The first thought after watching three episodes is schematic. Not a movie, not a play, but a comic book. And if we talk about the content - everyone, well, just everyone, especially employees and law enforcement officers made stupid mistakes, as a result of which they died en masse throughout the series. In the second part, the act started. In each series, 2-3 corpses from iconic roles. It is strange that at the end of the day the living were still alive. Well, the finale, which declares the continuation of the series, or Stanislavsky intrigued but abandoned. Turned Haratyan, who appeared in the series less time than in the screensaver for all 12 episodes. Minus for the fact that the Crimea was filmed in Taganrog, and at the same time plus Taganrog for the entourage. First of all, we watched a movie to consolidate the impressions of a small trip to Taganrog. The lighthouse, of course, the Chekhov pharmacy and the Bristol hotel in which we lived (by the way, I recommend that the price / quality and compliance with the shown interiors in real life movies is absolute). As one of the commentators correctly noted, if this series is an example of tabloid art, it is done well. I'd say it's a comic book. It has to be simple and quick. But I'm not a fan of those shapes. If it were not for Yegor Beroev and Bogdanova, then there would be nothing to look at, except for the beautiful locations of the lighthouse in Merzhanovo and recognizing familiar places in Taganrog.
Lighthouse keeper / series / director Pavel Drozdov
This serial spy detective is interesting and fully received by those who live in Russia, and those who do not think of themselves without Russia, in short, by all who live in the country: creating, preventing, and stabilizing. I warned you. Simply and immediately.
It is perceived realistically, saturatedly, imperialistically and mentally. The terms of the seething socio-political 'vareva' on the eve of the First World War, all are thesis-signed. Theses are convex and reliable.
Engineering film in the allure, view and equipment of Russian battleships before the First World War, diving equipment of the early 20th century, 'sounding' spark radio station (continuous sound and increased range), spy gadgets. The uniform of Russian imperial officers is indicative (tailoring, epaulettes, gallons, vensel - allure!)
The characterization of the German saboteur, the hero of Beroev in the form of Albrecht, is convincing, in impeccable physical form, ruthless in Prussia, again in the name of the interests of the Reich (another German word meaning ' Empire', ' Power' German saboteurs repeatedly pronounce this word here). Complete reincarnation, absolutely ' not Fandorin'.
With barely noticeable inner regret in his eyes - his personal drama. A young sophisticated young lady, who caused romantic feelings in him, inquired about his personal box, which she should not open. What now? They're both in a romantic boat. Literally. It doesn’t matter who he is, he’s ready to follow him.
Albrecht's face transmits incomprehensible facial signals. There is a miscalculation of specific logic and the pressure of risk of failure of the operation. Even from the four basic emotions of human behavior, it is impossible to know what it will decide. The fact is that the happiness and sadness displayed by the human face are different in time manifestations, and fear, surprise, anger and disgust appear very quickly and similar in the early stages, before activation of other facial muscles.
Everything is unclear when he returns from the boat, and Arseny (Maxim Drozd) asks him where the young lady is. Again, something barely visible in Albrecht's eyes. Tension fatigue? I'm not sure again. The personality of Albrecht is so complex, it is not for nothing that Beroev took it.
His finale, as an enemy saboteur and as a man, is very realistic in its misunderstanding.
Military counterintelligence officer Shchukin performed by Igor Khripunov is mechanically accurate in behavior and effective at every appearance. Staff captain Shchukin can do everything, but unlike such skills of actors and magicians, the homeland for him is in the first place.
Each character is thought out, there are many people, but there are no superfluous ones. Cossack ataman, young gypsy baron.
Maxim Drozd jumped off all the tricks, 'Albrecht' Beroeva carried on himself, in 7 degrees water under the boats he sailed himself without divers, killed all, defeated all. And with such bundles of muscles of the shoulder girdle and torso, of course, he can be in ' vest' with a hat without a shirt.
I wonder how Arseny answered under ' truth serum' to Albrecht's questions.
Everything changes rapidly, intonation each character has its own characteristics, beautiful Ukrainian speech (of course, the Russian Empire), there is a frequent change of angles, the scale of actions, movements in faces. . .
However, there could be samurai, and geisha, and Brazilian dancers, and gypsies. Yes, anyone, it would not spoil either the plot or the picture, but would improve - a big question.
Although at first glance there is everything for the success of viewing.
The theme – the summer of 1914, the Russian Empire, a German spy with the face of an aged Fandorin from the “Turkish Gambit” (Egor Beroev) – will see the first frame, you will understand why, who is trying to get something, something to blow up, what spies usually do there, while twice “close to failure” during the first 15 minutes.
The Russian officer who tries to interfere with the face of Maxim Drozd (no matter what he plays, his face does not change very much), who is also the main character's lover, whose romantic interest is quite suitable for daughters.
The place is Sevastopol, Rostov, in general the southern borders of the Empire, although from the locations only old photos, no species, no beauty. Why, really? And yes, the action takes place on the lighthouse and in the sea, but it does not matter either.
