TONITE’S BEST BET: Once the Donbass, Always the Donbass Зеркало для героя/Mirror for a Hero (USSR, 1987)(RTV-Liubimoe kino, 00:00). -- > Marcel Proust meets “Groundhog Day” in a Don Basin coal mining town of late Stalinist Novorossia (heh) with a soundtrack featuring Nautilus Pompilius doing “Goodbye America” – is it any wonder that Vl. Khotinenko’s “Mirror” ranks as one of a half-dozen perestroika-era movies that have achieved must-see status for Russians, ex-Soviets, never-were-Soviets and the rest of us? Heres the high-dome thumbnail version: “Zerkalo/Mirror” said two things well in 1987 and says them just as well today: (1) the past is more complex than you thought; and (2) you can’t fix it but you can understand it better – which makes empathy possible and puts reconciliation within reach. To describe much more is to deprive “Mirror” of some of its power to surprise, so enough said – OK, plus these 2 extra credit questions: 1. To what extent does the mirror of the title reflect (as it were) A. Tarkovsky’s “Zerkalo/Mirror” of 1974? And 2. Is there a way to see RTVs airing of VKhs Donbass “Mirror” during an invasion of the Donbass as something *other* than a v. broad hint that the bonds linking past and present cannot be cavalierly retied to fan somebody’s temporal vanities and distract everybody’s attention, he hopes, from the mismanagement, corruption and shameless personal enrichment that he’s responsible for? Or something? Screenplay by N. Kozhushanaya, from a story by Sv. Rybas. Highly recommended. https://youtube/watch?v=rpg2zTvnbZs
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 06:27:11 +0000
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