Other Russia - Actual classic

Eduard Limonov, 'It's me, Eddie'

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 04:21:00 +0000

Emigration, eroticism, egoism, erudition, eccentrical, ESTHETICS

'All in all, he was what we call it in Russia, a fucker. Such people become artists so that it was easier to get a woman into bed using a free profession'.

Eddie 'Edichka' got me into bed with this book, and he did it in such a way that you won't want to read anyone else.

So, what is it there, ladies and gentlemen, in this story, which is obviously 18+ but I would recommend it as a manual for teaching feelings, for instance, from the age of 16?

A guide for immigration, the art of stylish poverty, sometimes a satirical journalistic essay about all political movements, and a very romantic novel, to my taste.

The angriest, witty poetry of this prose which can't hide behind rudeness and nudity, even partial nakedness of its characters, can't wash away the poetry by the fluids of their bodies.

'Sex is sex, fuck whoever you want, but why betray my soul?'

Generally speaking, pornographity is limited here, no matter how this phrase may sound, because the book is about love:

Love and tenderness towards women, which hides behind the hatred towards the Woman.

The nominal plot thread which links the walk of tanned Edichka through 300 streets of New York — the separation from his wife, the wonderful Elena, and a wish to kill, take vengeance, crush — no matter her or himself.

But it's precisely the Woman who made a poet out of a man.

'Squirrel, silly little thing, bitch' — almost Chekhov's rhetoric in relation to the beloved one; these unique sweetnesses, inapplicable to anybody else.

Self-love on the verge of boasting helps to overcome both embarrassment and disgust at all the unbearableness of being — when you are so young and beautiful, is it worth worrying about hugging a tramp in a musty back street?

The descriptions of attire, that importance which a man who usually loves playing with words, playing with the reader, attributes to the description of his clothes —from chapter to chapter, 'an amazing white waistcoat', a black handkerchief, shoes— is almost Nabokov's self-admiration (in diaries, that one could dedicate pages to the descriptions of his outfit up to the colour of his socks).

'…I wore and wear only high heeled shoes, and I ask to put me in the coffin, if there is one, in some incredible shoes and, by all means, high heels' — and how did they put him there, I wonder?

Nobody knows and it will never be known which parts of this are autobiography and which ones are mystification and poetry, but there is the simplest clue from the author — 'what is compared to childhood cannot be a lie' — and this broken glass from his childhood, vodka, Kharkiv, volleyball, is it all real? All that which comes out on night shifts as a waiter in a hotel o while drinking brandy during his breaks as a loader?

Nagging, very very arrogant sense of not belonging, otherness: the unwillingness to be a Russian martyr in a strange land, nor an intellectual journalist in an emigrant newspaper, nor left-wing, nor right-wing, nor rich, nor businesslike — just love.

And finally — the descriptions of a hangover (what do you think we are all here for) — oh, how good are these descriptions in the chapter about Rosanna!..

Imagine right now the worst hangover you have had, and then imagine that you are doing a full thorough cleaning in a state of hangover in the flat where you had been having fun all night — and in the process you get cheap and warm pink wine from a big bottle to recover, not good chilled Spanish dry one.

In short, if Bataille, Nabokov and Bukovski had organized a literary group sex and invited Erofeev and Dovlatov to look at it, the result would have been Limonov's prose, and he actually made up everything for them in terms of sensuality.

This book is definitely on the list of my favourites and will never disappear from it.

Who will like it: those who didn't get scared but got attracted by this feedback.

What to drink: oh. Probably cold, cold, even icy vodka, and all of a sudden in the morning (but only if you didn't spend the night at home, and no more than two shots).

Author: Ksenia Yakovleva Telegram bookswine

The influence of Andrei Tarkovsky's films on world culture

Sat, 01 Aug 2020 22:02:00 +0000

There are things that you simply must know - and among them, of course, Tarkovsky. For Western filmmakers, it's the God of Cinematography, ”said British filmmaker Danny Boyle. Many modern filmmakers proudly consider themselves, if not students and followers, then at least fans of Tarkovsky, who really had a huge impact on world cinema.

