| Overall Grade: |
A |
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| Story: |
A |
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|
| Acting: |
A- |
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|
| Direction: |
A+ |
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|
| Visuals: |
A- |
|
|
A satiric saga of Soviet bureaucrat gone bad...
by crainny (movies profile)
Nov 11, 2005
What make this movie stand out among other Ryazanov's films - it was made in a very important transitional time, when Perestroika began, and lots of former Soviet big shots started feeling really uncomfortable with the news.
Many of them were seriously thinking about their future, changing careers, or conveniently hiding behind the "liberal" masks. It was a strange time, because a lot of these people thought that Perestroika is just another whim of fate, that it will pass, like the 1950s "great thaw" passed.
And at a time like this, one of the typical representatives of the Soviet "apparatus", who had just conveniently landed a sweet job at faceless "entertainment committee" and was almost on top of his brilliant career - has a heart attack, and allows himself to get entangled into a trivial "romance" with a nurse, who was helping him to recover. He is presented with a dilemma - to choose romance and lose the career, or to stay with the wife who is his passing ticket into the sweet career benefits.
He is stretching thin, hoping that his masculine charm is all it takes to keep both women, but suddenly discovers that both of them have their demands and feelings.
I personally love this movie because it portrays soviet bureaucrats at their best - corrupt, shameless, patronizing, and absolutely indifferent to their job responsibilities and to "people down below". |
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