He will command the parade: how the new Bender drove a sports car to Sochi
A love triangle in a sports convertible on the way from St. Petersburg to Sochi is Ilya Khramov's debut full meter. After his triumph at the New Movement festival, he is preparing to appear on Russian screens. The main character is an adventurer photographer, Tema, who takes his ex—wife and her fiance to a wedding across the country and figures out how to disrupt this hateful event. The theme is played by Aram Vardevanyan from the Bender trilogy, and many of his character's qualities have migrated into a lyrical film about the end of youth and the difficult entry into adulthood.
What is the movie "The Sea—Sea Highway" about?
The fashion for domestic tourism in Russia came relatively recently, but she was very lucky to have support in the cinema. "Distant relatives", "Relatives", "Gone" are the names that come to mind immediately, plus "Vitka Garlic", "Dance, herring!", "Day of the Dead", "Threesome", "There", "Gel". And they are all far from the melancholy of the Koktebel and the gloom of the Boomer: It's a movie with a positive message. The road movie "Sea-Sea Highway" has a great company, there is even a kind of sister film, the debut of Peter Todorovsky "Lovestory". There, the characters of Alexander Petrov and Wilma Kutaviciute were driving from Moscow to Sochi for her wedding, and Petrov's character was trying to break the ice in the girl's heart.
The hero of the dramedy "Sea— Sea Highway" has a similar situation — he is also taking his beloved girlfriend to Sochi for her wedding. The difference is that they are traveling from St. Petersburg and not alone: the girl's new fiance and a wild hitchhiker are also in the car. In general, this is a very picturesque and interesting route, along the way Veliky Novgorod, Valdai, Tver, Moscow, Tula, Voronezh, Rostov. Moreover, the heroes are traveling on a free road, which implies some interesting stops and visits to their favorite places. Besides, as we find out, this is not their first time on this track.
But the characters, unfortunately for the viewer, are not at all up to visits to ancient cities and gatherings in cozy cafes. Everyone is on edge. A driver, adventurer, photographer, and street racer, Tema really doesn't want his ex-wife to remarry. She, in turn, is equally annoyed by the egoism of the Topic and the fact that her new chosen one turned out to be too much of a mother's son. The groom is proudly trying to prove that he is already an adult. The hitchhiker acts as the joker, wreaking havoc in a classic love triangle. Therefore, the trip may take a long time and take an unexpected turn.
How did the "Sea–Sea Highway" turn out?
A few years ago, Aram Vardevanyan drew attention to himself by how accurately he got into the image of Ostap in the adventurous Bender trilogy. But even if the viewer has not seen those films, a comparison with the great combinator will arise immediately when looking at the Topic. Bright appearance, sharp tongue, searchlights, pranks, constant lies, romantic attitude, homelessness, eternal lack of money, lack of integration into a gray environment and catastrophic bad luck at the border points — it's even strange that his sneakers are not barefoot. I can't believe he was really married, because the subject is an egocentric loner who, if he needs someone, is more likely to have a partner than a woman to start a family.
The whole film is based on the image of the Theme. The rest is secondary. Of course, he's in love with his convertible sports car, but we know that guys like that won't disappear without a car. The theme is trying to bring back his beloved girlfriend Sasha. But she is shown to be so ordinary that we understand that if something happens, the Theme will find another purpose, because romance and freedom are the most important things for him.
And Sasha wants stability, clear plans. She needs a caring husband, a home, and children — this is a collective image of a normal young strong woman who had to become strong, because the men around her are of very lousy quality, and you don't have to expect gifts from life, you have to achieve everything yourself. Julia Frantz from "Uni" and the new "Daddy's Daughters" plays just such a heroine. Sasha believes that in his youth it was still possible to afford foolishness like skinny dipping or having an affair with an unemployed photographer, but now he needs to adjust to social roles that correspond to an adult.
The groom is played by Oleg Ots, and his aristocratic, somewhat old-fashioned appearance, which was so useful in "Union of Salvation", "Empresses", "Pavel. The first and the last", here perfectly corresponds to the inner struggles of his character. He is completely overwhelmed by the harsh will of his rich parents, and it is clear that his inner conflict is to break free, not marry Sasha, although outwardly they are very suitable for each other. It's hard to understand what Daria Matveeva's character, a stopper, wants, but her character becomes a detonator of important plot twists. The movie would be more boring without her.
Debutant director Ilya Khramov had only recently graduated from Vladimir Khotinenko's workshop at VGIK, and for him, who had previously shot only short films (especially the thriller "How can I Help You?"), the hour-and-a-half road movie was a serious challenge. Moreover, it is clear from the film that the budget was small, but there were a lot of ideas. It is absolutely correct that Khramov eventually relied on chemistry between the actors: the love triangle with "Ostap Bender" turned out to be quite a working scheme, and the hero, as we remember, withstood the last off-road rally and sloppiness very well.
As a result, the film won the Young Film critics Prize at the New Movement festival with the wording "For striving for tomorrow and faith in bright changes," and the jury awarded Matveeva the award for best actress. The road movie will be widely released next week.
It's funny that there's already some nostalgia in this young, newly shot film. And it's how the heroes' trip goes smoothly and nothing overshadows traveling across the country, and how the characters stop at the gas station on the highway — and there's not only no queue, but also any gasoline to choose from. But this is the beauty of such films, which capture either time, or its feeling, or the very "aspiration for tomorrow" that sounds in the critics' diploma and will be received by an appreciative audience.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
