The Cadre + 16 March 1999

Foreign Film Review by David Macdonald

It’s not very often that I get to view any foreign title that isn’t from France (the case in about 90 per cent of my reviews, it seems), but, in Burnt By The Sun, here is a Rus- sian film that is equal parts amusing, pretentious, and chill- ing.

The story takes place in Stalin-era Russia. beginning with a very peculiar scene where a young man, apparently an employee of the state, visits with his father before he goes on assignment. His father reads from the state new spaper, and talks about “undesirable guests,” apparently referring to peo- ple who are in open hostility to the Stalin regime. As he chatters, the phone rings endlessly, ignored. The young man takes out his pistol, empties it of bullets, points it to his own head, and slowly pulls the trigger, Suggesting that he is hard- ening himself for the next time he pulls that trigger, appar- ently without an empty chamber.

This scene is suddenly exchanged for the Russian coun- tryside, where peasants are in an uproar over movement of Stalin’s tanks, which crush the wheat in the process. It takes persuading by the local retiring general, Kotov, to get the tanks to turn around. The sequence is light-hearted and comedic. Kotov complains that it is his day off, and in jest believes he is a scapegoat for those who want their problems solved quickly. : bine

Later, a visitor appears in Kotov’s house. Disguised as an old man, he starts teasing many people in the house in various ways. Eventually, it is revealed that he is the young man from the opening sequence. Apparently, he is an old family friend, who hasn’t visited for nearly ten years. His

resence is a blessing for most of the inhabitants of the large

ouse. But occasionally, Kotov appears wary and on At first, | thought it was jealousy, owing to the fact that Kotov’s wife and the young man were old “friends.” But it is not until later when we know what he is really thinking.

For the most part, the movie plays as gentle human comedy, with the numerous family members and their quirks and activities. (Kotov’s little daughter exhibits consistently adorable behaviour, even when the plot grows dire.) But it is the constant presence of the young visitor which gives the film some tension. Who exactly is this person, and what does he want? The answer gradually is revealed to us, and a quiet, peaceful environment (and film) ends with a vicious and cold- blooded climax.

The movie moves igh ont At a and 20 minutes, some le might patience, bu stress on the ordinary, slice-of-life storyline does contribute to the shock of a viewer when the violent ending does arrive. Also, one probably would have to be somewhat familiar with Rus- sia and its politics to really feel the impact. My own vague- ness on describing the story's happenings probably gives you an indication of what | know. Still, the movie's message will ly make some sense even to a person like me, which is that in a Communist regime, it is to your peril if you put untested trust in everyone, even your friends.

Rating: ***1/2

Books By RANDY MCDONALD

I received The Proud Tower on New Year's Day. I have a con- fession to make: Even though I'm majoring not in history but in English, history is one of my personal obsessions. Literature, for all of its intrinsic value, is a reflection of the time in which it was created; the best history does its best to describe all of said time. Unfortunately, though, histories that are both detailed and exceptionally well- written are hard to find. Will and Ariel Durant, a married pair of historians who wrote, over the space of several decades, a com- prehensive history of Western civilization, were able to accom- lish both tasks. Another was Tuchman.

Fin-de-siécle Europe in

pantie oar 1 ee was single most powerfu civilization in the world’s his-

population

the aan suppressed by the optimistic

of Gabondle of the First W War stripped

away Europe's complacenc and left it with nothing bot tax

et

. bs

Arts & Entertainment 19

Before the War 1890-1914 By Barbara Tuchman, Ballantine Books, 1962, 528 pp.

sense of disorientation. The Proud Tower secks to answer the question, Why did this hap- pen?

Tuchman was an excel- lent writer, and had an even bet- ter sense of style. Her choice to begin The Proud Tower with an overview of the Edwardian ar- istocracy of Great Britain — the single most influential group of people in the most powerful country in the world before the onset of mass politics — is ironic, for the next deals with anarchism. anarchism is famous mainly for the promi- nent world figures who were assassinated by self-identified anarchists, anarchist theory was, ironically, driven by Kropotkin, a gentle Russian emigre who thought that the only way to

so- é United States deals mainly with the Spanish-American War, and how that conflict made the

z

”

United States a world power. composer ~ author of vast, heroic opera — is Tuchman's icon for the pow- erful and expansionist, if over- exuberant, an Empire of 1900. The case of a, a Jewish army officer who had the bad luck to falsely convicted as a spy by a reactionary army command, izes the vast a of Enlightenment and Revolu- tion, and the reactionaries who

sought to overturn both events. The Proud Tower ends in a on socialism. As late

as 1914, many thoughtful peo- poor good lives

Cee the need for com- Petition between nations, could See ne con i is- matic eens, leader of the French socialists and pio- neer of the international labour ner tine t - late as ugust to urope's empires from destroying one another. On the I* of August,

sitting in a Parisien café

J was shot dead by a hood- lum who fancied himself a

triot. Three days later, the First World War came into being

. The Proud Tower is an

unf le work of h 5

tY,72 ete ee <

Soman ih A yell b's,

“ hk csisietcnesit laa iii eas

6 gag