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Of Freaks and Men
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| Year: |
1998
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Director: |
Alexei Balabanov
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| Stars: |
Sergei Makovetsky, Dinara Drukarova, Anzhelika Nevolina, Viktor Sukhorukov, Aleksei De, Chingiz Tsydendabayev
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| Genre: |
Drama, Weirdo, Historical |
| Rating: |
  8 (from 2 votes) |
| Review: |
In Russia, during the early 20th Century, a group of pornographers who take and distribute photographs of young women being spanked decide to branch out into film.
You know that old myth about members of primitive cultures not wanting their photographs taken because they believe it will steal their soul? Well in this film it appears the photographs have stolen the souls of those behind the camera as well.
Alexei Balabanov's film is an inscrutable, unsettling depiction of the effects of pornography on a variety of people. It features such uncomfortable images as the maid offering her breast to a pair of Siamese twins, their blind mother lifting her skirts for an intruder in her home, and the casual shootings of various characters. Its sepia photography and stilted style makes it look like a relic of a bygone age.
The meaning of all this remains unclear. Is Balabanov saying that all technology ends up being corrupted? Or that pornography degrades everyone who comes into contact with it? Or is it a film about the class struggle? I get the impression that you can read as much into all this as you wish. It certainly stays in the mind, though. Music by Eric Neveux.
aka Pro Urodov i Lyudej
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| Reviewer: |
Graeme Clark
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Posted by:
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Date:
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29 Mar 2004 |
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Balabanov's Of Freaks and Men is telling you something where it is not telling you something. It doesn't say what the relationship between Johan and "nanny" is. Why does Johan cry so much when she dies? She is unawares of her surroundings except when she is beating someone. In tsarist russia, these beatings were common until the Bolshevik Revolution outlawed beatings in 1917. Schools ended all forms of punishment. This film is easier to understand for Russians who commonly see erotica on TV, than for Americans for whom erotica signifies a porno flick.
For aristocratic cultures, like Britain, the "english nanny" plays the twisted role portrayed in the film. They are not parents. An erotic element usually underlies relationships. Lisa's nanny is Johan's sister who was probably raised by the same nanny in turn. Grunya does not react any more than Johan does when she sees Lisa beaten. How does Lisa get a fascination with beatings? The film raises these questions but does not answer them. Despite all the pornography, the song of the cab-driver in the movie has a meaning deeper than found in American movies, and one that is not understood in the US. School beatings are a "way of life" in the South, says a Texas youth. Corporal punishment causes crime and sexual problems because it is both.
There are other "good lessons" to learn from the movie- what questions does it leave unanswered? |
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