BURNT BY THE SUN
RUSSIA 1994
One can only wonder if this guy can make a bad film. Compared to the other film
it ran against for the BEST FOREIGN FILM, category of the Oscars, I have to
admit that this film is no less poignant than the other, and that
it may not have been the better of the two. But it has two things that do help
it along, and do make it a more irresistible film not to vote for. All through
out it has something positive to work with, and it is so damn infectious that it
is no wonder that Nikita took her to the Oscar stand with him..... she is
special. BEFORE THE RAIN, is a great film, but it lacks some joie de vivre. It
is a film that is much too sad, for the fact that the whole area has been beaten
down so much that they do not know what it means to enjoy life.
BURNT BY THE SUN makes sure that we know what enjoying life means before it
comes to a sad, and brutal ending. But, unlike the other film, this ending is
quick, and makes sure that it does not dwell on it too much, something which is
just right for American audiences, so steeped in a Walt Disney world. "Before The
Rain", had never even seen, or appreciated life as we know it, or had ever
imagined it could be. The draw could/should have been a tie, were
it not by a little girl that is phenomenal and just takes your heart away so
easily, it is scary.
And SHE is good, and sets the tone for the whole film. The whole story is pretty
much seen through her eyes, and her magical feeling. And if her life has been
hell since, we really do not learn much about it, except that there were some
good days, just sidetracked by a few bad things along the way. In her case, most
of them were invisible, and they never found out what went on until many years
later, after the world war even. And by that time, things, records, any kind of
information was long gone, destroyed in another rubble.
This is the story of a family that stays together for a long time, until an old
lover of the wife appears. And then, it seems that the political game starts. We
are not given to what is really happening, except that this one man obviously
has a job to do. And the semi retired general, continues to take his life as if
nothing mattered, or at least, living, was the only thing that mattered.
In between, are the things that make this the special film that it really is. We
are never encumbered by the political movements until the very last several
minutes of the film. And by then, it is obvious that what the general was doing,
was out dated, and by the time he got his own shrine done, already replaced by
another system, which just may be the real reason why he is semi retired in the
first place.
Like the little girl, we never really find out what the reasons are, and life
just continues on. So does this film. And when it drops its bomb, it is quick,
efficient, and over with, before you can say and do anything. And the best line
is in the end, that this film is devoted to all those that were burnt by the
revolution, and real ANY revolution, because all they did was destroy the magic
of the feeling that it once was to live as a child in a world where it all
appeared so magical, and so much fun.
Without being about politics, as Jean Luc Godard once said, this is a very
political film, and an excellent one. But it leaves the ideas to the idealists,
and lets us see what ever else is left. And what we miss is that one part of us
..... and what makes this film such an incredible irresistible force. It is also
the deadly force that kills in the end. But the way it is presented, this is,
still, a truly beautiful work of direction and design. And its themes are never
hammered, lest they look silly and rank, like the balloon that is raised with
Stalin's face on it. A tribute, but, like the events in the film, one that was
created by those burnt by the sun of idealism.
4.5 GIBLOONS
DIRECTOR: NIKITA MIKHALKOV
CINEMATOGRAPHY: VILEN KALUTIA
MUSIC:
EDWARD ARTEMIEV
CAST:
Nikita Mikhalkov, Nadya Mikhalkov, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Viatcheslav Tikhonov,
Svetlana Kriutchkova, Vladimir Ilyine
WRITTEN BY: Nikita
SUPER FEATURES: Whew...... Some film
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