Romantic lines (I don't even want to say - so clumsy).
Even the early Reds are available, with a mandatory young lady in a red scarf from the production of a school drama club about the Revolution.
Here's the whole must-have set for a good movie, but no. It's like a borsch - the composition of which everyone knows.
You always catch yourself thinking that all this has already been seen and heard somewhere, either in the State Counselor, or in The Death of the Russian Empire, or in Liquidation, or somewhere else, but there were few good films.
Absolutely cardboard, uninteresting series with an expressionless secondary plot and the same characters.
It seems that everyone does not care what will happen to the plot, the heroes, the history, and in general with the Russian Empire. Everything resembles a production in a summer camp, where the theme is given for a couple of days and the actors are selected on the principle of who could not refuse.
They say that when in 1971 the Adjutant of His Excellency was on TV, the streets were empty.
So if you have a choice - this series or a walk - do not even doubt, go for a walk.
Now in Russia, the word “Crimea” is just some magic/code word for our authorities of all stripes! It is worth saying it in the manner of Baron Munchausen from the favorite Soviet cartoon (series about peacock singing) “Abra-shwabra-cadabra... Crimea!!!, as soon as the coveted budget Sesames open and the real Crimean Bridge, the family film project Keosayan-Simonyan, and our series (as it turned out, for some reason, filmed in Taganrog, as well as “Odessa” of the 70s of Todorovsky, well, with the latter everything is clear, Ukrainian politics, and in our case, what, around the Black Sea Fleet?) appear. Be that as it may, it is noticeable that the NTV channel and the production studios are not bad at grooving from bins thanks to the magic word (and even patriotically putting the series on Russia Day!). And it would be fine, and the Russian flag in their hands, if they created, as they said in the country of the Soviets, “a work at a high ideological and artistic level.” And this is exactly the problem... We'll talk about her.
... I strained, put things off, and also watched Lighthouse Watcher one day, as it was shown on NTV, with pauses for going to the toilet. It was really heavy, my eyes were washed, but I didn’t miss it! Constant dynamics (did not notice a special “trudge”), the development of action, intrigue, various “bells and whistles” did not allow me to distract from what is happening on the computer monitor. In addition, I often laughed so much (why – a little lower) that the neighbors behind the wall, apparently, wondered if I was watching a comedy with Louis De Funes. I didn’t regret the time I spent watching! You know, there is such a thing as a tabloid novel, which is considered a despicable genre of literature. So be it. But many of these creations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries (at least out of the pen of Edgar Wallace) are still reprinted and read all over the world, and they are staged (according to Wallace) "bulwark films", very even watchable! I suggest that we consider our “Lighthouse Watcher” ... “a tabloid series” (and not bad!) and approach its assessment with such a position! Got it? And then my traditional, summary “notes on cuffs” will follow.
... A clear stump, even for an amateur, that according to the acting game, the entire series is based on the duet Drozd-Beroev. In my opinion, both coped with their images / roles on "excellent". The thrush, of course, flashed several times with its embossed muscles, from which many women’s hearts probably ate. But, as already rightly noted here, his appearance is complete nonsense for that time (let’s not forget that on the series his hero, in fact, is “fugitive”, with a “fake” passport). Okay. What is this permanent unshavenness "a la macho"? The Banderas scab? So Crimea is not Mexico! What, I'm sorry, about the outfit? So could go sex/waiters in taverns/restaurants, but not “decent citizens” on the street (the first city could take such a passerby “on the tsugunder”!!!). No mandatory headdress for a man at that time (!!!), or at least some “spinjac” or coat (in the summer, in the heat, “ordinary people” walked in braids, but not in almost underwear, as if his master was drunkenly stripped in a tavern!). I will not refer to newsreels or old Soviet films, in our series and so it is clear that the street is not Drozd, but a white crow!
... What only the creators of the series did not “mix” in the “Lighthouse Watcher” for the sake of its wilting/grown lookability! Sometimes it's "shooting," sometimes it's just laughing. Full of shooting, full of murders (more than any other American action movie or thriller!). Some of them are quite predictable (where and with whom the girl in pink sails on the boat?). And here you and the “robber Cossacks” with their disassemblies, and smugglers, and the charming Mata Hari, who proposed to use to expose the Russian agent “truth serum”, which in 1914 and there was no mention, and the robbery, and “militia” of angry German colonists (who are as similar to German colonists as I am to Berber!!). And, besides, so much caricature (which is why I sometimes laughed like a horse!) that KuKryNikS would be envious! The first is even local police/gendarme fillers specially selected for counterintelligence missions. They seem to have come down from the old, pre-war Soviet “revolutionary” films – short-sighted, if not round idiots (in contrast to the heroes of “The St. Petersburg Police Detective”, “The Death of the Empire”, etc.). But I was simply thrown into Homeric laughter by the “revolutionaries” here. It seems that the authors of the series did not do well in school (and did not watch the series “Empire under attack”). Otherwise, they would not have attributed membership in the R.S.D.L.P. to these revolutionaries, since (except for the “ex” normal for the Bolsheviks, that is, plunder, which Stalin became famous for) they engaged in terrorism and murder, and this was already the prerogative of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and its combat unit (Savinkov and Co.). Lenin (whose “leaflets” one of the heroines of the series meets) just condemned terrorism! Oh, my God, who are these serial rebels? They all fit to wear modern long white T-shirts with the inscription on the back “I am a revolutionary!” and so walk past the gendarme of Sevastopol! And the gendarmes would simply have hustle over them: an oak-headed girl in a red scarf (such were just worn after the revolution!), a young man in a “technical” cap and a badge (Komsomol, ha-ha?) on his chest. By the way, this young man actively traded cocaine (in the party box office?). However, then it was not considered illegal (one of the most famous cocaineists was Prince Yusupov).
