The Outsiders: Two films by Sergei Bodrov

S.Bodrov, well reputed as a commercial screenwriter in the ‘70s, in the ‘80s became the real revelation among new directors. His films – I Hate You (1984), The Sweet Sap of the Grass (1985), Unprofessionals (1985), SIR: Freedom Is Paradise (1989) – received prizes in many Russian and foreign festivals. They told viewers about the problems of a generation of teenagers with unusual – for those times – frankness and artistic power. Bodrov showed that he could work with unprofessional actors; the reality of his films was enhanced by improvisation on the set, and by the subtly elaborated psychology of the leading characters.

Unfortunately, Bodrov’s Cardsharper (1990), a dashing story about professional card players, somewhat surprised his admirers with standard situations and diminished directorial effort. His I wanted to See the Angels, however, refutes the pessimists who hurried to relegate him to a level of minor importance.

I wanted to See the Angels can be linked to a fashionable stream of “unmasking” films with naturalistic themes. There are rockers on roaring bikes, Mafia gunmen, dirty basements, scenes of morgues and police, and the cold, comfortless nighttime Moscow’s streets. Moscow itself is shown from its black side. You do not see here the bright lights of New Arbat and fashionable supermarkets, but rather the plain outskirts whose houses sullenly twinkle with the weak-sighted windows of communal flats… nearly the film’s only scenery. There are also familiar main characters: the novice hired killer and street girl. In short, a number of dull clichés are present.

But it seems one can make a good film with such ordinary – for Russian cinema – characters and settings. Of course, it depends on the director’s talent. Bodrov managed to imbue this story of the bitter love of a Saratov boy (who comes to the capital to kill a Mafia debtor) and a rocker’s girl (who dreams of writing a letter to Madonna) with the sincerity of real feelings.

The general sensation after the film is hopelessness. Young outsiders can’t “find themselves” in a life that holds no prospects. Being romantics in their souls, they aren’t satisfied to sit as clerks in commercial shops for many hours or sell bubble gum in the Metro stations. One woman is attracted to the image of an “easy rider” flying on a bike along the freeway; another dreams about warm American beaches and communications from the famous pop-star. But these dreams stay unrealizable, as castles in the air; each of the characters has a better chance of going to the heavens by way a lover of women’s caresses – a hospital attendant – will out with the neatness of a professional, fill out the last medical report on the “client”.

This had no chance of becoming a Russian screen bestseller. As well as its heroes, the film itself was condemned to be an outsider. There are too many dramas and sad stories in Russian modern life to hope that a film telling about such joyless things in earnest and without sentimentality could achieve mass success.

In the same year of the release of the forlorn I wanted to See the Angels, Sergei Bodrov produced White King, Red Queen. The main character was played by French actor André Dussolier who became known for roles in the films of his more famous compatriot Alain Resnais .

White King… begins as a biting comedy of temperaments. A small Russian trade-union delegation comes to a Swiss town for a conference and stays in a little hotel. This gives the director cause to show the charms of poor Russians who once in a blue moon can fall greedily upon the West. There are dinners with tinned fish in the room, the sale of vodka “for a song”, wild joy upon the receipt of 20 or 30 dollars, an occasion for free refreshment, and so on. The heroine is a mature woman with sings of former beauty who dully begins a flirtation with an ex-TV commentator while their colleagues drink spirits from morning till evening. The situation of Russians who find themselves shameful beggars in prosperous Switzerland may be a little exaggerated; taking into account the almost comedic plot, however, it doesn’t seem a falsity.

Further on, the comedy turns smoothly into melodrama: an elegantly dressed man (Dussolier) appears in the hotel; 20 years ago he was a famous Russian chess player who moved to the West, and he has learned that his old love, by the whim of fate, is in Europe for several days… but, alas, one can’t step in the same river twice, the previous love can’t be renewed, and the Red Queen doesn’t find enough strength to stay with the White King.

This sad story with a gay beginning, although not claiming the psychological depths of Bergman or Antonioni, is made with European mastery. Bodrov skillfully observes the laws of the melodramatic genre with its heightening of emotions and expectant pauses, while accenting the differences in mentality, habits and image of his characters so as to make the film understandable and accessible to a European audience. Because of this some things at once obvious to Russianviewers are explained more distinctly and straightforwardly than we might expect, but this perspective takes into account the film’s distribution in the West.

Retro-styles