You can write a lot about the fact that this is an author’s, festival, arthouse cinema, the high meanings of which cannot be understood by the average viewer due to its limitations, and similar nonsense. But, the same first films Tarantino "Reservoir Dogs" and even "Pulp Fiction" were also the author's festival film. Harley Weinstein was a brilliant producer. He, like a gold digger, could wash out of a dirty arthouse movie gold placer. And the world viewer recognized this placer as gold. And no one ever said that this movie is not understandable, boring, etc. The viewer accepted it as a spectator. I am sure that none of our producers would not have taken into production the scripts of either “Mad Dogs” or “Pulp Fiction” with their long dialogues not on the topic of the plot, non-standard structure and other quirks of Tarantino.
I mean that even the author's film can and should be the audience, that is, the viewer (for the most part) must understand it.
The film "Gerda" is plotless. I call this term scenarios in which there is a description of some world of the hero, but there is no coherent logical plot, but at best there is one plot action. At the same time, of course, there is no development of the plot, there are no interesting twists and turns, and therefore there is no powerful dramaturgy. As a result, the film in its content to the mass audience seems tedious, drawn-out, not interesting, that is, a film about nothing.
In such films, it is not the content itself that matters, but the aesthetics of form. It can be expressed not only in the beauty of the frame, unusual surroundings, but also acting improvisations and experiments.
If you take the same masterpiece of world cinema "Amarcord" F. Fellini, it too, in fact, does not have a slender plot and development. This is a kind of film sketch about life in the village, told through the prism of the director’s childhood experiences.
I am not talking about the film by Sergei Parajanov, where the logic and plot are generally sidelined.
The film 1917 also does not have a slender plot development. It is filmed to show the skill of one-frame film directors. And this is impressive because it is very difficult to create such a picture.
But in Gerda I did not see any of the above. Neither external aesthetics (colorful lighting is not yet an external aesthetic, it is only two colored lighting tubes thrown in the right place), nor any acting delights, nor complex camerawork (all the cinema is shot on a hand camera, but I did not notice any special aesthetics and genius in it, besides, this technique should be used only where it is appropriate), nothing that could have high or even higher than average artistic value. Work of the average student of VGIK. I don’t know how this film was selected at the Locarno festival, but festivals like this also have their own politics and often it’s not the artistic level of the film that determines the list of nominees. It has long been noted that films about the Russian “black” are especially appreciated at such festivals.
However, all this would be a normal criticism of the middle picture, were it not for one but. This very dubious scenario in terms of structure and story content was selected by the competition commission under the Ministry of Culture and financed by the Ministry of Culture at the expense of the state budget. Despite the fact that the same Ministry of Culture that year proclaimed as priorities such high topics as the fight against falsification of history, the heroism of doctors and people of other professions, etc. A similar scenario on the theme of “the unhappy life of a stripper peeing in the woods” and covering her existence with the training of sociology won. Perhaps the film is aimed at praising the profession of sociologist. Excellent selection of the selection Commission under the Ministry of culture, which feet forward, and even spread legs carried the "high" culture to the masses.
Do you think Russia is on the right track despite all the difficulties? Are you happy, just yes or no? Are you satisfied with your income level? Would you like to live in another country? Do you think the Russian president is sexually attractive? The range of questions that the future sociologist Lera asks her respondents leaves no options: we are not just a movie. This film is a claim to the sociological portrait of the Russian Federation of the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century. Questions like “What washing powder do you use?” How often do you drink alcohol? Do you smear food on a plate before you eat it? merely emphasize – we know everything about vulgar sociology, we despise it, we do not pay attention.
In the country, the portrait of which in reproach of pseudoscientific sociology, draws director Natalia Kudryashova, only freaks can live and want. In any case, one respondent Lera whips more than another. Grandma in the first stage of Alzheimer’s, men tired of alcohol, half-crazy cats, single ladies of Balzac age, for whom the question of the sexuality of the President is especially relevant. Only such people can live in a country of disgusting neighborhoods built up with vile panel houses, where time froze in the yard in the position of “late October-early November”, where there is never sun, constantly drizzling, in the atmosphere of ugly entrances, painted in a suicidal dark swamp color, in an atmosphere of poor life, dirt, rags, mattresses, paper.
Lera has another life, a night life. She's not Lera-Gerda anymore. This is the nickname she gets for dancing in a strip club. The blue color of the day changes in the palette to neon pink. But it doesn't make life pinker. Relationships among strippers, as in a barracks, where the law is a fist. The visitors are freaks, of course - who else will come here? Only freaks of a different color: fixated on sexual fantasies and with money.
The house is not an outlet. Mom is a fan of esoteric fantasies, besides with bouts of sleepwalking. Dad left the family, but as he gets drunk, he returns with breaking down doors, waving a gun (he is a security officer), scandals and fights.
The university is hopeless. We will be able to see two of the teachers. Both are in dry theories that they do not believe. Do you want to live in a country like this? Are you satisfied with your level of wealth? Are you happy, just yes or no?
“Cinema of moral anxiety” in the 60-70s, too, to put it mildly, did not glorify the Polish People’s Republic, and Italians in postwar times harsh diagnoses of their fatherland, and Zhang Jia Ke, and Amos Gittai are not compliments in their films squander China and Israel, and the series “Good fight” imbued with the same sense of state catastrophe, but only in the United States. But speaking of problems, those directors aren't diagnosticians. They are patients just like their heroes. They say that it hurts not only their neighbors and fellow citizens - it hurts them too.
