National identity, cultural authority, and the Post-Soviet blockbuster: Nikita Mikhalkov and Aleksei Balabanov

Slavic Review

Volumn 62, Issue 3, 2003, Pages 491-511

  Larsen, Susan ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 60949131098     PISSN: 00376779     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3185803     Document Type: Article

References (80)

1. The number of Russian feature films rose to 38 in 1997, 40 in 1998, declined to 31 in 1999, and rose again to 39 in 2000. See Daniil Dondurei and Natalie Venger [Nataliia Venzher], The Film Sector in the Russian Federation (Moscow, 2001), 34, at www.obs.coe.int/oea-publ/eurocine/doubled-film.pdf (last consulted 19 May 2003).
2. Nataliia Venzher, "Vyzhivat' ili zhit'-vot v chem vopros!"Iskusstvo kino, 1997, no.7:7;
3. Diliara Tasbulatova, "Prokatnyi bum," Itogi, 16 July 2002, 47;
4. Dondurei and Venger, Film Sector, 50-53.
5. On the Russian film industry in the 1990s, see Dondurei and Venger, Film Sector; Birgit Beumers, "Cinemarket, or the Russian Film Industry in 'Mission Possible,'" Europe-Asia Studies 51, no.5 (July 1999): 871-96;
6. Susan Larsen, "In Search of an Audience: The New Russian Cinema of Reconciliation," in Adele Marie Barker, ed., Consuming Russia: Popular Culture, Sex, and Society since Gorbachev (Durham, 1999), 192-200. On the Russian video market, see the report prepared by the Interactive Research Group for the European Audiovisual Observatory, Russia: Video Market in Transition (Moscow, 2001), at www.obs.coe .int/online-publication/reports/IRG-video.pdf (last consulted 19 May 2003).
7. Tasbulatova, "Prokatnyi bum," 45.
8. Cited in Aleksei Karakhan, "Rossiiskoe kino podderzhat," Kommersant Daily, 18 July 2002, 13.
9. A survey of Russian film journalists in 2000 placed Mikhalkov as the first and Balabanov-together with his longtime producer, Sergei Selianov of STV-as the third most influential members of the Russian film industry. (Aleksandr Golutva, former head of Lenfil'm Studios, now deputy minister of culture in charge of filmmaking, was placed second). Given Mikhalkov's much longer career and prominent position as head of the Filmmakers' Union since 1997, Balabanov's place in this list is startling. Survey cited in Daniil Dondurei, "'Vy gangstery?'-'Net, my russkie,'" Iskusslvo kino, 2000, no.11:71.
10. M. Iu. Lermontov, Sobranie sochinenii (Moscow, 1957), 1:270. This and all other translations are my own unless otherwise noted.
11. Lermontov's Geroi nashego uremeni was invoked in so many reviews of Balabanov's Brother that it may well have inspired the Lermontov scene at the beginning of Brother-2. See, for example, Marina Drozdova, "Srochnaia mobilizatsiia v 'geroi nashego vremeni,'" Kinoglaz, 1997, no.17: 39;
12. the comments by Irina Liubarskaia, Ol'ga Surkova, and Ol'ga Shervud in "Brat: Kritiki o fil'me," Seans, 1997, no. 16: 39.
13. He uses this phrase several times in comments included on the DVD of the film released in Russia, as well as in interviews with the foreign press. See Philip Kemp, "Free Cheese from the Mousetrap," Sight and Sound 10, no.8 (August 2000): 10;
14. Michael R. Gordon, "In Filmmaker's Ideal Russia, a Presidential Role?" New York Times, 21 February 1999, 3.
15. Peter Brooks, The Melodramatic Imagination: Balzac, Henry James, Melodrama, and the Mode of Excess (New York, 1985). On the use of melodrama in other recent Russian films,
16. see Susan Larsen, "Melodramatic Masculinity, National Identity, and the Stalinist Past in Postsoviet Cinema," Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature 24, no.1 (Winter 2000): 85-120.
