Dni zatmeniya (1988)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Aleksandr Sokurov

Writers:

Yuri Arabov (writer)
Pyotr Kadochnikov (writer)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Child Nudity | Heat | Black & White To Color | Black And White Segues Into Color | Cult Director

Awards:

3 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Aleksei Ananishnov	...	Malyanov
Eskender Umarov	...	Vecherovsky
Irina Sokolova	...	Malyanov's Sister
Vladimir Zamansky	...	Snegovoy
Kirill Dudkin	...	Gluchov
Aleksei Yankovsky	...	Snegovoy's Father
Viktor Belovolsky	...	Gubar
Sergei Krylov	...	Little Boy (as Seryozha Krylov)

Also Known As:

Дни затмения (Soviet Union: Russian title)
The Days of Eclipse

Runtime:

133 min

Country:

Soviet Union

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Company:

Lenfilm Studio

Broken Glass

Making art is a matter of finding clouds in the sky of mind, forming them into objects, often glassy and jagged. Encountering art is a matter of deciding how to dance and carry, whether to digest or be wounded. For art to be powerful ,real art, you need both, which means that the artist has two challenges, the second of which is to seduce.

This is successful only in the first, the birthing. One can clearly see that we have someone who knows what he wants and has the ability to make it so. This film is a completely coherent creation, each part bonding to the others in a way that conveys perhaps a too understandable effect. In this, it is much closer to ordinary Soviet film-making than Tarkovksy, to whom this fellow is often compared.

So its a nicely machined object. There's craft, vision.

But it didn't convey to me at all, probably because no matter how much I open myself, I don't have the nightmares it depends on. I imagine this resonated with its intended audience: citizens of a country cobble together from grotesquely primitive regions and managed with mechanical brutality.

I image that if you live close to Islam, close to a supremely backward people, mixed in with the opposing violences of occupation... where everyone is underemployed and no art finds a happy garden... where paper matters and there's no escaping the heat... where all that you and everyone around you just want to do is run away...

...it might resonate.

Meanwhile, what you'll get is a dreamy meditation for others. He hasn't brought it to me.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.