Gerda movies are a cold and calculating experiment with a certain number of ingredients. Is it not true that most of our countrymen live on the boundary between poverty and poverty? Really. Is it not true that opportunities for self-realization in the profession and society for young people in small cities are minimal? Really. Is it not true that most citizens, even answering anonymous questionnaires, openly lie, giving out answers that would suit the authorities more? It is. Haven't the strongest neighborly, friendly, family ties already fallen apart? Mostly, alas, but yes. For the most part, it's important. Some, armed with this practice, shoot “Crimean Bridge”, others “Gerdu”. Of course, the zones of silence in the painting Keosayan much more than Kudryashova, but they are there and there.
There's no metaphysics right now. We add dreams of the heroine wandering through the terrible naked, leafless forest. Plus my mother's fantasy about her visit "on the other side of being." And then all these buttons are pressed countless times - until the biggest moron understands the director's plan. Endless repetitions, underlining and pedaling make "Gerda" unreasonably long, painful and, ultimately, boring.
The fact that Natalia Kudryashova is an honest and brave girl, there is no doubt. But her passion for sterile experiments on life is also obvious. Her debut film “Pioneers-Heroes” was based on the theory that the last Soviet school generation was traumatized by the ideas of Soviet sacrifice, planting a cult of sacrifice for the benefit of Soviet power. Pure scholastic water. Even my generation, which was in high school in the 70s, did not seek to sacrifice themselves for a second. The phrase "Let's be like Pavlik Morozov" for us had exactly the same semantic meaning as "trach-tibidoh": magical words that gave a chance to get a five on the composition. So, in the panic attacks and the complex of unrealization of middle-generation Russians, neither Pavlik Morozov nor Volodya Dubinin are to blame for either sleep or spirit. Causal relationship screenwriter Kudryashova sucked from the finger, and the Director Kudryashova with her did not argue. In "Gerda" the reasons are removed from view altogether. This country didn't have it yesterday. There's only one scary thing today. There is no future.
Four decades ago, in a similarly ugly neighborhood on the outskirts of Warsaw, dramas and tragedies unfolded in Kieslewski’s Decalogue. The country has martial law, Poland is led by a general, society is divided, plus the established way of life has rapidly deteriorated. And yet, an angel flew over this ugly quarter: in the form of a dove, a boy pitying a dead dog, a stranger making a fire by the lake, over an unfinished church. Keslevski and Pesiewicz were with the residents of the outskirts of Warsaw in their mistakes, despairs and hopes.
In Zhang Jia Ke’s Touch of Sin, half of a godforsaken village goes to meet a former hated countryman who unexpectedly became rich in America. Rough, uncouth marginals from the remote province are dressed for the ceremony in Chinese national costumes, including costumes of ladybugs. And here are these trembling mustaches on the head of the ladybug, under which a man with a heavily drunk face hides, trembling so touchingly in the wind at this bloody airfield. And in this trembling such multidimensionality, such wisdom and such love!
Answers to most of the questions of the sociological questionnaire respondents Lera can not give – they simply do not understand the essence of the questions. Part of the questionnaires beginner sociologist fills herself from other people's names. Natalia Kudryashova wanted this scenario to distance herself from all modern research. But sadly enough, she made her own judgment. She was responsible for everyone and on behalf of everyone. Only ticks put in the necessary her, not the state, counts. But the change of places does not change the outcome. And here and there we have a vulgar sociology.
Lera studies sociology at university, and at night she works as a stripper under the pseudonym Gerda. Her parents are mentally ill people: her mother was treated in a psychiatric hospital, having invented a country where she wants to escape to free herself from a dull life and poverty; her father has a new family, but he, drunk and breaking down the door, every evening comes to the apartment of his ex-wife and daughter, to tell how much he loves them.
In the afternoon, Lera conducts surveys - performs student tasks, entering the dead apartments of human inhabitants. Stupid questions from the questionnaires she reads in a tongue-in-cheek, with a poorly concealed icy hatred of everything that is happening. Types of social bottom strike poverty, squalor and humility – the director Natalia Kudryashova just imagines residents of residential areas, showing how the “deep people” live.
At night, Lera works in a strip club under the pseudonym Gerda. She has a complicated relationship with merchandise - she keeps cold and detached and at the same time enjoys success with customers. Of course, this does not like the main habalka, which constantly arranges showdowns in the common dressing room.
Another storyline is the relationship of Lera with men. With clients, she is cold, as well as with the artist Oleg, who works as a gravedigger. He loves her, but she since childhood is morally disfigured by abusive relationships between parents, does not seek to create a family.
The only outlet for her is dreams, but in them she does not dream of a Prince Charming. In her unconscious, Lera, like her mother, who suffers from sleepwalking, tries to break free from the routine of a hopeless life. And in reality, as an escape from a meaningless, dull existence, the director and screenwriter Natalia Kudryashova at first offers the main character only two ways out – to go crazy or accept what you have. In the end, the talented artist Oleg, having arranged a personal exhibition in his workshop, decides that it is financially more profitable to “ground”, because art will not feed him.
Therefore, it is no accident that Lera (Gerda) chose the stripper profession. On stage, she is from an angular student, forever hiding her heartache and despair, she turns into a liberated woman and a fluttering deity. But what ends flirting with this profession she sees on the example of one of his colleagues in the strip club. And that's not the answer either.