... Oh, excuse me, my colleagues! For his condescension and kindness to this series. Well, I can't tear it apart like I wanted and planned. My good soul is in the way. So I'll give him an informal 5+ or 6-- But officially, from my bounty, let it be 6! After all, I didn’t miss him or get bored! "Bulgar series", no more and no less!
6 out of 10
Very interesting show. His wife was very much waiting for him, because he was filming for several months in Taganrog. The lighthouse scenery still attracts many tourists for photo shoots at the shooting site.
I liked the acting.
Loved the story.
There's no toilet humor.
No vulgarity.
No nude scenes.
No alcohol propaganda.
There is the propaganda of courage, the struggle for the homeland of conscience, courage and courage. I really liked that the red thread is Orthodoxy in the film. Often the appeal to the Lord is mentioned, icons, the temple, the attitude of people to God are shown. That's great.
By the way, a very competent selection was conducted by a casting group among actors! I learned a lot of actors from our show. Vyacheslav Kuskov is the “turkey” who, seduced by Marie Schneider (it was nice to hear his name in the film), allowed smuggling on a Moldovan ship, Svetlana Lysenkova in the echelon with the royal treasury, Nikolai Khanzharov in a photo studio ... my childhood passed with these actors.
And when I found out that the actor Roman Gaydamak, who played Jan or Sigis (the second German spy), turns out to be our Rostov actor of the drama theater - I was surprised and shocked! Excellent game!
Many thanks to the authors for creating this project. We enjoyed watching! Come and see us again! We hope you enjoyed it in Taganrog!
A big mistake is to show all the series on one (even a weekend) day. Maybe in the New Year holidays, towards the end, when the street is freezing minus 20, this focus would provide the audience, but in the summer – no way.
All action is catastrophically lacking tension, dynamics. Here someone on a horse drove to the left, and then someone else in boots ran to the right, here the mail pigeon flew in, here the dog grabbed a piece of cake ... The longing is green, and even the fact that the dove carries a note, on the text of which hundreds of human lives depend, and in the cake cyanide, is absolutely not catchy. Everything is too good, too troubadourous, bouquets and romances, “the crunch of a French bun” – and this is on the eve of a world war, the breath of which everyone already feels with their skin (according to the idea should feel)! Behind all the tricks of German intelligence, of Russian counterintelligence, of revolutionaries without the slightest reflection – so, pictures from the exhibition. The wife finds her husband with a mistress, with whom he sleeps exclusively for business, and he declares “There was nothing between us!” Ha! As the sacramental “It’s not what you think!” sounded, it’s just amazing.
It seems that the authors claimed to be a sophisticated film duel of mind and willpower, and even with an admixture of love passions (where even without them in the series!), in fact it turns out a bunch of passing episodes and extra, simple characters, plot absurdities, psychological inconsistencies, while the key moments “fall out” of the canvas. They didn’t know how to put them right. Attempts to fill the frame with authentic era details are also not too successful.
It is not interesting to observe any character, and even there is a feeling - the actors themselves do not give their all, perfectly realizing that they play very mediocre roles.
Very weak, and by the way, absolutely not patriotic!
which is called the collective farm. But the farmers were more responsible.
The writers were kicked out of Samizdat, where they worked as Young Talented Authors.
The plot is a hodgepodge of all the stamps from our TV series “pravainu” “primentov”, with the addition of imported jokes: “You beat like a girl” – quotes the American cool, who received a hero in the face.
Turkish sailors take a fallen woman hostage during a shootout on a inspected vessel.
Heroes of the male sex, behave either like a close-knit punk from "Meeting Place", or the same punk from "Jmurok". Beroev is pulling, he is generally good and handsome for the villain - but he won't jump above the script either.
Like a positive mushshshchina walks around the city and comes into the presence with an uncovered head - a terrible moveton, the most finished barefoot walked in a cartridge.
Volksdeutsche guerrillas are going to storm the fortress ...
Sea mines of a scale of 2:1 are dumped with a sliver in a small barcasic, so you can see how plastic they are:
Savings on extras and props are normal, economical: there is no bayonet on any rifle, although the characters regularly threaten to use it.