Everyone starts: what movie premieres are waiting for us in October
In October, moviegoers will see two historical films at once. "The Battle of Motors" tells about the beginning of the development of mechanical engineering in Russia, and "The Birth of the Empire" goes back to the time of Tsar Peter and the war with the Swedes. However, the family's "Tale of Lost Time" is also a story in a sense: the book of the same name was written by Evgeny Schwartz in 1940 in order to shine with completely new meanings in the modern era of gadgets. Izvestia reports on the most interesting film premieres in October.
"Battle of the Motors"
October 8th
The beginning of the twentieth century is a time when technology is taking over the world. In Russia, automotive enthusiast Andrey Nagel, together with like-minded Dmitry Bondarev, creates a unique Russo-Balt racing car and breaks through its production through tough bureaucratic obstacles. To prove that their brainchild can keep up with the best cars in Europe, he makes the risky decision to participate in the international Monte Carlo rally. Failure can be a disaster for a new project. But first, the creators of the Russian high-speed car will have to get from St. Petersburg to Monaco on their own...
The film is beautifully shot, as befits an autodrama: the screeching brakes and dashing drifts on mountain serpentines will surely make the audience hold their breath, and the role of a young and hot engineer-inventor Nagel will make Ivan Yankovsky a new housewife's dream.
There are, however, a few details that can confuse a meticulous viewer. Andrei Nagel was not an engineer and had nothing to do with the creation of Russo-Balta. The chief designer of the brand was Swiss Julien Potter, who designed the first Fondu cars. Nagel became famous as the publisher of Russia's first auto magazine and a racing driver who participated in the Monte Carlo Rally of 1912.
His navigator was indeed Dmitry Bondarev, but not a disheveled enthusiast from the people, but the vice—director of the Russo-Balta automotive division, an effective manager who later managed to manage the Likhachev plant. He set off with a broken arm, but he still managed to do his job as a mechanic.
But neither Bondarev nor even Nagel could have depicted a dashing cinematic drift on the Russo-Balta: the average speed of their cars on the route barely exceeded 16 km/ h. And the rally itself was nothing like Formula 1: the participants only needed to get from their native lands to Monaco, which, by the way, less than half managed. Russo-Balt took the ninth place in the rally, becoming the first in terms of the number of kilometers covered. And this turned out to be enough for Nagel to receive St. Anna by personal decree of the emperor. In general, the real outline of events is no less interesting than its cinematic version. The creators of the painting are undoubtedly sincere in their outburst of admiration, but in order to tell the story, it would be nice to know it first.
"Sparta 2. Hoplites"
October 8th
The sequel to the film "Sparta" about a champion of fighting without rules, who lost everything and managed to find himself in a new kind of martial arts, which he created with his friends. Six years after winning the Sparta tournament, Nikolai Kudryashov continues his career, and he gets a unique chance to assemble a team of the strongest to defend Russia's honor in the TTC international tournament. The fight there is conducted according to the strictest rules, and Kudryashov needs the best fighters to face equal teams from the USA, Germany, France and other countries. He decides to turn to his two enemies, former rivals whom the hero once defeated. Now they will have to become a team, otherwise a loss is inevitable...
The main actor, screenwriter and producer of the film Nikolai Kudryashov, the Russian and world champion in mixed martial arts, the organizer of the first fights without rules in St. Petersburg, of course, is not exactly a professional in cinema. Therefore, the fact that stylistically "Sparta 2" resembles, rather, "Rimbaud" from the 1980s is not surprising. But it hardly bothers the creator — he has a different interest. According to Kudryashov, he started shooting Sparta in order to popularize his favorite sport in the country and in the world.
Apparently, he did it: the first film of the series aroused the interest of professionals and fans of wrestling and boxing. In some places, tournaments modeled after Sparta were even held, and the box office fees turned out to be by no means shameful. So "Sparta 2. Hoplites" will certainly find its audience. Sincere love for your work is contagious.
"The lamb in the box"
October 8th
Architect Otone Komoto and her husband Kensuke have suffered a terrible tragedy — the death of their beloved son. Unable to come to terms with the loss, they take a humanoid robot into the house — an exact replica of the deceased boy. At first, Otone is tearfully happy to see her resurrected child, but little by little, the husband and wife begin to realize that their lives have become completely different from what they expected. The boundaries between artificial intelligence and human feelings are increasingly blurred, and Otone, forgetting about the struggle with inner emptiness, increasingly wonders what makes a person human and whether the most accurate computer calculations are capable of simulating true feeling...