A social drama, with an easy entry into the territory of leviathanism, about the hopeless life of a good girl from a sleeping area, to which no one cares - she is alone with life, and there is no place to wait for her help. The only way to find freedom for Lera is to look at her childhood photo and literally gain wings.
At the festival in Locarno for the film “Gerda” actress Anastasia Krasovskaya was awarded the prize in the nomination of the best female role.
This movie is really impressive. The monotonous cycle of not particularly joyful life – but still life – and the opposition of the individual to the proposed circumstances, albeit not active, but full of inner dignity and demonstrating the integrity of character. The heroine is immersed in herself most of the time, but this is not ' clogged', but concentration, and it is absolutely organically combined with the manner of the girl’s behavior in the nightclub where she works part-time. The dances are brilliant, extremely plastic. The slow rhythm of the narrative, repetitions of similar situations in life and in dreams create a special ' tightening' atmosphere, immersed in which the viewer no longer feels the desire for any sudden ' denouement' and does not expect disaster; and in fact, throughout the film nothing particularly tragic happens. The heroine treats everything that happens as only one can and should treat it, often outwardly dispassionate, and this gives the best result - and ' in life & #39;, and the impression produced on the viewer. Fun in the film is not enough, but also ' black' it can not be called. The image of Gerda’s friend remains, perhaps, somewhat vague or, better to say, undecided; his character is not really revealed. But the sentence-and-undress scene he's involved in looks good, not least thanks to the unexpected ending (which adds mystery to the character).
'Did you like the Gerda movie? Yeah. No. My own way.
I will not walk around, but around, and I will say right away – an article with the story of director Natalia Kudryashova about her film I was more interesting to read than to watch the film itself.
In a dark, gloomy city where there is never a sun, where all the time twilight, night or overcast day, lives a girl Gerda (aka Lera). Gerda (played by Anastasia Krasovskaya) is a student of the sociology department, studying at which she seems to be serving some kind of duty. During the day, after studying, she earns part-time polls (or it is so necessary for studying) and walks through dark, scary apartments with strange inhabitants (in one case, the tenants seemed to me more or less adequate people), interviewing absolutely uninteresting people by their pollsters. And at night, Gerda earns a living dancing at a strip club. Although looking at her slouching gait and downtrodden look, to assume that at night this girl fearlessly (if not shamelessly) naked at the pole – for this it was necessary for the screenwriter and director Natalia Kudryashova to have a rich imagination.
Spinning on a pole, Gerda seems to live some other fate, and her nightly, sometimes dangerous realities and her dreams bring at least some variety to the viscous film narrative about the emotionless heroine tired of life.
Gerda loves her parents – an alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother, but this love of her does not cause me any sympathy or reciprocal emotions for her or her parents – they are as faceless shadows as everyone else, and everything that surrounds the heroine in this film.
I also have to state that Gerda is the second film after Red Sign, in which I again failed to see the exalted talent of Yura Borisov. And in this movie, he's basically just silent and watching. Or is it his acting “trick” to be silent and watch? Borisov plays a friend of Gerda, who seems to be in love with her, but in fact it turns out that he can only see and smell. The powerlessness of feelings and actions.
Throughout the film, you expect that something will happen that will be the heroine from her somnambulistic state, but this expectation, despite some emerging moments, is not justified. And the final of the picture should probably inform the viewer that dreams of something magical and beautiful are generally unrealistic.
To recommend this film, in my opinion, you can those people who are sure that everything around is bad (was, is and will be), and “Gerda” will convince them that they are right.
When a casual Russian viewer will watch 'Gerda', then the following thoughts will immediately come to his mind: Again black woman, again hopelessness, again alcoholics.
When viewers at the Locarno festival watch 'Gerda' they will perceive the action on screen as an ordinary human existence in a country with adverse social conditions.
And if we are not a casual viewer and understand that festival cinema from Russia takes prizes in a huge percentage of cases when it shows the most problematic side of society with all further manifestations.
When we begin to watch 'Gerda' we must exclude the casual spectator, the festival spectator, and be prepared that in front of us two hours will be broadcast exactly that part of the social life, which lives a large part of our society. It is in it that the main actress Anastasia Krasovskaya is located and it is she who leads us through the maze of three different worlds - Sociology, Striptease, Dreams.
Gerda is not surrounded by real friends, not real parents, not real sex and not real activity. Turning day and night in these circles and trying to stay real, finding salvation only in short-term dreams, running away from reality. The main character is no longer fighting. Step by step, she lets go of her last principles, her friends and relatives, turning into the very gray, lifeless, unprincipled personality she comes to with a social survey.
Watching the tape of Natalia Kudryasheva you will not find answers to the questions born during the viewing. The director wants us to ask ourselves what I want and what I can do and change.
Among the psychological typologies of personalities there is one according to which people are divided into ' victims', ' persecutors' and ' rescuers'. The main character of this picture is the unconditional ' rescuer': she rescues her colleague from the dead, tries to smooth the corners in the relationship between mother and father, and she tries to protect the mother herself in every possible way; moreover, she even fills out questionnaires of a sociological survey instead of her malachoyed respondents. And Anderson’s Gerda was a lifesaver for Kai.
At the same time, the heroine is completely pure - her icy detachment does not give her all the dirt and hopelessness that is happening around. I believe that it was this purity that delighted Gaspar Noe at the festival in Locarno.
The finale of the film is radical and justified, in my opinion, only symbolically - as if the director wanted to impress, but forgot that the story does not end with the final credits.
