Review of the movie Generation P. How I read Pelevin (Topic)

Movie “ Generation P ” – a rare example of a careful movie adaptation of a book. After all, the adaptation of any book, and not just the one that has already acquired the status of a cult, is a responsible business. But, if the moviemakers managed to more or less accurately transfer to the screen the plot of the book of the same name by Viktor Pelevin, it turned out to be more difficult to catch and show the idea of the book for Viktor Ginzburg and his team.

Viktor Pelevin's book tells the story of a young man who, like all his peers, was once a pioneer, `` kept equal to eternity '', went to summer camps and drank Pepsi-Cola. But after `` eternity disappeared '' in 1991, Vavilen Tatarsky unexpectedly `` found himself in the present ''. After trying to work in a beer stall with the boss from the `` Caucasian community '', as well as to compose catchy and sometimes meaningless slogans for advertising agencies, Vavilen ends up in an advertising company of a certain Azadovsky, located in a huge and gloomy building with a Soviet representative plate `` Institute of Bees; rdquo; And here all the most mysterious and, at first glance, too fantastic in the history of Babylon begins.

In Pelevin's book, the activities carried out by the staff of the `` Institute of Beekeeping '', and the organization itself, though and they look not like a plot from a Soviet dystopia, not like one of the versions of the `` American conspiracy '', but initially they are, in my opinion, conditional and symbolic, but in many respects and parodic.

But Viktor Ginzburg, apparently, decided to give the plot of the movie more realism, after all, the activities of the `` Institute of Beekeeping '', whose director himself does not even know where orders come from (and about he does not allow him to think not only to his subordinates, but also tries to avoid this thought himself), of course, does not look very believable.

The moviemakers decided to achieve greater believability with the help of numerous references to real events of the 90s. They also added a few details, let's say, from themselves, thanks to which middle-aged viewers should immediately have associations. For example, the emblem of Azadovsky's company with three letters and a green circle in the middle somehow very much resembles the emblem of the NTV channel.

Despite the fact that in Pelevin's book itself, real events of the 90s are present only at the beginning, when it is stipulated why the Soviet `` alignment with eternity '' ceased to exist, the moviemakers considered that by linking the movie with this time, they would thereby facilitate the viewers' understanding of the idea that Pelevin put into the work.

But, in my opinion, it was that was the mistake. Victor Ginsburg did not help the audience with historical plausibility, but rather confused it.

Behind all the political and historical allusions, the movie loses what many fans of the writer call `` Pelevinism '' - juggling with mysticism, symbols and, of course, humor.

With such an interweaving of the history of Babilen with real events, all the irony of the idea of digitizing politicians and, in general, the existence of an organization that deals with this, disappears. Not only that, the whole storyline with Babilen's spiritual explorations, the “ eternal lottery ” and the three riddles of Ishtar turns out to be unnecessary and even superfluous. For a viewer who has not read the book, it will remain incomprehensible how, for example, the activities of this mysterious organization are connected with the goddess Ishtar.

Namely, this departure from the “ pelevency ” to the fascination with the idea that all power in the country can depend on an unknown advertising company, and occurred in the movie “ Generation P ”.

Blame the moviemakers for this, of course , not worth it, this is a very tempting idea for the plot. But, taking such a difficult book to movie as the basis of the script, there is always a danger for the director to movie not the book itself, but his own perception of this book.

The movie “ Generation P ”, perhaps it was not possible to convey the whole essence and all the subtleties of Pelevin's idea, but Viktor Ginzburg's attempt to create a high-quality movie, a kind of variation on the theme of “ Pelevin ” can be considered successful.

The Topic of Article: Review of the movie Generation P. How I read Pelevin.
Author: Jake Pinkman