17. Brooks, Melodramatic Imagination, 20.
18. Brooks, Melodramatic Imagination, Ibid., 25.
19. Brooks, Melodramatic Imagination, Ibid., 32.
20. Mikhalkov refused to screen the film at the 1994 Open Russian Film Festival (Sochi) and withdrew it from consideration for the Russian "Nika," the post-Soviet equivalent of the Academy Awards.
21. Miroslava Segida and Sergei Zemlianukhin, Domashniaia sinemateka: Otechestvennoe kino 1918-1996 (Moscow, 1996), 470.
22. On the film's premiere, see Tat'iana Cheredni-chenko, "'Utomlennye solntsem' v 'Rossii,'" Iskusstvo kino, 1995, no.3:19-20.
23. The film's performance at the Russian box office is unknown, but press reports support its producer Leonid Vereshchagin's claim that Burnt by the Sun outsold all other Russian films in the year of its release, when it was screened in over thirty-five regions. On the film's distribution, see Iuliia Khomiakova, "'Oskar,' 'Nika' i 'Feliks' vstrechaiutsia na Malom Kozikhinskom" (interview with Leonid Vereshchagin), Kino-glaz, 1995, no. 3:35.
24. Khomiakova, "'Oskar,' 'Nika' i 'Feliks'"; Nikita Mikhalkov, "Rezhisser ne dolzhen dolgo nakhodit'sia pod obaianiem svoei kartiny. Eto opasno," Iskusstvo kino, 1995, no.3:9;
25. Evgeniia Tirdatova, "I dol'she veka dlitsia den'...," Kino-glaz, 1995, no.1:40.
26. On the film's production history, see Khomiakova, "'Oskar,' 'Nika' i 'Feliks,'" 34-35
27. Birgit Beumers, Burnt by the Sun (London, 2000), 114-116
28. On contemporary films set in the Stalin era, see Julian Graffy, "Unshelving Stalin: After the Period of Stagnation," and Anna Lawton, "The Ghost That Does Return: Exorcising Stalin," both in Richard Taylor and Derek Spring, eds., Stalinism and Soviet Cinema (London, 1993), 212-27; 186-200.
29. Andrei Plakhov, "Mikhalkov protiv Mikhalkova," Seans, 1994, no.9:21.
30. Mikhalkov, "Rezhisser ne dolzhen," 11.
31. On melodrama's characteristic "misprision and recognition of virtue," see Brooks, Melodramatic Imagination, 28-34.
32. For one viewer's enthusiastic, if probably tongue-in-cheek, response to the novelty of this sexual position, see A. Akulov, "Seks po-mikhalkovski," Argumenty i fakty, 1996, no.6 (no. 799): 1.
33. Brooks, Melodramatic Imagination, 25.
34. See the interview with Mikhalkov on the DVD Sibirskii tsiriul'nik (Ruscico, 2000). In addition to interviews with Mikhalkov, Oleg Men'shikov, and Julia Ormond, the DVD includes the documentaries On the film set" and "In the Kostroma Military Academy." Many scenes are also accompanied by the voice-over commentary of Mikhalkov and his cameraman, Pavel Lebeshev.
35. Box office statistics are maintained on http://www.boxofficemojo.com/ intl/alltime/russia.htm (last consulted 19 May 2003), which reports that Barber earned $2.6 million between February 1999 and mid-July 2002. For details of the film's production costs and theatrical release.
36. see Miroslava Segida and Sergei Zemlianukhin, Fil'my Rossii: Igrovoe kino, 1995-2000 (Moscow, 2001), 111. Video sales are listed on www.vidcogiiide.ru/ top50-2000.asp (last consulted 19 May 2003).
37. Kemp, "Free Cheese," 10.
38. In Mikhalkov's commentary on the DVD release of the film, he refers repeatedly to those parts of the film that he intended to appeal to foreign viewers, to whom he attributes a fascination with Russian "exotica" and the "enigmatic Russian soul."
39. Aleksandr Kulish, "Kak poluchit' Oskar," Premiere [Russian edition] 19 (April-May 1999): 6.
40. On the premiere and product tie-ins, see http://mikhalkov.comstar.ru/ news/ news.html (last consulted 19 May 2003); "Mikhalkovskaia sibiriada," Kino Park 23 (April 1999): 22;
41. Mikhail Novikov, "V kremle zapakhlo iunkerami," Kommersant, no.26 (1670) (23 February 1999): 1;
42. Stephen Kotkin, "Is Russia Ready for a Film-Director President?" New Republic, 5 April 1999,16. The scarf design is on view at http://mikhalkov.comstar.ru/news/hermes.html (last consulted 19 May 2003).