The most vivid example of recent times is the film "The Survivor" by Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu, in which critics and attentive viewers found a number of quotes and borrowings from Tarkovsky. At the same time, Iñarritu never hid his love for Tarkovsky's films, and while preparing for the filming of The Survivor, he even handed the production designer Jack Fisk a disc with Andrei Rublev, and he immediately understood what kind of film it would be.

The Dane Lars von Trier, who dedicated his film Antichrist to the master, is considered to be Tarkovsky's "main student" in the West. Director Andrei Zvyagintsev pointed out the direct connection between Antichrist and Tarkovsky's legacy, referring to the entry in Martyrologue, which became, as it were, the source of von Trier's film: “New Joan of Arc” is a story about how one man burned his beloved, tying her to a tree and setting up a fire under her feet. For a lie. " References to Tarkovsky can be found in many other films of Trier, and one of the chapters of Nymphomaniac is even called The Mirror.

Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, winner of the Palme d'Or for Winter's Sleep, rates Mirror above all other films in world cinema. On the second place in the list of his personal passions - "Andrey Rublev". Ceylan said about Tarkovsky:

After watching his films, you can no longer look at the world as you did before. Your worldview immediately changes - there are so many different nuances, new details ... Tarkovsky opened a new vision of life in all aspects - in language, in the manner of storytelling. It was his own message to the world, which turned out to be close to many.

The influence of this message is evident in every Ceylan film. All of them are close to Tarkovsky both in the pictorial solution, and in intonation, and in meanings.

Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu continues the Tarkovsky tradition:

Tarkovsky is one of the most important directors for me. At one time, his films changed my view of cinema, I realized that poetry can be created not only on paper, but also on the screen.

Kaplanoglu's dystopia "Grain" (2017) is a free retelling of "Stalker" by the Strugatskys, a kind of dedication to Tarkovsky's film.

American director Steven Soderbergh even dared to challenge Tarkovsky in the form of a remake. He presented his version of Solaris (2002) not as an independent adaptation of Stanislav Lem's novel, but as a rethinking of the cult film by Tarkovsky, as a creative dialogue three decades later.

Critics have also noted a clear connection to Solaris in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. This applies to both general motives (for example, juxtaposition of space and home), and manner of storytelling.

In his love for Tarkovsky, Tarsem Singh, an American director of Indian origin, whose childhood was spent in Iran, is also explained. Talking about his film "Snow White: Revenge of the Dwarfs" (originally - "Mirror Mirror", that is, "Mirror Mirror"), he admitted that when creating a snow-covered forest he was inspired by shots of a birch grove from Ivanov's childhood. But even before he got into big-time cinema, Singh candidly quoted "Sacrifice" in his set for the American rock band R.E.M. music video Losing My Religion (1991).

In Russia, critics from the first films consider Alexander Sokurov to be the "successor of Tarkovsky", and Andrei Zvyagintsev earned the title "our Tarkovsky today" from them. Konstantin Lopushansky admitted that his experience as an assistant to Tarkovsky at Stalker helped him to form as an artist.

In 2018, an adjective derived from the director's surname Tarkovskian was included in the Oxford English Dictionary

Of Freaks and Men - Про уродов и людей

Sat, 01 Aug 2020 22:01:00 +0000

Of Freaks and Men (Про уродов и людей) is a 1998 the most unusual film directed by Aleksei Balabanov. This you have not seen before. The film is not for everyone

The beginning of the twentieth century. Two seemingly prosperous families. And the mysterious Johann, the owner of a photo studio, in the basement of which a certain photographic theater of the Marquise de Sade was created.

Where are photographic postcards with the humbled nakedness of the human body, causing lust and gloating triumph of power. The look of a photographer who knows how to see angel curls and a sweet smile in a girl, and the same look that corrupts the body, the look of a pornographer. Over and over again, Johann destroys the well-being of families and turns ordinary people into freaks, seized with the scent of vice

Filmed initially in black and white, then entirely in sepia tone, this film set in turn of the century Russia is centered on two families and their decline at the hands of one man, Johann, and his pornographic endeavours. Hailed by some as a masterpiece, the movie comments on the decline of Russian society as a result of the rise of capitalism.