious women are compared to the terrible Babylonian captivity. Each shabes spins a button and swings rights. Like, for example, the Bambino-prosecutor, he is a shitty boy and "killer" Arkash. Ljubka doesn't want to falsify Arkasha. Chips with him like a child, and he picks up the boil and demands Kozinaks!
"What am I for all this? Sunshine from old fool Adam and grinding dirt from young lady Arkashi? And I need it, a question is asked? – on the Ochakovo bus Ljubka decides to go to his mother, to Karmanivka, the village is very small. Here begins the very timez of the film by Alexander Gordon, the evil genius of “Closed Show”, rolled into the asphalt half of the Russian art house.
Many reviewers of the “Lights of the Deck”, noting the screen painting and the uniqueness of the world recreated in the picture, complained that all the storylines were cut, and the meaning drowned somewhere in the Black Sea. "What is this movie about?" “Who is it made for?” they said, leaving the 6th hall of the cinema “October”. Some interpreted the tape as the rehabilitation of the oldest profession. Perhaps, I agree with the accusations of understatement, half-heartedness, however, the film is not about heteras and not even about the difficult fate of a woman. Throughout the session, I was haunted by vague conjectures. And soon they were confirmed.
So, listen to this and don't make a pregnant head.
If you take and read the story of Harry Gordon “Priton Lights”, on the basis of which the film was shot, you can see where the storylines went and what the idea was. The original idea of the picture is simple as a muzzle and easily fits into the formula: “The history of the spiritual wildness of the world” (earlier the water was wet, and the girls – sissystee). The central semantic moment of the story and the emotional attraction of the film are the prophecies of Adam Safavovich, and not the misadventures of Lyuba. Adam, an army captain and former prisoner of Karlag, sits on the beach and tells about the future so that Cassandra herself could envy him.
Adam’s revelatory press consistently includes the era of Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Yeltsin and, most importantly, Putin’s time cut out of the plot. In the mouth of Adam, history is depicted as a descent into the underworld. Against the backdrop of future generations, even the whores and madmen of 1958 look like sufferers full of human grandeur. It is characteristic that the time preceding 1958, namely, the 20s, already in the mouths of minor characters, looks like the Golden Age:
“Wine no one really can do, and most importantly, does not want who needs it, will go away and so, the alcoholic eats up. No one catches fish anymore, because they can’t: they will put waiters and wait – chi catran will hit, chi ray. And if the beluga is caught, take it to the authorities.
Boyagus, dystrophy of the soul. Who now catches mullet on the cornea... They don’t know what they eat or what they eat. There are no fish, and more people are not. Who are you going to sea with, Fedka Soldan? Exactly. All I can do is pull a bull on a nearby can. In a week or two, the mackerel will go, the cocksucker is our way, and his engine is disassembled, it's lying there. And Fedik's sails don't know where he is..."
It seems that the film was conceived as a cry for a lost paradise. All the riot of images: Lyubka, Fraer, Khaz, baths - this is the sky in diamonds, about which prosecutor Zaslavsky (Bogdan Stupka) yearns. The lights of the den were to recreate the greatness of this paradise. But it didn't. The film was lobotomized. I don't know who's to blame. Maybe Alexander Gordon didn't have the talent. Maybe he wanted to remove the unambiguity of the message and create a fog. Or maybe it was censorship, God forbid. As a result, we have what we have. Alexander did not bring his Kozinaks to the desired degree. As a result, the dish turned raw, unfinished.
It is impossible not to note the amazing piety and increased skill of the director. There are no genitals or bed scenes in the brothel picture. In comparison with the “Shepherd of his cows” Alexander Harrievich grew up. Now he is not the “last poz” in the movie, but the “legitimate director”. Special thanks to the young actress Ekaterina Spitz, who brilliantly played Zinka-Hitler. As for the lead actress, Oksana Fandera, it seems to me that she lacked female charm.
