Features and mysteries of the national blockbusting As a tired gourmet once a quarter chews a stem of celery, washing down with water, like a bored billionaire, laying down a cylinder and a cigar, once a year goes home on a tram, and the Latvian film lover at least once in his life goes to the cinema to support the domestic manufacturer.
In an ordinary Riga school, a young provincial woman, a teacher of Russian language, gets a job. She gets her senior year. Trying to get into the trust of the twelfth graders, Zane makes close contact, which includes a night excursion to the Bolderai beach and drunken parties in her apartment. The teacher-student distance is rapidly reduced, and as a result Zane gets an affair with overgrown Max and other troubles.
The subject looks win-win. Such school dramas were shot more than once or twice, ranging from acceptable to very good. Offhand recalls the recent "Geographer Globes Propyl", "Dangerous Minds" with Michelle Pfeiffer and "Teacher to Replace" with Adrian Brody. The story is normal, but here’s the implementation! A meager performance, as Ostap Bender used to say, in everything, except, perhaps, personally, Inga Alsini-Lasmane, the lead actor. Her first appearance in the frame is topless, setting up an optimistic mood, and throughout the film Inga tried her best.
No, well, it is clear a priori that the film will yield to the aforementioned three, even the “Geographer”, which itself is only a pale shadow of a literary source. But it's also clear that no one wants to spit out Hollywood. There are problems in the production - well, do not do beautifully, make life. But no, instead there's an unrelenting sense of theatrical staging. Problems with actors? Have you tried stirring them up? Why in the story of love, intrigue and betrayal, instead of a fountain of passions, boiled fish eyes and monotonous dialogues are voiceless from pretenders to be heroes-lovers? The main macho is generally a shame: he is not beautiful, not smart, not fervent, not cheerful, but romantic with a huge stretch. It's really weird. Any other young teacher at the first sign of attention from Max would buy a stun gun and install an iron door. Because if he doesn't, Inta, the troubled teenager and the third corner of the love triangle, will come. Her face is almost motionless, but in her eyes it is obvious that she will strip her razor and not wrinkle.
Even if nothing comes out at all: the director is timid, the camera falls out of the hands of the operator, the actors are shy and shy, the drama is on the verge of failure - you can nightmare the viewer with a plot. Remember how cool it was for the Estonians in the 2007 film “Class”. Also, not the first and not the second in film art, but the ending was concocted for a look. Killing eight or ten characters in the finale of our film would certainly do him good. We would have picked up firecrackers, stuffed glasses, ordered ketchup on Spielva, splashed around the corners, paid for product placement, like with Riga Balm at the beginning of the film, and it’s in the hat.
But again, no. The Latvian version of an old and potentially interesting story about a teacher and his students turned out to be cautious, gray, with faded faces and equally colorless emotions. The film has no independent artistic value. Except with some art supplements. Like “the director managed to make a film despite the fact that he cut off both his ears”, “the girl did not eat at school for three years, lost 20 kilograms and gave the proceeds for the shooting”, or there, “the director gave instructions to the film crew standing on his head.”
But let's still count Andris Gauet this attempt. At least as an advance. It is better to try something than not to try anything. Paradoxically, the halls have been filling for three weeks, so there will be plenty to buy a couple of brighter filters and two or three actors to help Inga Alsina.