The Life of "Others": Sarik Andreasyan's Pushkin and portraits of a new generation

There is a variety at the box office this weekend: from fabulous adventures to highly social dramas. You can choose between the new film adaptation of "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" and the cult horror "Others" by Alejandro Amenabar. There are also three films about modernity at the box office — about youth, love and difficult choices. Among them are the long—awaited premiere with Danil Kozlovsky, the scandalous comedy with Sasha Bortich and the drama "The First" about the confrontation of feelings and responsibilities. Izvestia tells us what it's worth to go to the cinema this weekend.

"The Tale of Tsar Saltan" 6+

Director: Sarik Andreasyan. Starring: Pavel Priluchny, Alexey Onezhen, Lisa the Sailor, Alice the Cat, Vladimir Sychev, Olga Tumaikina, Anton Bogdanov, Fedor Lavrov.

There are not many directors in the history of cinema who have turned to Pushkin's works, and even fewer who have dared to do so more than once. The works of Alexander Ptushko became an absolute classic, who first shot the cartoon "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish", and then years later returned to Pushkin and released the game "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" and "Ruslan and Lyudmila". Almost simultaneously with the latter, the magnificent Roman Tikhomirov operas "Eugene Onegin" and "The Queen of Spades" were released.

Now another name has been added to these masters. Sarik Andreasyan was so inspired by the success of Eugene Onegin, translated into prose and shortened as much as possible, that he created his own film adaptation of The Tale of Tsar Saltan. Alexei Onezhen, the star of "The Words of the Boy", was invited to play the role of Prince Guidon, Pavel Priluchny became Saltana himself, and then the filmmakers quite literally followed the Pushkin plot. However, as in Onegin, they forced the characters to speak in prose, and the fairy tale lost some of its charm from this. But if there is success here, Sarik and Gevond Andreasyan will surely be able to break Ptushko's record by taking up the main Russian poet in earnest.

"I'm happy when you're not" 18+

Directed by Igor Marchenko. Starring: Alexandra Bortich, Gosha Tokaev, Sonya Raisman, Evgeny Sannikov.

Igor Marchenko's debut, one of the most scandalous domestic films of the season, won the Shorter Film Festival in August and received quite decent criticism. If you retell the plot, it resembles a European arthouse. Frustrated, lonely, rich sociopath Zhenya meets blonde Wife, a nymphomaniac who cannot get along with anyone for a long time, is afraid of serious relationships and runs away from herself and others, leaving behind broken hearts. There is clearly something going on between the Wives, but none of them wants to admit it to themselves.

Despite the natural associations with Lars von Trier's "Nymphomaniac" (which was released in Russia, however, with bills), "Happy when you're not" tends more towards the genre of a classic romantic comedy, when the characters meet at the beginning of the film, and then the author leads them to each other in winding ways until the very end. However, in this film, these paths too often look like trampling on the spot, and 100 minutes are perceived as 150, and for all the piquancy of the theme, it is still very chaste. Sasha Bortich has had so many explicit scenes in her career that it sometimes seems unjustified here. On the other hand, the film positions itself as a portrait of a generation locked up, rushing and tormenting themselves and others, and much can be forgiven for this metaphor.

"Fire Zhora" 18+

Directed by Marius Vaisberg. Starring: Danila Kozlovsky, Mikhail Galustyan, Natalia Bardot, Stanislav Yarushin, Elena Fomina.

Danila Kozlovsky's first appearance on the big screen in a very long time is not just surprising. Perhaps it is shocking. He chose the project of Marius Weisberg, the creator of the scandalous comedy hits "Hitler Kaput!" and "Rzhevsky vs Napoleon" and the series "Love in the Big City" and "8 first Dates." Kozlovsky, Vaisberg, Galustyan and toilet (literally) humor are, of course, intriguing. However, it is difficult to say whether this will attract viewers to the cinemas.

Danila Kozlovsky plays the role of the "angel of death" here, a specific crisis manager who knows how to fire even those employees who are considered irreplaceable. Let's omit the fantasticism of such a situation, after all, comedy is a conditional genre. But we immediately understand, and we are not mistaken, that one day this hero must get a tough nut to crack, and Galustyan plays him in his usual manner. And this nut has a sister, whom Kozlovsky's character immediately falls in love with. What did the director want to say with this film, a parody of Spiritless? Let everyone decide for themselves, the interpretations themselves come to mind. By the way, the protagonists in both films even have the same name. It's a small thing, but it works.

The "first" 16+

Director: Anya Kharicheva. Starring: Oleg Savostyuk, Irina Novichenko, Alexandra Florinskaya, Katya Kruglova, Vitaly Shcherbina.

The generation that is now around 20 years old is not revealed in our cinema. We don't know him, but we really want to see, find out, understand how he feels. We are waiting for films like "Courier" or "Plumbum", they are not there yet. This does not mean that nothing is being done in this direction. For example, the hero of Natalia Meshchaninova's "Penguins of My Mother" is definitely a representative of his generation. And the guys we saw in her own "One Little Night Secret," certainly one of the most important films of this decade, are also very lively, real, and honest.

In that film, one of the roles was played by a young actor Oleg Savostyuk. In the "First" he already has the main role, and the director is debutant Anya Kharicheva, a graduate of VGIK. That is, she is not much older than her characters, synchronized with them. Savostyuk plays a young man who has inherited a nightclub full of debts that have nothing to repay. There are two girls next to him. One loves him, the other is passionately attached to him. And they're also friends. You probably shouldn't look for a manifesto of a new generation here, there won't be a spectacular rebellion against society or aphorisms in the style of the courier "we'll get over it and be like you." But we need to look at the details and listen to the intonation, and perhaps we will understand something about these guys.

"Other" 18+

Directed by Alejandro Amenabar. Starring: Nicole Kidman, Finola Flanagan, Christopher Eccleston, Alakina Mann, James Bentley.

In the quarter of a century since the release of "The Others", they have turned from an audience superhit into a classic, and Alejandro Amenabar, perhaps, this picture will remain the main one in his career. Maybe only "The Sea inside" will partially compete for this status with her, but perhaps everyone remembers the "Others" better. But it's amazing that today this painting, so subtle, delicate, all in semitones, is perceived as an absolutely relevant statement. About "here and now", about us.

Of course, everyone remembers: the main conflict of the film is based on the fact that the main characters — a mother and her children — are convinced that they are threatened by ghosts and many other dangers, and then it turns out that they themselves are the ghosts. This story refers to the eternal philosophical question of whether a philosopher dreams that he is a butterfly, or a butterfly dreams that she is a philosopher. Today, reality has acquired so many features of illusory, ephemeral, and absurd that many people just feel like Nicole Kidman's heroine, a ghost trapped in their own fears. It's hard to think of a better moment to re-release the film.