The Last Prophecy of Adam:
“And the head of state will be a little C, because he knows the techniques of sambo. Speakers of the language, journalists and writers, will carry out such laziness and indifference that Turgenev and Bunin will turn over in the grave, not to mention Gogol. By the way, writers and artists will become like dirt. They will gurgle and hiss all over the surface like carbide in a puddle. “Jewish boys will own football teams, not play themselves.”
Do you want to buy Dynamo Kiev, Arkasha? Please. And the West German Bayern? - For God's sake.
Only you, Arkady, will not buy, because you will be old and poor.
6 out of 10
Another morning in the Odessa mess. The landlady of the apartment, in which every honest or not very honest Soviet worker could receive feminine warmth and affection, looks out the window at her native city, and sees it differently than she used to for many years of her craft. Tall pretty person, called his wards mother Any one, not of those who will cry in a vest for a long time or harass others with lamentations about aimlessly squandered youth, but the role of a Nekrasov woman is not at all what she aspires to and dreams of. Outside the brothel, she does not have many places where the soul finds at least a short-term peace, but the noisy Black Sea coast, where an elderly alcoholic philosopher often lives, allows Lyuba to forget about the prefix “mama”. Sunbathing under the bright sun, she can always remember the joyful moments of her non-standard life, men who go into a mess and cause a fan of various feelings, or simply indulge in dreams in which there is much more meaning than even she could imagine.
Odessa is one of those cities, myths about which there are so many that the truth sometimes has to dive into the most remote corners. In the film adaptation of his father’s work, Alexander Gordon was least focused on the poetic chanting of Pushkin, which is easily explained, after all, the times of porto-franco are long behind, and in the “Lights of the Den” nothing “Europe neither breathes nor blows”, but in a curious way Odessa itself does not become less beautiful from this. Gordon transferred to the screen the optimistic period of the life of Soviet citizens, Khrushchev’s thaw, and the variety of bright colors reigning in the picture amazingly harmonizes with the appearance of the main character, when contemplating which her oldest profession is last remembered. Rather charming Oksana Fandera refers the spectator's consciousness to "Malena" Giuseppe Thornator, the gift that Luba's mother is much less hostage to her position than the heroine Monica Bellucci. But how strong was the resemblance between the two women, and their fates a chain of unjolly events, reinforced by enduring public contempt. Mother Lyuba has a lot of patience and dignity, but when both come to a limit, she goes to her native coast, where the lines of life of people, for various reasons, feel themselves guests in the Odessa monastery, converge.
The craft of a prostitute leaves the owner with few options for planning the future, and this is the rare case when a woman is afraid to listen to the voice of her heart. The easiest way would be to imagine the heroine of Fandera as an analogue of the cynical Madame Anais from Buñuel’s Day Beauty. The criminal glory of Odessa, in turn, throws a significant share of skepticism in the address of Lyuba’s mother, because you can not, in fact, consider the owner of the dens a positive character. But Gordon’s film, along with some non-Soviet colorfulness, has its own interpretations, and the strong character of the woman is the best answer to all the haters and haters. Fandera portrayed her heroine as very different, deftly adapting to the current situation. With a boy in love with her, Lyuba willingly plays the role of an affectionate mother, with an elderly fool, she herself is more of a girl and does not consider it shameful to listen to his half-crime prophecies. Gordon did not demonstrate his past life through flashbacks, but decided to maintain a soft aura of mystery around Lyuba, and the fairness of this directorial move is confirmed as the owner of the brothel decides on an unexpected act that can be considered both an act of despair and a soberly deliberate step.
For years it has been established that it is never too late to turn back and build your life somehow, the main thing is just how you should want and have a grain of luck behind your sinus. The director consistently destroys his own myth, as if his film is about a mess. The lights are on, it is true, but not above the dens, where there is little room for hope for a morally stronger future. Lights burn over a woman’s will, over naive dreams, over kindness that can melt an offended mother’s heart. Above the heroine of Oksana Fandera, the sky is in diamonds, and deep down she is well aware of this, but does not consider such a life a curse. Lyuba is guided by the belief that although she has come a long way and acquired invaluable wisdom, she has not really lived yet, because there is no shoulder next to her on which she would like to put her head. As long as life goes on, this search will not be over.