Director Hirokazu Koreda often places his characters in an enclosed space, separated from the usual course of life: in his best films — "After Life" and "No One will Know" — the characters are either in the territory of the afterlife, or in an air bubble cut off from society. The "lamb in the box" is, in fact, also a zone outside reality, where authentic life adapts to the moral maxims of artificial intelligence. To the philosophical arguments that are multiplying every day about how computer intelligence will change the future of mankind, Koreda adds his own subtle and elegant remark. It's worth listening to.
"To the last gram"
October 15th
1933, Great Depression, Oregon. Samuel Murphy goes to prison, and soon the state will start looking for a foster family for his lonely daughter. Meanwhile, the head of the labor camp where the protagonist finds himself offers him and several other prisoners a deal: if they manage to carry a secret cargo of gold through hundreds of miles of impenetrable thicket, they will be free. Murphy can't trust either his fellow travelers or the warden himself, but he has no other choice. He embarks on a dangerous journey, where the wild thicket and the predators living in it are just minor troubles compared to human greed and meanness...
A tense action-adventure film in the best traditions of the genre, where a dynamic plot with constant unexpected twists does not try to replace the abundance of special effects. Almost all the action takes place in the endless forests of Oregon, and such a landscape, as you know, is an eternal companion of cheap thrillers, the authors of which could not scrape together money for decent film sets. But here everything is different: the task of the surrounding landscape is not to distract the viewer's attention from the tense interaction between people, which every minute turns into a bullet in the back, a bloody fight or another local conspiracy. Starring Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe, the perfect duo of an indomitable man and a tough scoundrel. Fans of the genre will be thrilled.
"The Tale of Lost Time"
October 22
Nine-year-old Petya Zubov and his peers spend all their time on their phones, playing endless games, watching endless videos and not noticing how real life is passing by. Evil wizards come up with a special gadget with which they get the opportunity to steal time from those who waste it. They use the technology on three schoolchildren, who age instantly because of it. The wizards themselves turn into children and, using this, try to teach other children laziness and idleness in order to steal their years too. Petya and the other victims have only a few hours left to find a way to regain their childhood and punish the villains.
Needless to say, Evgeny Schwartz's "Tale of Lost Time" became obsolete immediately after war communism: to listen to it, the only thing schoolchildren should do is study, and in their free time collect scrap metal for the benefit of the state. This view of the world lost its right to life back in the days of the grandfathers and grandmothers of the current students. It is not surprising that no one has been expecting a pedagogical effect from the work for a long time. But the era of gadgets has given the classics a new impetus: now parents will be able to visually demonstrate to their children, who are buried in screens, what will happen to them if they do not stop hanging out on social networks.
Raspberries, however, are spoiled by Ivan Okhlobystin in the role of the aging Petya Zubov: for some reason, he does not materialize as an old man, but flaunts the image of "forever young, forever zoomer" and indulges in simple entertainment like eating sweets and riding roller coasters with such gusto that a young viewer may well decide: "Oh, and figs with him." eventually with this!".
"The Birth of an Empire"
October 29th
The film covers one of the most important decades of Russian history — from 1698 to 1709, from the return of Peter the Great's embassy from Europe to the Battle of Poltava. This is the story of how Peter the Great forged the Russian Empire in military battles, asserting its greatness both inside the country, among the stagnant boyars, and in the foreign policy arena. At the same time, the picture tells about Peter's personal life, about his friends and enemies, about relationships with those who at different times found themselves next to the reformer tsar, supporting his initiatives as much as possible.
At first glance, the film looks promising: at least, the budget clearly corresponds to the idea of a broad historical and battle canvas. The picture was created for envy: the costumes and interiors correspond to the era in every detail. The battles unfold on a scale that can be called historical without shame, and Alexander Gorbatov ("Stolypin", "The Aviator") in the role of Peter does not look at all caricatured, which is rather a pleasant exception.
However, Andrei Kravchuk's previous historical films, The Admiral and the Union of Salvation, could boast of the same advantages. The main drawback of these paintings was the director's desire to paint a historical canvas with an imperial brush, omitting details. Attempts to cram decades of history and hundreds of its characters into a short film format led to the fact that the narratives turned out to be flat, and the characters and goals were indistinct. Judging by the trailers, "The Birth of an Empire" has the same childhood disease: the characters on the screen change at breakneck speed, without having time to leave a memory. However, we'll see.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