The premiere of the film “Gerda” was held at the international film festival in Locarno. There, the film received the prize of the youth jury and an acting award for Anastasia Krasovskaya. But the main success of the picture was the recognition of her love from Gaspar Noe.
On the one hand, it is gratifying that eminent directors are impressed with Russian author's cinema and that they subsequently promote it.
On the other hand, after watching, there is a strong feeling that this movie would not be needed by anyone, that it would have been much more detached and strict attitude, if not for the review of Noe.
But history does not tolerate subjunctive inclination. What did Natalia Kudryashova do?
There was a picture in the genre, previously I do not understand absolutely - black. Any Russian film that was called this way, I was ready to vehemently justify, calling it gloomy, acute social. But not in the case of Gerda. The work of Natalia Kudryashova is a real black woman. This is revealed in the daytime student practice of the main character Lera and in her night job as a stripper.
Lera walks through gloomy and gray streets in search of gloomy and gray houses to climb up the gloomy and gray staircases to the gloomy and gray inhabitants of the provinces. She conducts surveys in the spirit of:
What is your pension?
- It was 7400, made a raise. Now 8000.
Do you support the current policy?
- Yes, I do.
(anemic view of the main character on the pensioner)
Poverty and horror are shown on a large scale, only it does not touch.
The director also tries to create a sense of hopelessness by representing the work of strippers. But the show only brings boredom (two hours of film timing feel like all six). No one has chemistry with anyone.
The main character is torn between the desire to escape and attachment to her native place. She is basically a child who had to grow up because of the harsh environment. But she does not give up and remains strong. The power lies in her sweet, innocent heart. Actress Anastasia Krasovskaya tries very hard, but it is still noticeable that this is her debut work. And unfortunately, she didn't get my sympathy.
The visual metaphors occupying a good third of the film are undeniably beautiful and spectacular. Only they cause at least some emotional response (although the metaphor with a tied dog is already tired of being used too often in movies). Perhaps it would be much better if the film consisted only of these moments, becoming an excellent example of domestic video art.
The picture caused no negativity, only indifference, which is perhaps worse. Art is not required to solve problems. That's not what it's designed for. I only want to demonstrate thoughts, semantic load, and not just pokes in the already obvious problems.
Russian cinema is at the top, but "Gerda" is still not the best example of Russian author's cinema. The picture is too immature, claiming to be deep, but not deep at all. Let’s hope that the reason for this is that this is only the second work of Kudryashova (in fact, the debut). We also hope that her best work is yet to come.
And again sparkled the brilliance of Russian modern cinema, giving a film-narrative, a long and tedious narrative of the ephemeral despair of Gerda’s life (project on all young people).
Let's start with the family, of course. What could be worse?
All the same with an unsuccessful enlightenment composition (as it has not been for a long time).
Mother, terminally ill and already inserts sticks into the wheels of a bicycle that does not ride, but barely weaves. Vera chose to go with the flow, choosing the path of easy earnings. Maybe the writer has something to tell us. You can not just show a beautiful picture for more than 2 hours. There is a story to be found.
A father who returns without bread, and the whole family in the same way, there is no point in listing others, you already know the pattern. A worn-out technique to convince us of the decay of what is happening through the prism of family problems, vodka (you can see the strong influence of other “valuable” Russian directors of our time). I ask you not to take into account Balabanov, who shows all the darkness through a set of factors that in his time were very realistic and true. Mysterious old men and, of course, girls who are forced to work hard in a nightclub.
It is impossible to believe in a story that tries to show how bad everything around is.
Too rough, stretched, such thin ice can pass either lucky or geniuses - obviously, Kudryashova neither there nor here.
The picture is pleasant, good contrasts, there is contextual color correction, scenes with symbolism and honestly, incomprehensible to me “deep” meaning.
But there are downsides. Why is Rapid here? Add screen time. Long plans are often meaningless, do not reveal emotions, too many large with Krasovskaya in different angles. The girl is beautiful, but very much put on her accent. But the operator took a solid 5 (out of 10 of course).
In general, on pressing aspects, another pretentious no movie took place. I thought I wanted to see something nice. We are waiting for the next pearl!
This year just some abundance of good and high-quality Russian cinema, and part of this ' abundance' became 'Gerda' Natalia Kudryashova, shown at the film festival in Locarno, where the actress who played the main role, Anastasia Krakowska received the prize for Best Actress.
A young girl Lera studies at the social department, and at night she works in a strip club. The father left the family, but often comes drunk home to the heroine and her mother to talk, but these conversations & #39 do not end well. Lera can escape from difficult reality only in her strange surreal dreams.
Dreams are one of the main aspects of the picture, so the narrative is very slow. Sleepy, to match the main character. Sometimes such a low pace harms the dynamics, delaying the action. Yes, these long scenes with the normal life of Lera, going to university and walking around the apartments for the sake of polls, give a better understanding of the character and her life, and often it does work, but in some cases it looks like a pull.
Though in 'Gerde' and there are some features of social cinema that can be traced between the lines, but first of all it is still a personal deep drama of one girl. This drama is revealed by depression and hopelessness familiar to Russian cinema. The greater dramatic effect is given by the cyclical nature of what is happening, which occupies a special place in the tape. Everything in Lera's life goes around, without interruption: study, surveys, work, the arrival of a drunk father. Repetitive events press, but pressure gradually increasing discomfort not immediately, but on the increasing, reaching its culmination. Lera tries to escape a nervous routine and monotony, she does (or tries to do) in her dreams, scouring the unusual gloomy forest in search of a way out.