43. Modeled after famous paintings of the pre-Lenten festival by Boris Kustodiev ("Maslenitsa," 1916; "Balagany," 1917; "Portret F. I. Shaliapina," 1922), these scenes inspired one critic to lambaste the film as a "Russian souvenir" for foreigners. Tat'iana Moskvina, "Ne govori, chto molodost' sgubila," Iskusstvo kino, 1999, no.6:33.
44. "No more, you amorous butterfly/ Will you go fluttering round by night and day/ disturbing the peace of every maid. .. . Cherubino, on to victory / On to military glory." Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro, libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, trans. Lionel Salter, Deutsche Grammophon (1994), 53.
45. The greater emotional intensity between the cadets may be due, in part, to the language difference. Andrei and the Count speak Russian together, while Andrei and Jane speak a carefully modulated and often stilted English. On the digital manipulation of the sparks in the duel scene, see Mikhalkov and Lebeshev's commentary on the DVD.
46. It may seem preposterous to compare the cadets' gruff little captain Mokin (Vladimir Il'in) to the grieving mother of Christ, but it is also worth noting that the sequence that portrays Mokin's dawning awareness and discovery of the duel begins with a scene in which he is sitting behind a sewing machine, patiently stitching a costume for the cadets' amateur theatricals. The contrast between this scene of quiet domesticity and the sound of swords clashing off-screen gives additional symbolic weight to Mokin's role as the cadets' surrogate parent, a figure who is more maternal than paternal, given his choice to protect rather than punish Andrei and his friends for their violation of the laws against dueling.
47. For a valiant attempt to give the film a positive review, see Kirill Razlogov, ".... Il' perechti 'Zhenit'bu Figaro,'" Isktisslvo kino, 1999, no.6:25-29.
48. The most negative reviews include Moskvina, "Ne govori," and Aleksandr Arkhangel'skii, "Podschety i proschcty," Iskusstvo kino, 1999, no.7:65-67.
49. For a representative sample of critical views, see "Sibirskii tsiriul'nik: Kritiki o fil'me," Scans, 1999, no.17-18:77-79.
50. For a balanced discussion of both critical and audience reaction, see Mikhail Brashinskii, "Iz Rossii s liubov'iu," Scans, 1999, no.17-18:81-84;
51. Dmitrii Bykov, "V Rossii nichego ne byvaet slegka!" Iskusstvo kino, 1999, no.7:49-51;
52. Andrei A. Eshpai, "V poiskakh novogo zritelia," Iskusstvo kino, 1999, no.7:3-56.
53. On the film's ambitions and social resonance, see Iu. Gladil'shchikov, "Pervyi blokbaster Rossiiskii imperii," Itogi, 9 March 1999, 43-47.
54. For comments on the "danger" of such dialogue and the enthusiastic audience response to it, see Daniil Dondurei, "Ne brat ia tebe, gnida..." Iskusstvo kino, 1998, no.2:64-67
55. Viktor Matizen, "Skromnoe ocharovanie ubiitsy," Seans, 1997, no.16:41.
56. For other critical perspectives on the German's role in the film, see E. Margolit, "Plach po pioneru, ili Nemctskoe slovo 'Iablokitai,'" Iskasslvo kino, 1998, no.2:60
57. I. Mantsov, "Strogii iunosha," Iskusstvo kino, 1998, no.2:62.
58. Nautilus Pompilius is a hugely popular rock band that emerged, like Balabanov himself, from the provincial backwaters of Sverdlovsk in the late 1980s. Balabanov's association with Nautilus Pompilius dates from the mid-1980s, when he made two "underground" amateur films featuring the band. Tamara Sergeeva, "Pro brat'ev i urodov" (interview with Aleksei Balabanov), Iskusstvo kino, 2000, no.4:89.
