Two to one. Excuse me, fellow filmmakers, but I still do not understand why it was necessary to shoot and release two mini-series on the same topic on the main federal channels almost simultaneously. We are talking about TV series ' Gentlemen-Comrade' and our-'Damn'. Judge for yourself. In both cases, but significantly different (artistically and factographically), it is told that in 1919 the party sent a revolutionary sailor to lead the new MUR, who soon, with great difficulty, attracted a former local tough detective to work, with whom they began to investigate many high-profile cases. In ' Gentlemen-comrades' the sailor was called Sokolov, Syskarya-Varaxin. In 'Devil' these were respectively Trepalov and Saushkin. Interestingly, in both cases, the royal detectives played superstars. Varaksina performed Domogarov, and Saushkina is a legend, Stanislav Lyubshin himself. What is it but creative competition of projects? By the way, according to the official history of the MUR, its first chief was a Baltic sailor Alexander Maksimovich Trepalov, and among his closest assistants is Mr. Saushkin. So it turns out that closer to the matter-history is exactly ' Devil'. However. ..
As they say, everything is known by comparison. So let's try to compare these two mini-series, 'two about one'. Considering that it is possible to continue them, since they both leave the impression of incompleteness.
. That's interesting! It turns out that the first in the world screening was the series ' Gentlemen-Comrades' (premier - April 18, 2014 in Israel; December 1 in Ukraine). In Russia, the TV project started only on February 16, 2015. The question is, why didn’t Russian viewers see this movie first? What about Israelis and Ukrainians? Question for the producers. And the question to all: how many Hollywood films (series), despite the high-profile foreign premieres, the Americans themselves see almost a year after their release? There is reason to think about something... Well, our ' Devil', the volume is 2 times smaller than ' Gentlemen-Comrades' (8 episodes on 2 ' case' against 16, two for each ' episode') was aired on the channel ' Russia-2' (on whose order it was filmed) only on December 21, 2014. And only recently the series was posted on the RuNet. But keep on comparing!
.. . Our series are really opposed to each other in a creative, conceptual way. And each has its own powerful 'weapons' For example, ' Gentlemen-comrades' built on, sorry, 'pop' principle, the essence of which is dynamics, capacity, compactness, maximum saturation of actions plus necessary for the mass viewer (and is it necessary? this viewer actually asked about what he wants?) ' Lyric-love', 'soap' theme. At the same time, they also allow actors-' locomotives' to play. In ' Devil' the principle is different. This, in fact, although serially stretched, but a real art film, a whole. It is solved in a slow, rather gloomy manner, focused on
The main criminal and associated ' everyday ' components of the general idea. Rough, very rough- 'psychedelic plus surrealism'. With the appropriate musical design (although not quite original - similar ' drums' arrangements and ' moves' present in earlier series) famous film composer Alexei Shelygin. It is necessary to note the stylish, talented work of the venerable cameraman-director Vadim Semyonov, who follows the classic Soviet manner of shooting, and finds absolutely amazing and impressive angles (I speak as ' filming man'), perfectly working with lighting. Well, the acting - at a good level (about Lyubshin and do not talk!), although clearly imposed by the creators of the series shaved, furious and stupid Chekist in the performance of his actor godlessly overplays!
... Here comes the verdict. So far, only mine (Mr. moviegoers will take their own, I really hope that similar). Of the two close series, deeper, more artistic (but more interesting - the question is still open!) and more exciting is... 'Damn'! For this reason, I am depressed by the low rating of the series here and the lowest ratings from some of my friends. Does anyone understand something?
. . . Meanwhile, the main question is still hanging in the air: why did our federal channels have to order, shoot and show (in the same year) two TV series about the same thing? Or is there no more of it?
8 out of 10