To become almost all the Russian films of this year, which I watched, ' Gerda' pleases, showing the viewer the melancholy and really sad story, so often found in our country. As if continuing the tradition of Andrei Zvyagintsev, the picture for me personally became the most depressing film of the year, not only completely transferring the atmosphere from the director’s films, but also supplementing it with its own details and aspects, so it does not look like an empty (importantly empty!) imitation.
8 out of 10
The main character Gerda, aka Lera, lives the life of a lost girl who does not know how to help herself. Days studying for a sociologist and conducts surveys with residents of the district, and at night ' grounding ' works as a stripper in a local strip club. He lives with his mother, who is sick and sleepwalking, and with a sense of fear when the father, who has long left the family, visits them while breaking down the door. There is a friend who, like the main character ' grounding ' burying people and painting pictures. During the nights of Gerda, during the day Lera tries to find freedom and wanders through the trees as if moving in the water, so slowly and surely striving to escape from the abyss of a dull and gloomy life. Polls, as part of the heroine’s studies, show the reality of the lives of people who live next to her in the faceless houses of gray colors, where only devastation and long-forgotten aspirations for happiness are visible. So on one of Lera's social questions to a neighbor: ' Are you happy'? - Says: 'Let it be yes'.
From beginning to end, the author’s film ' Gerda' tells the story of a girl who, due to circumstances and living conditions, cannot come to light and take off. She is like a bird in a cage chained by the disease of her mother, a mentally unstable father and dancing on the pylon, helping to earn a living and treatment for her mother.
' Gerda' turned out too protracted and wandering, walking in circles and places boring, involuntarily making the viewer think about the squabbling of the narrative. It has no dynamics and a clear narrative plan. We see sluggish footage again and again, realizing that we have already seen it.
All in all, the film ' Gerda' turned out to be a true and cruel drama about the uncertainty of their decisions. More about the circumstances of life over which man has no control and there is hope for salvation only in dreams, where the heroine wanders, trying to free herself from the shackles of her own life.
5 out of 10
The film from the new - Gerda, as it turned out, does not have much in common with the vast quantities of black paintings of our recent years, although this at first glance and not noticeable.
Despite all the horror and darkness, deserted streets and deserted beehives of houses, hope for joy and light did not die in this world.
Everything seems lost, people cruel and soulless, empty and dead. But here and there are small sprouts of love and humanity.
From the dried and covered bad earth, blades of grass, stems and other animals are pulled out.
The main character Lera is also in a dream, like all Russian people of our time. The space of sleep does not frighten her, she was born and grew up in it, she does not want to escape from it and does not see life outside it.
But while people around are seeing cruel nightmares, Gerdochka catches something that is also visible in all these dark night streets and corridors of municipal buildings - kindness, faith in the love of white light.
She comes into other people's nightmares and gives peace to people rushing in these dungeons, the casemates of people's lost lives. A moment before darkness engulfs a man, he who does not lose faith in him continues to hope. And hope wins. The sun rises, and the clouds of the city-N branch out, exposing a bright blue sky.
She lives in a nightmare, but she has no fear. Because sleep is an eternal state of bliss and happiness, and nightmares always end, even if you do not open your eyes.
Oral language without reliance on read periodically literate text tends to simplify. Some of the letters stop being spoken. Saves the tone. But the girl assigned in the film as a sociology student often does not even intone the phrase. She runs around with ridiculous questionnaires in apartments, shying away from people - they are so strange! Reading the questions written by the chancellar with a tongue-in-cheek, wooden voice, she meets with bewilderment in response. He prefers to fill out the questionnaires himself. What do we do? You need to get an education, take care of an incapacitated mother and fight off a sticky neurotic father. The neighbors seem lucky. But the young humanitarian is no longer able to rejoice in this - lack of sleep.
In the past, peasant children, barely standing on their feet, immediately grabbed the spinning wheel or sokha. The student-sociologist life also left no choice. Sohi was not near, took up the pylon. It must not be a small settlement, if there are enough voyeur impotent people willing to pay “to see”. Anyway, but sluggish stretching in a strip bar brings a student income. Irish whiskey Jameson on her table (about 2 tons bottle) confirms this. In addition, this meaningful fuss with phallic symbols allows the young sociologist to somehow avoid full contact. Until then, until then.
Apparently, the profession of sociologist was also seen by the girl as something like a pylon - wriggling on it topless, you can look with a sour look from the top of the catwalk at drooling losers and take money from them. To some, however, it descends. I didn't really understand why. Maybe because her boyfriend, another victim of the genre, prefers to deal with the dead. However, the heroine of the film, a female director, has the right to unexplained actions. Especially if you are a writer.
There's a lot of nudity in the movie. Though less than the Internet. But the director fought to the end. Some cowards were caught on camera with a dozen. The artist also approached the disclosure of the notorious “theme C” with a light. Breasts flash with a stroboscopic frequency and eventually cease to be noticed. Is that what it's supposed to be?
In the end, the heroine seems to decide on something. If so, it should be closer to the middle of the movie. Of course, a script would finally be needed. But the director saved on the script and did everything herself.
