we watched this last night. that is to say, i watched it all, while sunhee fell asleep at about the 50 minute mark. i don’t really know what to make of this. i found the opening 20 minutes or so to be very absorbing but then it sort of fizzled out. perhaps one needs to be much more familiar with russian history to get what the film is doing with it. but in the absence of that knowledge it felt more and more like a celebration of pomp and circumstance for its own sake. doing it one take was apparently the director’s attempt at a filmic version of doing something in “one breath”. i suppose, but i don’t know if a colder approach a la kubrick in “barry lyndon” might not have suited his purposes better. then again maybe it works really well on a large screen. anyone else seen this? amy, if you’re still reading, i think you’d recommended this–what am i missing?
I thought it was boring and stopped watching after 25 minutes so the two of you are very patient. I did watch the director’s earlier film Father and Son which I managed to finish but it too was oblique and doused in a yellowish and defused nostalgic light.
I seem to be doused in something yellowish but it’s not a nostalgic light. Mrs. Medical Person Lady!