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Reviews
Russkiy kovcheg (2002)
Have some patience and enjoy it!
I particularly loved the diplomat character who acts like a little Angel and Devil on the shoulders of Russian identity. The final ball scene when the diplomat says that he's staying behind in "Europe," that is, before the Bolsheviks took over, is hauntingly beautiful.
The film plays with the idea that an entire country's identity can be found in one building in St. Petersburg and with the question that Russians in 2022 still can't seem to figure out, i.e. Whether they are European or Asiatic. Some viewers may not realize that there were Russian aristocrats with 100% Russian blood who were raised from birth to only speak French and had to relearn their "native" language if at all.
Don't let the single take gimmick distract you. This is an exploration of the Russian psyche, a psyche the West is still trying to figure out long after 2002.
The Bigamist (1953)
Boring Drama
There's some center missing in this film. While it does play the career woman type against the housewife type, there's just not enough drama drawn out of the plot to really leave its mark.
Detour (1945)
Serviceable noir
First of all, always credit for a good frame narrative. Positives: watching how far Neal's character will go to cover his tracks. Negatives: the complete lack of hope or even any comic relief. The 1940s script also struck me. It's like they're speaking a different language, telling people not to get "sore." Unfortunately, films like these always show too little due to the Hays Code, including the arrest scene at the end.
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931)
Failure on Murnau's part
In my opinion, Lang was always the superior German filmmaker. Murnau's films are simply boring when compared to other films of his era, and Tabu is no exception. Murnau expects us to care about the love story, but he rarely shows any intimate moments between the two other than their sleeping. The scenes are long-winded and spoon-fed. However, I have no doubt that just seeing a Polynesian island people on location was a spectacle for American audiences at the time who had probably never even seen a PI before, even in pictures. The film unfortunately can't decide if it's a documentary or a fictional love story. It had potential to be something different, like a critique of colonialism, but it never follows this potential.