I understand that the genre of Russian “black” once appeared, will not die. In addition, you can always make a restyling and bring a refreshing theme of LGBT, BLM, and even harassment. It is also clear that whatever one w-k does can always interest at least one more w-k. Therefore, let there be a movie about a transgender man in love with the mountains / sea / often with black smallpox, forced to earn drugs in a brothel for a demented mother who got into an accident through the fault of an alcoholic / pedophile husband. The film will find its audience. But what side does the festival creator get into these freakish relationships with Min-vo fans of culture? After all, there are probably still people who have heard something about Sonya Marmeladova or watched “Nights of Kabiria”?
The atmosphere of the first frames of the film is created by the murmur of urine in the pine forest. In my opinion, the finale would have gone well to the sound of the flush.
Some films from a woman's view of directing and script only win, and "Gerda" is just such films. A young girl Lera lives with a mentally ill mother, studies as a sociologist during the day, and at night works in a strip club as a dancer under the pseudonym Gerda. Lera does not descend to having sex with clients, but she does not condemn her colleagues. Lera has no personal life, there is an incomprehensible relationship with the artist (played by Yuri Borisov).
Leroux-Gerda is played by Nastya Krasovskaya - and she is a real decoration of the film. Plays very well, although some elements came out unconvincing: floor dance Nastya mastered, alas, failed. With all the efforts of the operator and editor, I did not believe in the professionalism of the stripper-Krasovskaya. But the dramatic component was quite successful, Nastya "pulls" this film. Bored Borisov, for example, could be painlessly replaced by another actor, but in the role of Gerda it is difficult to imagine someone else.
The actions of Gerda in the film cause empathy, you do not want to condemn Lera - because she is sincere and pure thoughts. The mystical elements of the film are made quite appropriately and organically, although the overall timing of the picture seems to be drawn out. The character of Nastya is somewhat reminiscent of Joe from Trier's "Nymphomaniac" (and the actresses are similar in appearance). The film is a worthy representative of the author’s cinema, I want to see the following works by the director Kudryashova and actress Krasovskaya. Just please don't make Nastya dance again.
Three major film festivals, Cannes, Venice and Berlin, refused to show the film. But the Swiss Locarno, recently considered the Mecca of independent cinema, free from conjuncture and political trends, noted the film with the award of the youth jury and presented the award to the main character, actress and model Anastasia Krasovskaya. According to rumors, the director of the film Natalia Kudryashova approved the 22-year-old actress from Belarus, selecting her from more than 1,000 other non-professional actresses. The film became the cinematic debut of the girl.
After a successful premiere in Switzerland, the film was released in October on the big screens in Russia, and in early November a digital release of the picture became available.
In the story, student Lera studies in one of the provincial cities, where time has long stopped, and people live by habit. At first glance, the film immediately wants to put and forever forget on the shelf with an innumerable number of similar to it, where everyone around is distressed, drinking and swearing.
Attributes of the “Russian folk tales” of the 21st century are observed and transferred to film: a despotic father, a sick mother, an old Khrushchevka and flooded eyes in the district.
Lera is a future sociologist: during the day she goes to apartments and asks questions for the course work: “Do you agree that the country is moving in the right direction”, “do you consider the president an attractive man”, “do you have enough food”, “are you a happy person?” “Yes, no, no, no, no, no.”
At night, young Gerda dances in a strip club and suffers attacks from her friends. Without romanticizing the dances around the pylon, in the bizarre colors of neon and with sequins on the face – nightlife seems almost a consolation of the girl.
Intonationally, the film resembles the whole Russian black woman at the same time. This is easily explained by the fact that the heroes have long been constrained by the cold of typical Soviet panels, circumstances and disappointments, from which the hopes were grayed.
But the hopelessness of the world around Lera is constantly protected by her dreams. The dilapidated buildings and soot walls are replaced by frames of nature. The detachment and perfection of a cold magical forest full of flowers and moss, through which a girl swims in the hope of breaking away from the landscape of ugly reality. The blue beauty of virgin nature here resembles “Melancholia” and “Antichrist” by Von Trier.
Despite this, I want to believe that Gerda will succeed. Like hundreds of other girls, whose share falls all the weights of light, and who, nevertheless, do not agree to get used to the idea of getting lost in space.
Thin Gerda is not an enemy in the post-Soviet kingdom
This film fit perfectly into the evening of watching strange and ambiguous films. Perhaps that is his main charm. For two hours, the picture kept before the screen its main intrigue - understanding the situation and discharge ' and what is happening here ' The answer to the question could not wait.
The film represents some vicious circles of Samsara semi-fantasy provincial reality in a cross-cutting action. The viewer was thrown into the universe of Lera-Gerda without any notice of the situation and forced to walk in circles of all sorts of panels, strip clubs and forests. In fact, we went there visually, but we did not find any questions and answers. Everything is very clipped and immediately cranky kneaded into porridge. You can change everything and nothing will change.
The problem of the main character is again shown in some routine and chewing context. You can see the circumstances of life right now, and a cat like Lera-Gerda comes to them hard to guess. It is clear that she is a very short-sighted girl who is walking the path of not the highest resistance to life. Studying as a sociologist is the choice of a popular specialty, which not only gives her nothing but rather ungrateful and low-paid work in the framework of social surveys. Why is it necessary to walk such a fine line and earn a living in a very specific field on the verge of prostitution, for striptease is not as harmless as it seems at first glance. The third aspect is escapism in dreams. Sounds good, but the mechanism of coming to this is missing as a class. Although the emphasis would be on the fact that Lera-Gerda is a product of post-Soviet reality in the face of small parents, bad teachers and other problems with all the ensuing consequences should be done. And for the Swiss award for the main female role, it would be worth talking in context, and not whether Anastasia Krasovskaya plays herself. After all, Lera-Gerda in his manners quite resembles such a stereotypical stupid, cold model. Nothing personal to the singer, but she came from a related industry and quite a lot about such images heard for sure.