Gordon ironically remarked that he had “absolutely female brains.” Otherwise, the male contingent of his film would be more important than purely contour characters, endowed with only a couple of emotions each. An amazing thing: a well-known television figure, behind whom a stable role of a caustic cynic was fixed, found the true key to the mysterious female soul. The director was not denied his vision, and Oksana Fandera played perhaps the best role in her career. A stately, intelligent lady convincingly proved the ability of a fallen woman to feel, dream and strive for something more than revenue for customer service. Mother Lyuba enough to drink bitterness, she wants simple female happiness, what is ridiculous? A heartfelt woman deserved it, only the brightest desires and their embodiments are still “two big differences”, as they say in Odessa.
There is a city I see in my dream.
If only you knew what the road was.
The Black Sea that appeared to me
In the flowering acacia city ... Semen Kirsanov
It doesn’t matter if you’ve been to Odessa or if you love it, you still know too little about it. Maybe you caught gobs from the breakwater, bought brynza on Privoz or scoured the catacombs, and perhaps read Babel and watched “Liquidation” – in any case, you thought something for Odessa, because everyone has their own. Alexander Gordon in the film “Lights of the dens” does not set himself a goal to recreate the reality of the late 50s: he animates the memory, tucked in the haze of nostalgia, capturing on film the city-memory of his father – Odessa Harry Gordon. In his lyrical, curious, sun-drenched space, he tells the story of Love.
The title of the film and even its brief synopsis is an absolute deception for the naive: the main character – the former prostitute Luba contains a “den” with two “girls” in her small apartment on the Polish Descent, and in the first frame even show the bare breast of Katerina Spitz: this hint of “strawberry” ends only by indicating the place and time of action. There are no erotic scenes and reflexive sexuality, and no study of prostitution under the microscope as a dark social phenomenon. You will not find any drowsy marmalades rotting in the “Pit”; the worldview of the residents of sunny Odessa is not characterized by tragedy: the southern vital temperament, mischievous sharpness of the language, commercial efficiency and the ability to enjoy simple life joys are related to the female characters of Gordon with the cinematic Italian “priestess of love” – Cabiria Fellini and Filumena Morturano De Sica.
In this intimate film-reflection before our eyes without pathos and tears, in everyday simplicity reveals the personality of his heroine. Luba’s mother, as her wards call her, has long given up her profession and in a sense moved up the career ladder, opening her own business in the same field, according to her “cultural front”, in order to “earn a couple of pennies for old age.” She has retained her beauty and fresh grace despite all she has likely endured. Perhaps this is facilitated by her passion for bathing in the Black Sea waves and sun baths - but not only for the sake of maintaining her form, Luba visits a secluded beach near yellow stones: here she is waiting for her constant companion Adam, a strange and lonely man, a seaside madman with a broken war and camp fate, an alcoholic and a prophet with the gift of a seer. In conversations with him, Lyuba rests his soul from his tedious everyday life, trustingly or condescendingly listening to his stories - either fairy tales or predictions about what will happen in the world in thirty years. But this is not what draws her to Adam: she is a simple, practical, absolutely earthly woman, and seeing his defenselessness and restlessness, in her sympathy she seeks to take care of him: “And what do you eat?” Who does your laundry? Sympathy, pity and the desire to save is a ready table set for Love, which calms the nightmares of memories, comforts and comforts. Here they do not talk about feelings - but are recognized as washing men's socks in the sea - and this is a hundred times more intimate and sincere than any words.
Deprived of love in life, a woman with a speaking name retains kindness, tolerance and sympathy in the heart for all living things. She has not been hardened by her tedious years, of which one can only guess - and she is honest and cordial with the "girls" in her own way and wants them to live "like white people" without breading the dash that fell to her lot. She does not spit into the soul of a young violinist in love with her - but in a maternally caring and interested way walks around the city, through the prism of her everyday experience she understands and characterizes the paintings in the gallery. Love is the only one of all the villagers surrounding it does not relate to nature and people in a consumer way - but saves, corrects, helps, although its actions are not always understood, and this incomprehension by others and inner purity brings it closer to Adam.
