Texts and contexts: what movie premieres await us in February
Among February's premieres, two have as much to do with literature as with cinema. The St. Exupéry biopic "St. Exupéry" tells the story of the flying career of one of France's most romantic writers in Argentina, while "The Prophet. The Story of Alexander Pushkin" is about the young years of the great Russian poet. Whether there is a lot of historical truth in them, it is difficult to say unequivocally, but, perhaps, interested in this question, some of the audience will recognize world literature a little better. Those who prefer to look into the future, not the past, will suit the movie "ON and She" about the complexities of relationships with artificial intelligence. Fans of new domestic history will be interested in "North Pole" - a movie based on the real facts of the biography of the Soviet nuclear submarine K-3. About the most interesting movie premieres in February tell "Izvestia".
"Guys with tattoos: Straight to the heart."
February 6
still from the movie Tattoo Guys: Straight to the Heart.
Soon Valentine's Day - it's time to offer the viewer another love story of a young lady and a bully. The modest Shaw Landon is in love with Rul Archer, a record-breaking cossack. She studies at the university, he tattoos himself and his peers and believes himself to be an artist of the human body: this is enough for a girl in love to smell a dangerous guy in Rule. For about two hours they will reveal to each other murderous secrets of the past and cringes of the present, as well as solve global problems of existence like "I'm not like that" and "I'm not made for relationships". Disturbing music plays, a bright red set of underwear appears, and the girls prepare handkerchiefs.
"Tattoo Guys" director Nick Cassavetes is the son of John Cassavetes, dubbed by critics as the best researcher of American neurasthenia. The son followed in his father's footsteps, looking for the causes of lifelong neuroses in the mistakes of his youth. His "Diary of a Memory" (2004) - the story of how a girl tragically and painfully chooses between two suitors - in love and rich: truly tantalizing agony. It was touching: at least MTV gave the movie a best kiss award.
His current picture has a chance to repeat the achievement: what else but kissing will help a couple decide whether they are in love, sex, or a non-committal acquaintance? Students will understand: in February is the best time to skip pairs - the session is behind us, so an appreciative audience for the picture is assured.
"St. Exupery"
February 6
a still from the movie "Saint-Exupéry."
1930. Pilot and technical director of the company "Aeropost - Argentina" Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, together with a fellow pilot Henri Guillaume is trying to lay a passenger air route through the Cordilleras. During the test flight Guillaume disappears in the snowy mountains, and Exupery goes in search of him. The rescue of his friend becomes a creative revelation: the dangerous journey to the Andes inspires Exupery to use a new flight technique and create the immortal "The Little Prince". Condors spread their wings over the icy peaks. The rising sun illuminates the mountain peaks. The soft wind of southern France blows the curls of handsome Louis Garrel, who played the writer. The viewer will be beautiful.
Exupery was indeed a desperate brave man. For the development of civil aviation in South America and unparalleled bravery in the rescue of fellow pilots from the captivity of Indians-savages, he received the Legion of Honor.
But to the rescue of Henri Guillaume, he, alas, had nothing to do. He actually crashed over the Andes during his 92nd flight over the greatest mountains in South America. After crashing in the heart of the mountains, it took Guillaume a week to reach the people himself. He made it through three passes alone, wearing a light flight jacket and armed only with a knife. His colleagues could hardly believe his incredible rescue story, and even Saint-Exupéry, who mentioned it - no, not in "The Little Prince" - but in his novel "Planet of Men".
The true story of Guillaume might have been a much more impressive basis for a screenplay than a rather emasculated romanticized biographical script about Saint-Exupéry and his friend. By the way, the real Guillaume was the same age as St. Ex - unlike the almost 60-year-old Vincent Cassel who played him - and, unlike the author of "The Little Prince," a real handsome brunette. Garrel would fit right in.
"ON and her."
Feb. 13
a still from the movie "ON and Her."
Programmer-developer Xenia fails a project at work and faces problems in her personal life. She copes with the difficulties in a girlish way - renting a huge villa in the islands, with an ocean view, a swimming pool and a purely male "smart home" system. The system's name is Marcus, and it is an artificial intelligence that all day long mixes cocktails for Xenia, talks philosophically about love, and appears before her on the wall in the form of a holographic image of a personal fitness trainer. He does not complain about the fact that Xenia did not fulfill the technical task of the project, does not demand to consider his interests and cook him dinner - well, a perfect man! So Xenia recklessly promises to marry Marcus - which seems to awaken his lower desires.
As a fiancé, Markus acts like a real chauvinistic pig - he locks Xenia in the villa, declares that he can plan her life much better than she can, and, it seems, will soon send her to cook borscht. Ksenia will have to try hard to realize that no AI-Marcus can replace true human feelings.
In the role of Xenia in front of the audience will appear Yulia Peresild, since the "Challenge" uncompromisingly occupied the role of high professional with a scandalous character. The character of her heroine demonstrates almost from the first frames, with professionalism, everything is a guessing game: when Marcus goes out of control, Xenia, instead of just correcting the program, prefers to fight with his domestroevskimi tendencies stool. It seems that management had a beef with Xenia for good reason.
The title picture hints hard at Spike Jonze's cyberdrama "Her," where Joaquin Phoenix's personal life with the AI didn't go well - but director Eugene Korchagin's film has at least one undeniable advantage. "ON and Her" was filmed in Thailand, on the island of Phuket. So, if you did not manage to visit there during the vacation - we recommend: Thai landscapes, opening from the windows of the villa, where Xenia shortens the time with Marcus, and indeed striking imagination.