The film also lacks images and allegories. Well, except for something in the spirit ' stupid baldling = dark forest' and ' wool - salvation from all troubles and misfortunes' A good background for European awards. You can’t even bother with minority issues.
From all of the above, we get some kind of simulacrum of such a close-knit provincial girl. Probably, if you look at the world through the eyes of Lera-Gerda, then we will see such a mess where it is not very clear what came from in this world, and the methods of getting out of the situation are also blurred and veiled. In other words, what you see cannot be justified.
This film can also be called such a social. realistic response to the latter ' Joker'. Despite the very blurred subtexts, this action refers much more to reality than to the world of comics. Lera-Gerda is also a product of her time, and is raised by a mentally ill mother. However, here it goes without exalted exaggerations, everyday and monotonous. In this one can respect the authors of Lera-Gerda, but the focus on end-to-end action without narration, as well as synthesis without analysis, very spoil the impression.
Time never promised eternal peace. Life is an incessant game, where the next level is more difficult than the previous one. We grow up and lose inner harmony, because once the rules of the game are tightened, and the number of questions suddenly outweighs the number of answers. Eventually, we forget the answers and only the questions remain. There are many. Sometimes more than a person can handle.
Natalia Kudryashova in her second full-length work again reflects on the topics raised in “Pioneers-Heroes”. Only instead of three friends in crisis, young Lera-Gerda finds herself in the spotlight: she also finds it difficult to come to terms with reality.
“Pioneers” was a planet with two poles: childhood in the Soviet Union and vegetation in the urban jungle of the present time. Lera-Gerda is given three poles: the grayness of everyday life in high-rise buildings, the brightness of nights in a strip club and a journey through dreams (dreams?) through a foggy forest. Kudryashova raised the stakes and did not lose. Magical realism, appearing in the debut casually, has now grown to impressive proportions.
The film is called a "fairy tale for adults". Gloomy, chthonic, scandalous, painfully familiar, but still a fairy tale. The main character performs the same rituals: she wanders around apartments with polls, entertains men with depraved dances, communicates with a friend-artist, comes home, where it is also restless - and begins again. Her soul is able to break out of the cycle in visions of a different spectrum: the forest is a kind of purgatory – a space that can heal, if you will. Nothing happens there, neither good nor bad. Peace and wandering. Return to yourself, to yourself, to yourself.
Trying to step into the territory of crossing the absurdity of everyday life and rampant pure fantasy is a big step. He was appreciated by the European viewer (news about the correspondence with Gaspar Noe rubbed to the holes) and, sadly, understood not every domestic. The picture is stuffed with a variety of triggers that can infuriate conservative haters of Russian cinema: here you and the festival pretentiousness, and fragments of black, and frequent absorption of vodka, and undressing to the amusement of the public, and the “roll-field” in the main role, which tries to adapt to circumstances, but becomes more depressed and unhappy. Contrary to the palette of irritants, the peculiarity of Kudryashova’s directing is unconditional knowledge of what a particular scene is needed for. There is not a single empty episode: maybe some of them are tightened or less intense than others, but together they all fold into a single canvas, sewn with multicolored, contrasting threads. For the life of every creature is also sewn together.
While the session lasts, we are thrown from the fire and into the fire. Gerda’s Dantov circling in the habitats of Russians is a social tragedy. The private atmosphere of the club is a clear greeting to the erotic drama. Subsequently, it is replaced by family drama, and the melodramatic coloring is easy to consider when Yura Borisov selflessly commits acts typical of boys in love. Then we go to the fabulous surrealism, for the sake of recreating which Anastasia Krasovskaya learned to walk under water, and return to the declared genres, until, finally, we do not get confused in them completely: closer to the final, the fragmentation of the existence of Lera-Gerda is coming together, and magic defeats realism.
It is especially pleasant that here special emphasis is placed not on the plot, but on the visuality of the film language. The reviewer, whose text you are still reading, experienced extremely unusual sensations after viewing. Due to the clear color and light distribution of the episodes (with the help of it just increases the same plot fragmentation), a certain collapse occurs in the brain: if at the end of the credits to flutter into the night, the eyes will automatically continue to perceive the world without the “gray film”, equalizing its shaded pleiad. Lights of lanterns, neon signs, accidental flashes and flashes will acquire additional flesh – they will be impossible to ignore. So "Gerda" will leave a mark not only in the theatrical darkness, but also beyond it (pity: due to limited rental, not everyone will be able to feel something similar).
Natalia Kudryashova managed to shoot a truly amazing picture. It is not so important to subject it to careful analysis: such works are created so that the viewer perceives them on a sensual level (if, of course, he is ready). “Gerda” is really able to find those points of contact with the audience, which not every director of the domestic industry finds. It is a living, sensitive work with its breath, its flesh and skin.
It's a great job.
I like to watch subtle life dramas whose characters are so similar to us. If the film is shot correctly, then it easily penetrates into your heart, and the actions and actions of the main characters seem to affect your own life. That’s why I wanted to watch “Gerda”, because the trailer of the film showed us a storm of feelings and experiences that I wanted to experience with the main character right here and now.