Gordon’s film is ideologically and scriptwise divided into two parts: the first is devoted to the life of Lyuba in Odessa, and the second is a thin bridge of hope and opportunity to change her life leads her to her native village, where her mother lives. The relationship with her mother is her long-standing pain, as a lonely elderly village woman is unapologetic in her condemnation of the prodigal daughter. Everything that happens in the village does not give the heroine a chance for a new happy life, along the way characterizing the unkind villagers as rude, cruel and greedy consumers of everything that moves and grows, who did not understand and did not accept even the fact of its appearance. But reconciliation with the mother, her forgiveness and her farewell are all relief from Luba's heavy burden, and the attempt at a beginning becomes preparation for the end. The dialectical tandem of Lyuba and her mother is somewhat identical to the dialogue of Gordon-director-son with Gordon-father-author of the story “The Lights of the Dean”. A little boy with open blue eyes looks at the passing residents of an old Odessa courtyard, rubs an apricot stone against a pebble, examines the legs of a woman leaning at the column, sits on the fork of a tree trunk, not responding to the call of his mother. These scenes are a painstaking visual embodiment of almost all of Harry Gordon’s poems about his Odessa childhood: the director seems to change places with his father, re-creating him as he was many decades ago and resurrecting his memories on the screen.
Prodigal children who have become adults are looking for a way home and a way to happiness. The director’s reflections on human ways are not spoiled by cheap anecdotes and vulgar parody of Odessa talk and Odessa humor. They are rich in subtle and clever genre scenes, trusted by colorful courtyards, semi-Potemkin staircase and old trams. This is a lyrical, light and soothing story about Love, a sunny film about human fate and about reconciliation with the ever-running and stormy world.
I love pictures about my hometown - Odessa, I was interested in this film.
Movies, I would say, for amateurs. Not for everyone. I want to celebrate the brilliant performance of the actress. In this picture, Oksana Fandera surpassed herself - graceful, beautiful, strong and at the same time, so weak. The picture is filled with summer - bright sun, favorite sea, ripe watermelons, you feel the warmth and atmosphere of your native city. Excellently worked out images - hairstyles, scenery, clothes, makeup of actors. Especially like old Odessa courtyards, communal houses, noisy neighbors. The director managed to betray all their charm in several scenes.
True, the Odessa conversation is poorly worked out, but it is not so scary. Everything else is played and conveyed perfectly.
The picture takes the viewer to the distant post-war time. It is quite interesting to hear the reasoning and observe the habits of people of the last century.
The cast is selected professionally: the game is live, practically there is no catchy play. There is a definition of the share of appropriate humor and a note of drama. Eternal problems are highlighted - misunderstanding and love.
If you decide to watch this wonderful film, you will not regret your decision for a minute.
10 out of 10
“Prince Lights” is a 2011 Russian drama directed by Alexander Gordon. The film is much deeper than it seems at first glance. I loved this movie and it has a cinematic value in our cinema. The drama is filmed with dignity and quality, and it feels and pleases the eye when watching. The movie is both ironic and dramatic. There are a lot of things in it, but it is strong and real, so I love this picture.
We see Odessa in 1958. Luba’s mother has a small brothel of two prostitutes. They live smoothly and friendly. Luba’s mother is disturbed when she falls in love with a mysterious old man who sits by the sea every day. We see the difficult fate of the Odessa prostitute, her illusory dreams and the final without a happy ending.
In general, Oksana Fandera is a strong and deep actress, and I noticed her long ago. She plays clean and enthusiastic, and you believe her. Mama Lyuba is far from an uneasy and extraordinary character with his vices, secrets and pain. Fandera chicly plays an older prostitute, and her play in this picture deserves the closest attention. Some of the scenes with her in this picture were very unexpected, funny, some incredibly dramatic and frightening. In a secondary role, it was nice to see Yevgeny Tsyganov. He is also a great actor with his innate charm and acting talent. The star of the Soviet film “Eternal Call” Ada Rogovtseva I like since childhood with her role as Anna. She is a wonderful actress, and in this drama as the mother of the main character it was pleasant and unexpected to see her. “The lights of the broth” is one of the sad stories about the life and fate of a prostitute, but this story turned out not to be banal, it feels some kind of intelligentsia, charm, sensuality and freedom.
