Replay: Hipsters

The movie Hipsters is currently playing locally.  It was in 2009 that I saw this story at the Chicago International Film Festival.

Two groups of 1950s Russian youths butt heads: the young Communists headed by Katya (Anton Shagin) who has a secret love for her colleague Mels (Anton Shagin), and the hipsters, a group who wants nothing more than to dance, drink and dress in decadent Western ways. During a raid, Mels sees the beautiful Polly (Oksana Akinshina) and it is love at first sight. He secretly becomes a hipster, pursuing her although she is at first coy and cold. He becomes more bold within the hipsters and no longer hides his secret persona among the Communists. Katya's revenge is just as much about Communism versus the West as it is that of a woman scorned.

There are a few songs and dance numbers but I am not sure that is enough to make it a musical. The film is a commentary about young people being individuals, as portrayed in the last scene where it takes us to present day with punk rockers, people in goth clothes, kids of all types.

This conflict continues even today but the film portrayed it in an exciting new way, with humor and music which is kind of unheard of. I liked the visual style and the musicality.

The Forty-First

In the desert, Maryutka, a female sniper in the Red Army, and her battalion ambush a Kazakh caravan, hoping to appropriate the camels for easier travelling. In the caravan is an important White Army officer, Govorukha, who has a confidential message he needs to deliver to an important General. The leader of the Red battalion assigns Maryutka to keep watch over him while they travel back to HQ so he can be interrogated. They bond when he helps her with a war poem. They are stranded during a storm and due to their Adam and Eve existence they fall in love. He is more learned and ideal, she's more rustic and realist but soon their views on the war creep back in, leading to a tragic ending.

The cinematography is simple/unfussy in the best sense (by Sergei Urusevsky, who also filmed The Cranes are Flying), filmed on real locations, with some actors (?) who look like real nomadic people. There is also a silent film of the same from the 20s as well as a book, so this story must be very popular in Russia. Some of the music also reminds me of works by Tchaikovsky.

Hipsters

Two groups of 50s youths butt heads: the young Communists headed by Katya (Anton Shagin) who has a secret love for her colleague Mels (Anton Shagin), and the hipsters, a group who wants nothing more than to dance, drink and dress in decadent Western ways. During a raid, Mels sees the beautiful Polly (Oksana Akinshina) and it is love at first sight. He secretly becomes a hipster, pursuing her although she is at first coy and cold. He becomes more bold within the hipsters and no longer hides his secret persona among the Communists. Katya's revenge is just as much about Communism versus the West as it is that of a woman scorned.

There are a few songs and dance numbers but I am not sure that is enough to make it a musical. The film is a commentary about young people being individuals, as portrayed in the last scene where it takes us to present day with punk rockers, people in goth clothes, kids of all types.

This conflict continues even today but the film portrayed it in an exciting new way, with humor and music which is kind of unheard of. I liked the visual style and the musicality.

Free event: International, Intimate

The University of Chicago has another free screening of films of Aleksandr Medvedkin and Chris Marker (which the University also hosted last week). Looks like there are no more spaces available for this week's show, but check out the lineup. If you are interested maybe they will come around again somewhere else.


Vision and Communism: The Films of Aleksandr Medvedkin and Chris Marker
Wednesday, October 19
7:00 p.m.
University of Chicago
Film Studies Center
5811 South Ellis Avenue

Free event: The Film Train

The Film Train is a program of short Russian films from the silent era.  They were made by Aleksandr Medvedkin in the 1920s and 30s, which influenced Chris Marker in the late 60s.  Marker is probably best known to American audiences as the maker of La jetee, the film which Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys was based on.

Most of Medvedkin's film have a political/revolutionary slant.  The program also includes one film by Marker, which was probably influenced by the work represented in The Film Train.

The event is free but sign up here.

The Film Train

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

7:00pm

University of Chicago

Film Studies Center

5811 South Ellis Avenue

CIFF 2010--How I Ended This Summer

Another stellar film I saw at CIFF 2010 was How I Ended this Summer. It won the "best film" award in this Fest.

The Concert

I kind of have a bias against certain genres of films. Romantic comedies need to rise above its generic template to offer me some interesting characters or some true soul searching, so that I don't come away from the theatre sneering at the dumb characters or cookie cutter plot. "Feel good" stories too also need to break away from its melodramatic and expected ending.

Despite its dramatic elements, I think The Concert is a feel good film. It begins almost like it was made in the 1930s, in a "let's get the old gang together and put on a show" plot.