For the butterfly of the poetic heart... A few hours later, after the images that the director sprinkled enchantingly throughout the film, we can say with confidence that the film was a success!
It's very bold, bright, modern and futuristic (if there was such a genre in cinema and an adjective). Usually biographies are removed dryly, following the chronology, formally, which can not be said about the film “Vmayakovsky”.
The tape is filled with emotions and ideas that are difficult to explain in words, but, on the other hand, they are clear to you.
For the first 30 minutes you look with your eyes wide open, the body flows from a static posture. I’ve never seen a movie that involves body and soul. You worked and lived with Mayakovsky. The needle on the gramophone spins the film to incredible turns, surprises and frightens at the same time.
Very interesting for the layman behind the scenes inserts, reading the script, working with the voice. Someone reads poems melodiously, like his grandfather, another - like Mironov calmly and thoughtfully, and the third - Mayakovsky, that is, like Kolokolnikov. Such contrasts fill the whole picture. I really liked b>b/b>. Perhaps this is how Mayakovsky’s poems should be read.
True, moving beyond the middle, the film slows down, the viewer manages to exhale, but you do not stop thinking. To distract from the picture - to miss something important, to lose the cause-and-effect relationship.
Inserts with the Russian March, entreprises of young actors (the memorable Nikita Kukushkin and the girl), a psychedelic performance of the group, coloring books blue and tearing them to pieces. Hands, blood, paint, film defects - everything plays to collect a puzzle in the soul of the viewer, and see the whole picture; try to understand the life of the poet, his legacy.
Communism and all the tragedies that result from it are a separate topic. In North Korea, it has been preserved, people are reverent about the lifeless monuments of the leaders, which cannot be said about the Mayakovsky monument, near which life boils! The guy gives the soul to the crowd, declaring poems.
There were two heartbreaking moments - the parting of Lilichka and Vladimir on the platform. The symbol of the train, tears and despair, the cough of the main character. The second point is that a faceless crowd of hats boos as Mayakovsky turns his soul in front of them. They condemn him, as expected. He was left without Lily, went out to the crowd who did not want to hear him.
As for the other actors, Chulpan Khamatova did not like it, could not penetrate her for the whole film. Maybe because she didn’t play, she read the script. The only memorable moment where she says that poems are read "on themselves" and not "from themselves." She remained a stranger, which can not be said about Maxakova, who also played Lilya. The opposite, positive attitude towards the hero.
Evgeny Mironov liked the furious energy of the actor, at the words of which the actors freeze. The human soul moves, even despite the contradiction of the character.
The voice and face of the film. Nothing would have happened without him. Surprised by its originality, eccentricity and infectious energy. It seemed that throughout the film makeup was imposed in different ways, apparently, not to interfere with the actor to express emotions behind a thick inanimate film.
Attracted attention Adasinsky, who played the tragic figure of Meyerhold. The actor seemed to come from that time and very organically fit into the picture.
Titles are important not only by voiceover, but also by the fact that they can be read, which poems, songs, excerpts of films were used in the cinema to expand the list of their “actions” after watching.
Another plus – the film leaves almost no questions for those who are familiar with the biography of Mayakovsky. You don’t have to go to Wikipedia to find out.
It was a very personal film for Alexander Shane, as he dedicated it to his father. It probably has a story behind it too.
The film will give the viewer a surge of ideas and inspiration. Personally, he encouraged me to review the photos of the Mayakovsky Museum in Moscow, where I was in 2013. Remember that uncomfortable feeling in the office where the poet shot himself, re-read the two-volume book, finally finish reading the essay “How to make poems?”, read about the actors who starred in the film.
The most productive thing is to write about contemporary poetry at work, to believe in yourself that you can do it. It worked!
In general, if you love Mayakovsky as much as I do, then you will not remain a mere spectator on the sidelines, you will begin to create and “break”, as the hero Kolokolnikov said. You are not pressed by a window frame to the floor, you will believe that you can now create anything you want, than when Mayakovsky lived. Why did he do more than he did himself?
The film is not recommended to everyone to watch, because if you do not like and are not close to Mayakovsky, then the film will remain a stranger, as well as the work of the poet.
What is this movie about, after all? My answer is about love, about how easily it can be broken against everyday life and the communist machine. But. Still, even after death, to keep it (remember the role of Maksakova). Thank you to the director and the team for the pleasure and excitement.
10 out of 10