Great movie!
Have you ever noticed that some people’s faces emit light? there is no plate above their head, but there is some glow, and something else with their eyes... There are three beautiful, not quite ordinary faces in this movie. And there are words:
The future has long been set like a festive table, you just need to tiptoe to see the labels.
If the novel was without words, I would gladly read it... the painting I do not look either, it is sucked into me against my will, like water in the sand, if I stand for an hour at the picture, it will only remain a clean canvas, or rather dirty.
... and I know things that no one, not even I, knows... here Mendeleev suggested the elements that have not yet been discovered and indicated their place in his table... I also know the specific weight and valence of such elements of the soul as Vanity, Obidium, Mercy, Christradium, some of them, a nightmare, heavier than uranium.
Or do they say things like this, but they’re from your heart.
There is a young life walking by the tomb entrance... beautiful, right?
And in general, all this resembles the pictures of the Impressionists, Odessa ... a lot of lively color, a mood of filling with light, beauty experienced, and may not be quite reliable, but dissolved, more possibly reflecting the life of the inner, spiritual - this is the impression left...
And it seems impossible not to see such bright faces in the unusually beautifully clear merging of the shore of the sea of his lofty thoughts by the attractive sense of the word of open windows touched to the loss of decency of the soul from where the wind now shaking by the artist and the golden light wounded by him falls.
And the third character, who says nothing, he is still small, and he is not even in the author’s story, his appearance is supposed to be a simple everyday find.
The film is aesthetically pleasing and incredibly beautiful. From picturesque landscapes to the smallest details. Wonderful camera work, I was attracted to this gloss, which in my usual life is unpleasant to me. Very subtle dialogues with a sense of humor. The film didn’t seem too long, I literally enjoyed it.
What will happen under capitalism?
- There will be many things, but little will remain.
The main character. A strong and beautiful woman, her strength of spirit, will and beauty cause only respect and admiration. It is noteworthy that the strength of character is not manifested in anger and bitchiness, as is customary recently in cinema. Separately, I would like to note that the heroine is very sensitive to other people’s human suffering. Magnificent and powerful work of Oksana Fandera.
In general, the actors’ play is just at its best, the characters amazingly contribute to the disclosure of the central character and are well thought out. The work of Alexey Levinsky is simply fascinating.
A film about finding yourself in life and love. Of pure and wide love with all my heart. This picture is definitely worthy of attention.
So rarely do you see beautiful, airy and semantic paintings in Russian cinema. If I had known in advance that Alexander Gordon, the director of the film “Prince Lights”, might not even have watched, this arrogant, sarcastic and cynical character of the domestic show business was so unpleasant, so much of it is false, alien and inhuman fleur, with which he shrouded his chauvinistic image. But this film proves that he can not only sneer and “disassemble” other people’s works, but is able to create something of his own.
The picture tells about the life of the “mother” of Odessa prostitutes, this life is not hard and not easy, not depraved and not strict. This picture is about the life of a woman Lyuba, incredibly beautiful and very sensitive to human suffering and injustice. Lyuba’s mother herself is played by Oksana Fandera – a colorful, bright actress, whose image of an independent and independent woman follows her from picture to picture. It is remarkable that the director portrayed the main character not as a cynical and evil bitch who profited from the work of her employees, but as an understanding and fair lady who, by chance, began to earn her own living “what she could”, and then, having understood the intricacies of the profession, took under her wing the girls – Hitler and Zygota, whom she took care of and helped.
The whole film is very bright, bright, full of magnificent seascapes and summer panoramas. The characters of the film are very real, different and sincere, in each of them you can see a person of that time: burdened with the work of rural residents, an urban madman, rectors (if there was such a word in those days), intellectuals, party employees - the main character confronts all of them due to the duty of her work or in everyday life, everyone seeks to leave a mark on her soul, but few people can do it, because Lyuba's soul is unstained, despite such a "marining" profession.
