Where's my car, Vyborg: Gel opened the Window to Europe Film Festival
The comedy "Gelya" is not only the opening film of the 33rd Window to Europe Russian Film Festival, one of the oldest and most prestigious screenings in the country. The painting was officially included in the competition just the day before, which immediately increased its weight in the eyes of cinephiles. Shortly after this screening, on August 22, the film will be released in wide Russian distribution. Izvestia watched the film at the festival and shares their impressions.
What is "Gel"?
"Gelya" is not Angelina or a girl at all. "Gelya" is a pink gelik, a luxuriously vulgar minivan with fluffy seats, which trucker and hijacker Sanya decided to kidnap in order to cut some dough for the birth of the third child in the family. Sanya belongs to the category of losers, although he is handsome, young, dances beautifully, and drives a car so that it would be possible to win races. But when we get to know Sanya, things are going badly for him: his wife and mother-in-law are always nagging him, he has no money, and he doesn't have a normal job either.
The theft of the Geli should plug the gap in the budget for a while, but Sanya is a loser, so there will be "substances" in the trunk, and the car itself has been grazed by "organs" for a long time. They also have their own loser, Captain Orekhov. His superiors don't get out of lavish parties, and the minor ranks obsequiously curry favor in order to jump up one day. Sanya and Orekhov will have to go a long way on the Gel to get what the scoundrels deserve... although no, not for that. And in order to at least survive, because serious passions are burning around the "Gels".
Yes, of course, you remembered "The Unlucky Ones" with Pierre Richard and Gerard Depardieu. And quite rightly. The films are really similar in many ways, director Stas Ivanov ("JUZZZ", "The Surgeon", "The Germans") is generally a cinephile and likes stylizations. Therefore, its plot and characters are from the 70s and 80s, and the setting is largely from the 90s. Peter, the cops, the wheelbarrow, the bags with something forbidden - everything here is saturated with the lawlessness of the 90s, even if formally the action takes place in our time. That's why they perform the entire cover of Natalia Vetlitskaya's "Look into My Eyes", which is why there is a scene in the bullpen here, referring to one of the best episodes of Yuri Mamin's classic tragicomedy "Window to Paris". Everything here is filled with love for cinema, including even the fact that one of the toughest scenes takes place on the territory of a drive-in, which is conceptually located in a dump truck. It doesn't pedal in any way, but how touching it is!
Dmitry Saveliev, an outstanding Russian film critic, as well as a well-known agent who made many young artists superstars, also starred in the cameo. And there are a lot of funny dialogues about the Window to Europe festival, which is simply called Vyborg, as well as Vyborg itself, where the most violent and funny events of the film take place. Yes, "Gelya" is an ideal painting for the opening of the festival, to which it is also largely dedicated. Yes, and such movies have always been loved here — Vitka Garlic, Express, and Roman Karimov were opened right there, and Alexey Balabanov brought his latest films here. Ironic crime films are part of the festival's calling card.
Who plays in "Gel"
"Gela" does not aim to be a perfect film. It seems, on the contrary, he enhances the roughness, does "as much as possible." For example, when the tangle of gangsters and cops gets really tangled to the extreme, Stas Ivanov prefers to lead us out of the conflict through flashy shocking actions of the characters or witty dialogues, rather than through elegant turns of the plot.
The latter is quite predictable, which is generally typical for this genre. We don't sit down to watch adventurous comedies in order to listen to an explanation of what is happening in the tone of Hercule Poirot. We want to relax, laugh, and be a little scared somewhere, but we understand perfectly well where everything is going and how it will end. Otherwise, this is not a genre movie, but an arthouse, from which Ivanov tries to distance himself as much as possible.
True, there is a lot of noir in "Gel", and there may be some ambiguities in noir, because the most important thing there is the feeling that the hero is being dragged into a quagmire. And no matter how much he tries to get out, every action only brings him closer to a tragic outcome, unless a miracle happens. These motives are also clearly visible here, if only in the fact that in noirs you rarely find just a "person", everyone there is a part of the world on the other side of the law, everyone is marked and everyone is dangerous.
We don't know where Sledge's choreographic abilities come from or why he drives so coolly. But he plays "towards" Pierre Richard, and we see in his dancing a curtsy to the innate grace and skillful clowning of the great French comedian. The actor Ilya Malakov here even looks a little like him. Anton Vasiliev plays an investigator in Depardieu's style, trying to combine, like that one, a dramatic and even thriller image with a comic one, so that we could not guess which one would appear stronger now. A separate gift is episodes with the actor of the Vakhtangov Theater Viktor Dobronravov. His character is the epitome of vice, corruption, ruthlessness, deceit and, most importantly, a total sense of his own invulnerability.
Perhaps this is the main feature that separates the world created in the "Gel" from the epochs that served as a reference. In the 90s, even the most successful bandit or official understood how vulnerable he was, especially if he violated some unwritten code. Here we find a chain of celestials stretching upward into infinity, who are absolutely sure that no one will ever touch them. That they have no enemies and cannot have any, since there are no competitors at the top: everyone is connected, everything has been agreed upon and divided in advance. And what Ivanov did best in working with artists is to convey their amazement when their heroes, gods, Olympians, suddenly find themselves defeated — even if only for a moment, that's already a lot.
Whether Gelya will receive a prize at the Vyborg Festival, we will find out on August 14. And let's note that not only the jury will award, but also the audience.: According to the results of the voting, the audience award is awarded annually, which is almost more honorable than the professional award. And right now, Gel has a very serious contender for this prize.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