The film takes place in one of the small Russian towns, which are scattered by hundreds on the map and nothing special to look for in them is not worth it. Here some areas are similar to others, around the same grayness and darkness, from which many people will never escape. However, the student Lera does not want to go this way. She has her own plans for her life, and they need to follow at all costs, but fate repeatedly strikes the girl.
At school, Lera has to do surveys, which is pretty tiresome. At home, too, is not all right – the father went to another woman, but still periodically returns, as he can not figure out what to do. The mother renounces reality and in her “astral” finds salvation from the crushing reality. Finally, Lera herself in the evenings works in striptease under the pseudonym “Gerda”...
You might think that this can only happen in movies, but the point is that these are our realities, which are presented in a fascinating, slightly romanticized language that instantly attracts attention to what is happening in the frame. The main character turned out to be so real that you seem to know her all your conscious life, and therefore all her mistakes, actions and decisions directly fight right against you, because she is like your old friend!
For me, a huge revelation was the game of Anastasia Krasovskaya. She is still a very young actress, but she plays beyond her years confidently and boldly. She not only reveals her Lera to us, but as if she is experiencing everything that the director and screenwriter Natalia Kudryashova prescribed for her. So I will follow the further successes of Anastasia and I have no doubt that she will surprise us again.
In addition to Krasovskaya, I will also mention the performance of Yuri Borisov, who has already become one of the most memorable actors of his generation. Borisov is organic everywhere he shoots, and he cuts into memory literally from the first appearance in the image. In “Gerda” the actor played a comrade of the main character and, as for me, he got the most remarkable male image in the whole film.
Bottom line: “Gerda” is a really strong movie, from which I had goosebumps in places. This suggests that the authors did everything right and presented us with a film that is an illustration of our Russian provincial realities, from which one should not run – they should be overcome, try to be better themselves and at the same time improve our society. Yes, it is difficult, but who said it is unreal?
8 out of 10
Lera (Anastasia Krasovskaya) is a sociology student. She walks around apartments and conducts surveys on a variety of topics. At night she dances in a club under the pseudonym Gerda. At home, her mother is waiting for her, to whom her hated ex-husband comes almost every day. He is a policeman who is constantly drunk in the evening.
In short, life is not easy. In her dreams, Lera sees the society in which she lives as a dark and intricate thicket, from which one can escape only if one has wings.
It looks like a dark forest and the movie itself. It is uneven, confused, but you can see some black satire in it. And polls are not about people themselves, but about politics. And the answers just fight hard. This is a set of disparate scenes. Together, they try to say something intelligible about life below the poverty line, but it does not always come out.
' Gerda' tries to balance social commentary with serious drama about finding yourself and family issues. It is not always good, but quite beautiful. Aesthetic pleasure can be obtained both from frank dances and from interesting visual rhymes.
Otherwise, 'Gerda' is a glossy Russian black. I think this is the face of a new wave of domestic cinema. The hand camera, the darkest scenes and the most apathetic main character - all this works at least interestingly.
Somewhere in the background runs the main character of the Russian indie Yura Borisov, but his character is not very well written out. Of course, most of the film is dedicated to Lera. Her heroine dreams of breaking out of the routine, where in the morning polls, and in the evening – dancing. At the same time, she is afraid to leave her comfort zone. Although her life is not comfortable, Lera feels like a stranger everywhere.
'Gerda' is a maze film that tells a blurred and uneven story. A dark, dirty and evil independent movie that you might like.
Each of us has a special idea of the ideal life. Someone dreams immediately after school to go on a trip around the world, visit a variety of countries and never return home. Some people want the stability and predictability that a good job and a loving family can bring. However, the reality is often different from what we build in our imagination, and here the main thing is not to give up, in spite of everything, look for the light at the end of the tunnel and overcome obstacles, no matter how difficult it may be.
The main character of the film "Gerda" is the most ordinary girl named Lera. Yes, she has her own dreams, hopes and aspirations, but for now she is forced to drag on her ordinary, joyless existence among the same five-storey houses, kiosks and streets, on which not all lights burn.
Trying to get a diploma and not run into completely unnecessary troubles at the institute, Lera is engaged in sociological surveys that help her get a very important credit. She also takes care of her mother, tries to run the house and in general seems the most ordinary. But all this during the day... And at night, the girl is better known as Gerda and she does very different things.
Unable to otherwise earn money in her town, Lera dances striptease and she even has her devoted fan.
In truth, the film is not simple, it is complex, dramatic and at the same time incredibly beautiful. And this despite the fact that the action takes place in a real province, where even by definition nothing fascinating can be, but the operator now and then snatchs in all this grayness surprisingly bright, rich colors that are a clear example of what is in people’s head and heart. Look closely at the visual of the film, it is just a great addition to what the characters do and say. It is not surprising that “Gerda” was so warmly received at the Kinotaur, the language of cinema here is great.
It is clear that the most remarkable and catchy place of the city is a strip club, where the main character works at night, and there are really interesting, tough, frank things happening here, but this one institution, the life of Lera and the plot as a whole does not end. The film should be watched carefully and delve into its essence from the first to the last minute, not to be distracted by the details and at the same time catch the rhythm of the narrative, because this is our life, which is always balancing on the verge between happiness and ruin, which is so easy to get into and from which it is sometimes so difficult to get out.
As you can see, “Gerda” struck me, and I consider this film to be one that everyone who faces a choice and tries to understand what his path to the future is, where it leads and whether the game is worth the candle. I have no doubt that after watching you will have a serious discussion with both yourself and your browsing companions. This means that the film deserves attention.