59. V. Butusov and I. Kormil'tsev, "Kryl'ia," from Nautilus Pompilius, Kryl'ia (St. Petersburg, 1996). Lyrics published on the group's official website, www.nautilus.ru (last consulted 19 May 2003), which indicates that the songs for this album were written in the winter and spring of 1995, after the outbreak of war in Chechnia in December 1994.
60. Critics did address the soundtrack but focused primarily on the anachronism of making Danila the fan of a group whose popularity peaked in the early 1990s, well before the period when the film is set. For other readings of the soundtrack, see Iurii Bogomolov, "Killer-brat killera," Iskussluo kino, 1997, no.10:29-31;
61. Margolit, "Plach po pio-neru," 59;
62. Iurii Gladil'shchikov, Odinochnoc plavanie," Itogi, 1 June 2000, online-version at http://www.itogi.ru/paper2000.nsf/Article/Itogi-2000-06-01- 144334.html (last consulted 19 May
63. V. M. Volodarskii, ed., The Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow: Painting, trans. B. Meyero-vich (Leningrad, 1979), figure 77.
64. Margolit, "Plach po pioneru," 58;
65. Mark Lipovetskii, "Vsekh liubliu na svete ia!" Iskussluo kino, 2000, no.11:58.
66. Mantsov, "Strogii iunosha," 63. Matizen also views the directors in the film as stand-ins for Balabanov ("Skromnoe ocharovanie," 41) and argues that Balabanov should have played these roles himself.
67. Bodrov and Oleg Men'shikov, his co-star in Prisoner, shared the prize for Best Actor at both the Russian Film Academy Awards ("Nika") and the Open Russian Film Festival (ORFF) in Sochi in 1996. In 1997 Bodrov took home the Best Actor award from the ORFF for Brother, which also won the award for Best Film. Bodrov's death in an avalanche in northern Ossetia on 20 September 2002 provoked a huge public outcry. Both print and on-line media provided extensive coverage of the search for survivors for weeks afterwards; in the first three weeks after his death, more than 3,500 comments were posted on the memorial webpage set up by STV, the company that produced both Brothers, as well as Bodrov's own directing projects: Sestry (Sisters, 2001) and Sviaznoi (The messenger), which he was shooting on the day of his death.
68. Balabanov's much discussed use of black frames to separate episodes has been persuasively analyzed by N. Sirivlia, "Bratva," Iskusstuo kino, 2000, no.8:27-28.
69. N. Sirivlia, "Bratva," Iskusstuo kino, 2000, no.8: On the proliferation of brothers in l'rat-2, see ibid. 26.
70. For a vivid description of the film's narrative inconsistencies, see Dondurei, "'Vy gangstery?'" 69-70
71. Lipovetskii, "Vsekh liubliu na svete ia!" 55-56.
72. "Vashi otzyvy," on www.brat2.film.ru (last consulted 19 May 2003).
73. As their plane takes off, the choir sings: "Good-bye America, Oh!, Where I have never been / Farewell forever." V. Butusov and D. Umetskii, "Poslednee pis'mo" (also known as "Proshchal'noe pis'mo" and "Gud-bai Amerika-o"), first recorded in 1985; released on Nautilus Pompilius, Neuidimka.
74. For details, see www.brat2.film.ru/soundtrack.asp. Balabanov also directed a music video of the Bi-2 song featured in the film, "Polkovnik" (The colonel), that starred Bodrov and played in regular rotation on Russian MTV during the two months prior to the film's Moscow premiere on 11 May 2000. "Nashe radio" also assisted in the film's promotion by putting its soundtrack in rotation.
75. On the film's promotional campaign, see Sergei Selianov, "My tut mandarinami torguem," Iskusslvo kino, 2001, no.5:6-10;
76. "Novosti" on www.brat2.film.ru/.
77. See www.brat2.film.ru/b&w.asp. For particularly impassioned critiques of the film's racial politics, see Dondurci, "'Vy gangstery?'" 69-70;
78. Lipovetskii, "Vsekh liubliu na svete ia!" 57-58.
79. "Aleksei Balabanov: Portret," Seans, 1999, no.17-18:226.
80. Katerina Clark, The Soviet Novel: History as Ritual, 3d ed. (Bloomington, 2000), 129.