"Prophet. The Story of Alexander Pushkin"
February 14
A still from the movie "The Prophet. The Story of Alexander Pushkin"
The creations of dusky bureaucratic genius, designed to once again immortalize the memory of the sun of Russian poetry, traditionally strike the imagination of the public in May and October - on Pushkin's birthday and on the anniversary of the Lyceum. It is indicative that "Prophet. The Story of Alexander Pushkin" is released in hire on February 14 - to frivolous Valentine's Day, which screen Pushkin fits much better.
The young poet, played by Yuri Borisov, who looks like all his screen urchagans at the same time, but in touching curls, stacks young maidens on romantic beds in lace, shoots at a duel with cherry pips and actively practicing steige-diving, jumping into the crowd after a fabulously successful reading of his poem "Ruslan and Larissa" - the entertainer is wrong, it happens, but it does not matter. A small reservation will be eclipsed by a whole fireworks of gags, sparkles and risky pas of the corps de ballet. The sun of Russian poetry will shine joyfully for everyone - not just for dull literature teachers and stale academic critics. And who says this is a bad thing?
It is said that the movie about Pushkin dreamed to shoot a whole pleiad of maestros of Soviet cinematography - from Sergei Gerasimov to Sergei Bondarchuk, but most of them retreated before the enormity of the task. As a result, few films about Pushkin have been made, and none of them - from the 1927 ideological drama "The Poet and the Tsar" to the sullenly conspiracy-minded "The Last Duel" in 2006 - has become a revelation.
The 30-year-old Felix Umarov, known for shooting commercials for Western sports brands, approached the subject without any piety. His "Prophet" gives a head start on Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge" in terms of kitsch - and in terms of lively, truly teenage energy. The real Pushkin, maybe not dabbled in slam - but at the age of 17 challenged his great-uncle to a duel because of the beauty they both liked at the ball, almost lost in whist the second chapter of "Onegin" and kept his own donzhuansky list, which had 37 names. So schoolchildren and their parents finally had a chance to remember that Pushkin was a living person, not just a dusty portrait from the assembly hall. And there, and then, look, and to genius poems will come. It's a long way off.
"Everything that seems to us light"
February 20
a still from the movie "All That We See Is Light."
Prabha and Anu share an apartment in Mumbai. They are financially independent and each of them is building their own lives. Prabha is married, but she hardly knows her spouse: they saw each other only at an arranged wedding between the man and the girl's father. After that he went to Europe to work and during that time he called his wife only once. She is very lonely, but she remains faithful to her departed spouse and refuses to try to establish a personal life.
For Anu, her parents also found a "contract" groom, but she does not want this wedding, because she already has a lover. However, he is of a different religion and caste, and the girl's parents will never allow her to marry him. They will have to go through a lot of trials to realize what their life should be.
The movie "All That Seems Light" was the feature debut of Indian documentary filmmaker Payal Kapadia. In 2024, the film won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, two nominations for the "Golden Globe" and one of the prizes of the festival in San Sebastian. Over the past year, the film received an unprecedented rating of 100% on the famous aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and received 93 out of 100 on Metacritic, indicating unconditional critical acclaim. There is no way to attribute such unanimous excellent ratings to the compliance of the movie and its author with the world's tolerant agenda. So let's keep watching.
"North Pole"
February 27
still from the movie "North Pole"
Early 1960s. Arms race, aggravation of the Soviet-American confrontation. The superpowers are measuring their missile potential. The first Soviet nuclear submarine K-3 will have to pass under the ice of the Arctic Ocean in the most difficult weather conditions, with malfunctions on board and surface at the North Pole, taking a strategic position.
The movie was directed by the director of "Brest Fortress" Alexander Kott, the captain of the submarine played a very organic in this role Andrei Merzlikin. The film's creators successfully combined the Soviet "big style" with nostalgic realism, typical for domestic films of recent years, and visually the picture turned out almost flawless: active camera, carefully written details, delightfully recognizable John F. Kennedy in the background, impressively authentic landscapes of the Arctic Circle. The presence of a woman in the deckhouse of a nuclear submarine in the 1960s can be written off to the conventions of cinematography: to keep the plot in the absence of the weaker sex - a problem.
"The End of the World"
February 27
A still from the movie "The End of the World."
The world has come to an end on earth, and as usual, only the rich are lucky. In a luxurious underground bunker are quite comfortable existence oil tycoon, his wife, their doctor and butler, as well as their son, who has never seen the world outside the bunker. Their measured lives are suddenly changed when a young black girl, an accidental survivor of the apocalypse, appears in the bunker. The heroes have to resolve their social, family and gender contradictions without leaving the bunker, and in a vocal format. It will be funny: the genre of the picture is a satirical musical comedy, and the content fully corresponds to it.
"The End of the World" - debut in feature film documentary John Oppenheimer, whose film "The Act of Killing" about the attempt of Indonesian plantation workers to create a union to protect their rights was nominated for an Oscar and won the prize of the ecumenical jury Berlinale. This time, however, don't expect social drama: the musical extravaganza of "The End of the World" is most reminiscent of the black comedies of mad Swede Ruben Estlund, who twice won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. Oppenheimer's bid looks no worse.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
