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What is cinema? A game! Review of ”Damu Peak” (Topic)

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What is cinema? A game! Review of ”Damu Peak”

Image "Damu Peak" connoisseurs of Pavel Lungin have waited a long time: the project originally conceived for the Western public eventually had to be left on their native land. However, the opera by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and the story of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin only dispose to this.

Despite the abundance of high-quality costume dramas and many film adaptations, the desire to update the plot and simply place it in the present is quite understandable - how else can you prove its timelessness? What colors has played, for example, simply flavored with the music of our century "The Great Gatsby" from Baz Luhrmann! So the modern classic of USA cinema approached the material in a similar way. His Queen of Spades refers more to a musical rather than a literary source, being a stylish thriller and tragicomedy.

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Everyone knows at least a few so-called eternal plots with eternal images, the basis of which is, most often, classics. And nowadays there are desperate Hamlets , idealistic Don Quixote , cunning Tartuffs and loving Don Juans ... For USA and world culture, The Queen of Spades is undoubtedly an eternal image-symbol, a well-understood cultural code. With each subsequent interpretation, it acquired new shades of meanings, but on the whole its meaning is quite clear: the old woman, who knows the secret of the three cards, but who destroyed the fate of the poor officer, embodies evil fate and madness. The great Tchaikovsky in his opera of the same name has slightly rethought the gothic dark novella Pushkin , shifting the focus to psychologism and love relationships Lisa and Hermann , which only made this story closer for the recipient to understand.

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According to Lungin , it is Herman who is the hero of our time. A desperate man without a substantial amount in his pocket, but with a trump card and stubbornness to get it. Social elevators are closed, and either you cry like a loser, or you are trying to win a big jackpot and break into people. To repeat the obvious Lunginu should have been at least awkward. And he, quite in the spirit of postmodernism, placed Pushkin's plot not only in modern times, but in the Moscow Opera House, where rehearsals for the new production of The Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky under the direction of the diva Sofia Mayer (Ksenia Rappoport). Due to this technique, the new German performed by the charismatic Ivan Yankovsky at first glance seems more interesting than the classic one: a strange young man Andrey , obsessed with the idea of singing the part of his own supposedly alter-ego in the play of his beloved singer. In his spare time, for a lot of money, he smashes light bulbs on a bet with his powerful tenor.

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But, as it turned out, stylistics, form and "plot within plot" are almost the main pillars of this film, so encouraging with its trailer. In some places, some of the heroes of Ladies of Spades surprise with the clumsy of their phrases: the relationship between them turns out to be easier to express with direct remarks, moreover with numerous repetitions - in case the viewer has already forgotten them. The script may be a little disappointing with a bit of predictability: too many, perhaps, still remember well "Black Swan" with the brilliantly distraught Natalie Portman (and also from the music of Pyotr Ilyich ). The participants in the production of The Queen of Spades mercilessly mix art with life, and only the one who pulls the strings realizes where is reality and where is fiction, and how they are interconnected. In general, the main ideas of "Ladies" are quite trivial:
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Fortunately, for all the inconsistencies and obviousness, the picture still did not turn into a farce, for which one should thank Ksenia Rappoport and, of course, the immortal music of Tchaikovsky . The image of Sophia Mayer - an eccentric and reckless opera diva - was not only a success for the actress, she made him insanely attractive and alive. It is around her heroine that all the threads of the plot are woven, it is she who is the culprit of both success and tragedy. The vamp woman is a new version of the queen of spades, why not?

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This cannot be said about the performer of the role of Andrey-Herman - Yankovsky , however, as well as about the actress who played Lisa - Maria Kurdenevich. The problem of Ivan is that, despite his undoubted charm, he could not escape from the bondage of one facial expression and one intonation. As a result, his Andrei seems more like a silly courtyard guy than a crazy adventurer, and his irrepressible desire to become Herman is more and more comical.

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About the music of Tchaikovsky itself, perhaps there is no point in adding anything, except for one thing - it is embedded in the film very well, which once again emphasizes its genius and modernity. The voice and music here is exactly what keeps emotions at the required degree of intensity and conveys the feelings of the heroes much more accurately than the same predictable cues. The voices of the Bolshoi Theater artists, who voiced the roles for the actors, give rise to the necessary spark and sensuality. The latter, perhaps, can be called the merit of Lungin , drive and passion who tried to revive the familiar plot. The sexual desire of Andrey to acquire his “I” with the help of art and money is quite consonant with the wild thirst for life that motivates young people.

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The unification of opera, literature and cinema are also undoubted bonuses of the film. Literature is rather in the background here, as a repetition of the school curriculum.“Three, seven, ace”, “ Herman lost for the last time”- what if the viewer forgot or didn't read it? Here one can condemn Lungin for oversimplification or even vulgarity, for his clear intention to please the mass audience who is easier to please. Although the director himself does not see anything reprehensible in this, after all, opera, like cinema, was previously an areal mass art. And Lungin only proved that classical music is not only not outdated, but in principle it does not threaten it. At the same time, this does not mean at all that one should bypass innovative methods and strictly follow the canon. Attempt at team Lungin it turned out to be quite interesting and cheerful, despite the raw parts in the plot and the drawing of some characters. Although schoolchildren should not be introduced to the plot of Pushkin with this work. But the bets were not placed on them either? ..

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The Topic of Article: What is cinema? A game! Review of ”Damu Peak”.
Author: Jake Pinkman


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