In many European countries, prostitution is a profession, women form trade unions and defend their labor rights, and I think it should be. Gordon showed a real picture of a real woman who is spoiled not by her profession, but by the opinion of people who surround her.
8 out of 10
I wonder why many people don’t know what this movie is about. It's pretty obvious that the "Lights of the Dean" is about the Woman. Nowhere and no place in the world.
She did not need much for herself: the opportunity to look good, a bit of human communication, “female happiness.” Deprived of prejudice, she once chose the den as the only one in her position and not too painful “lesser of evils”. Lyuba carefully observed the boundaries of the hostel, lived environmentally friendly and did not cross the road to anyone, and she still wanted to believe in the best in people. Life did not spoil her and no longer pleased her. In her 40s she was looking for some simple joys and shelter, and these searches were accompanied by fever and despair.
As a result, she turned out to be more innocent and pure than a 16-year-old student of the conservatory, showed not adequate common sense selflessness in the rescue of the alkash prophet, crippled by the war and his daughter, and “received” in full from a trip to his mother. In fact, a belated reconciliation with her mother is the only positive bonus she has taken out of this convulsive leap of faith, trying to move.
She failed. Bad luck. And she didn't want to go on.
I am grateful to Alexander Gordon for this subtle, atmospheric picture and sensitive curtsey to the fragility of women. For the opportunity to contemplate without any effort from beginning to end and to demand nothing of oneself. Underrated Oksana Fandera is good, and that's very much her role. For the full implementation of the plan -
I'm very sympathetic to Gordon. I always watch his "Closed Show." Priton Lights is a typical “closed screening” movie. Perhaps that is why he was so successful. In addition, the script for the film was written by Alexander’s father – a famous poet and novelist Harry Gordon.
With the film we are transported to post-war Odessa. Time and atmosphere familiar to fans of the serial film "Liquidation". Luba's mother (Oxana Fandera), a former prostitute herself, holds a small den. In her house there are only two "girls" - Zinka-Hitler and Zygota. Girls, different in character and temperament (Zinka - cheerful, ever singing songs, adventurous, Zygota - calm, quiet, melancholy), but are best friends, insanely loyal to Mama Lube. Her friend (Eugene Tsyganov) once brings the young son of a prosecutor to the house. The boy falls in love with his mother Lyuba - but she is in love with the local poet-Yurodievsky, Adam (Alexey Levinsky), who meets her every day on the beach.
The film is worth watching primarily not for the sake of the story of the main characters - it is certainly there and certainly interesting - the film is worth watching for the sake of color, atmosphere. Luba’s mother is a woman, in fact still young, very attractive, confident, but, it seems, can not understand herself and the people around:
I feel sorry for people. Especially everyone.
Adam is, in my opinion, the most interesting character in the film, crazy just as everyone around was crazy.
What are you doing here?
- You might ask me what I fought for.
Also, the film is remarkable for the participation of people’s artists of the USSR Ada Rogovtseva, who played the mother of Mama Lyuba, and Bogdan Stupka, noted for the role of a prosecutor, the father of a boy in love with his mother Lyuba. The prosecutor seems to be fascinated by Mama Anybody himself:
Well, have a drink. Be healthy, blackbrows.
The most important thing about this film is the language. This is the classic Odessa language that we all love so much. A mixture of Russian, Ukrainian and some local semi-Jewish dialect. It seeps into you so much that unwittingly after watching the film, you begin to add to each verb this notorious "tak" ...
Who should recommend the film? Those who want a serious movie. Who wants to think about life and values? Who cares? It's a film about a woman. About a real woman.
Personally for me, the indicator of the quality of the film was that after watching it, I did not raise my hand to remove it for a long time.
Oh, yes, the most important thing. After this film, I fell in love with Oksana Fandera forever. She is incredibly talented and very colorful.
I like to follow the course of A. Gordon’s thoughts. I love summer (Odesa is, first of all, summer). Post-war Odessa is perhaps the most interesting time and place in the history of the Soviet country. In total, three obvious advantages of this film were laid down for me already initially. Then everything developed only incrementally.
