esrosedotblog

COLD AS ICE

Today's film was Alexander Sokurov's

Krug Vtoroy / The Second Circle (1990)

A son visits his father for the weekend and finds him dead.

His struggles to say a proper goodbye along with the cold and mechanical, anger filled bureaucracy is a metaphor for a Russia whose heart is dying. Cancer for the dad, cancer for the state.

We are in the "second circle" of Dante's Inferno.

In Siberia.

The metaphor given, what follows in the film is a beautiful attempt by the son to have a spiritual connection to his father and his life. Interrupted by the machinery of death, he must muddle through without the necessary cash or any support whatsoever.

He does pretty well.

By cleaning and dressing the corpse, providing a kind of wake with himself, dreams included, he is able to feel the loss and somehow bypass the lack of support from the authorities who want papers, seek delays because it is the weekend (the son packs his dad in snow to keep him through the days) and so on.

The film is pure Sokurov show not tell. There is very little dialogue. There are very long shots with almost shocking closeups following.

The corpse is a character in the drama as are a few really nasty people who prepare for what will be a pauper's funeral. Otherwise the son, Pyotr Aleksandrov, is alone.

Photography first rate and the ambient sound track punctuates the mood and thrust of the film as clearly as any other element. Sokurov. Genius.

And there is a consuming blaze at the end.

I would see this again any time. I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: best films