A play about meaning at the bottom Nothing brings people together like the hardships they have experienced together. But we miss the point that we relive what happened when we talk, and where is the best place to open up if not in a bar over a glass of single malt whiskey or a pint of light beer. This is what the movie Broken Nose, Empty Pockets tells about, about the culture of drinking companions, and why the bar for them is more than just a “fillout”.
First, let’s talk about what’s going on. The film’s authors, Bill and Turner Rossa, staged a real theater. The action takes place in the bar “20s” somewhere on the outskirts of Vegas, the city of sin is not for nothing chosen as a shell of art. The "20s" close and throw a farewell party, and visitors came to say goodbye to any place. However, the whole past sentence is false, or rather the game, the bar does not close, and visitors play improvisation, but most importantly - play themselves. At certain moments of the film, you forget about the skill of what is happening and it seems that the heroes forget about the unreality of what is happening, their emotions and feelings are so natural.
The directors placed in the picture a squeeze of 24 hours of the last day, starting with the footage of waking up Vegas and ending with the hangover of the characters in their kennels.
The film, like any bar, is based on regular customers. They are amazingly naturalistic, the case when documentary film is really authentic. Here are collected and unnecessary veteran, and musician-drug addict punching at the barmaid, and philosophizing homeless old man, and sixty-year-old aunt showing tits in confirmation of his youth. The full set of freaks inherent in Vegas. At the same time, such a diverse contingent exists in the concept of the family. To each other, these people are much more than just drinking buddies, they are their own community with their own rules and jokes that sometimes go beyond what is allowed, but despite this, support the one who needs help. One of the revealing episodes, when a homeless person (the key character of the film) before, he sleeps in a favorite bar) in a conversation with another hero agrees with him that he will easily shelter him. This is a simple help and shows true love.
Artlessness is what best characterizes the dialogue in the bar, emptying the bar counter, the hero removes the mask and tells the truth, which would hardly be uttered by his sober lips. The tirade of a Negro veteran about the futility of the horror he went through in the war brings to tears, and soulful songs and dances compose a complete picture of the emotional instability of bar visitors.
Vegas is a unique place in many ways, in the middle of the desert, the city has been rebuilt from scratch, which has become the gambling capital of the world. However, such a paradise story has its consequences, in the face of people who did not find happiness in forgetting roulette and decks. “Broken nose, empty pockets” provokes a clash of generations, because in the desert of Nevada everyone goes from small to large and there getting into the “20s” meet their friends by misfortune.
However, it would be wrong to believe that the bar is a refuge for marginalized and lumpenes. The culture of public drinking is something more, uniting ritual. What to talk about if our cultural capital, the bar capital. So many people go to St. Petersburg just for bar excursions. And because of what is happening now in the city on the Neva becomes sadder. The mayor of the city, Beglov, is preparing to pass a law on “drinking”. So called establishments less than 50 squares located in residential buildings and selling alcohol. Remembering what St. Petersburg is, anyone will immediately shout that half of the bars in the center will close for once. The main glass of Peter, “Lighthouse”, also falls under this category, as well as a bunch of other original and unique establishments. That is why I want to shout about the importance of such films, without any stupid and childish condemnation, we are shown the beauty of such institutions. Every closing of a favorite bar is like losing a part of your life. So many friends and memories can’t just be ripped out and thrown away. In fact, the bar is so authentic that filming it beautifully is not so difficult. However, it is impossible not to praise the directors (they also appear as operators). Very unusual and fresh looked stylized interruptions with footage of Vegas, and film shooting gives such a powerful influx of atmosphere that it remains only fascinated to listen to the drunken stories of the characters of the film.
I especially like the way we see television in the picture. Political broadcasts that occasionally draw the attention of visitors paint a terrible picture of the world, but the bar is the so-called safe space. Here you can do without politicking, what difference does it make, how much percent this time the Republicans received.
The endless buzzing of words disperses the narrative and does not allow the directors to slide into the chronicle. This is a real play first, and then the chronicle of the bar.