I didn’t fully understand what Gordon wanted to say with this film, but I loved it. That happens, won't you? And this misunderstanding is sometimes more interesting than crystal clarity.
Are you going to lie like a log on Lenin’s Sabbath?
In general, I am close to such a film language - that is the middle between a parable and a story. The parable of the prostitute. You know, maybe this is the first time I've ever thought about loving a prostitute. Not physically, but mentally. In the American average action films it was accepted at one time that the hero is necessarily a killer, and the heroine is necessarily a prostitute. I never really believed these heroes. And then I believed it. For once.
The scenes were very strong. The director is like shooting at the viewer. Like a slingshot or a sling. Especially the beach beating scene. This is game. My heart shrank for a second.
Greetings to your friends!
- Inna, you're a science student. It's time to finally have a sense of the word.
- Sorry, I won't do it again. How's the water?
- Okay. Neither myself nor people.
Is it about love? Hardly. Rather, about the desire to live normally even when everything is not too normal, and the path chosen by you causes reproach and even hatred among others.
Oxana Fander. Brilliant. An independent strong, sensitive and mind-blowing mother came out.
Alexey Levinsky. I don't really understand critics. I believed in his image. This is a crazy person...
I will tell you what will happen at the end of the century, in the year 2000. There will be no Soviet power at all.
- What will happen under capitalism?
- There will be many things, but little will remain.
The atmosphere in the film is the one I was looking for – the atmosphere of Babel’s Odessa stories and Liquidation. And, of course, a million all sorts of phrases, sentences that I would like to learn to flaunt, but not in this life. It's Odessa bread.
First of all, because this is, in my opinion, the best role of Oksana Fandera. The actress, who, for all my sympathy for her, until now (before this film) was forced to play major, pseudo-elite Moscow heroines, with their inherent suffering, which is not understandable to their “colleagues” from provincial cities of the post-USSR (against the background of Moscow, all cities of the former scoop are such). And although “the rich also cry” and have the right to emotions, it all smacked of glamour ("In the Movement, About LuboFF, Red Pearls of Love, etc.). And in this film, finally, the Director chose her not by texture, not by the established role, but by Talent.
Secondly, because in this picture, the style and vocabulary of that Odessa are strictly observed. I'm not from there, but every time I heard an obvious phraseology, I searched for it in a search engine, and made sure it was historically true ("puritz, "potz on the bumper," etc.). This gives respect to the team of editors, and above all to the author of the script, which is the director’s father, a respected creator.
Thirdly, because the Director was not afraid, and brought his creation to his own site - the program "Closed Show", where usually "tear" very worthy films to pieces. And this movie earned respect. And not because there was a blat - all the guests of the program (both supporters and critics) were clearly unbiased.
Fourthly, because the film very sincerely and kindly presents the morality of "great relativity" conclusions at first glance. The image and background of people to whom superficial people smear labels - pimps, crazy, mother-bitch, father-silovik, prostitutes ... Which, in fact, have enormous moral advantages over those who label them. Everything is very relative in this life. Morality is not as obvious and simple as it may seem. That's the movie.
For some reason I was very interested in this film. To be honest, I was probably intrigued by the essence of the story, or rather the “field” on which events unfold. Old post-war Odessa, the story of a prostitute. It was interesting to see what the director will play on this “cloth”.
Even though I don’t like Gordon at all, I decided to watch this movie. Of course, the movie had to be difficult. That's how it turned out. To be honest, it was very difficult to understand what the director wanted to say. Personally, it seemed to me that one of the most obvious plot lines is, let’s say, the inspiration of a fallen woman. Or rather, I would say sorry for her. It is clear that the director shows how hard it is for her, and that her pity and mercy for people covers all the dirt of her work. Also clearly expressed the idea that this fallen woman is much more valuable than all “good” people.
Or maybe it's just the memories of Gordon himself. So to speak, his attempt to reproduce that era.
In any case, the movie was very interesting. For example, in the middle of the movie, I thought I already understood the storyline. Turns out not.
