Tikhiye stranitsy (1994)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Aleksandr Sokurov

Writer:

Aleksandr Sokurov (writer)

Release Date:

8 October 1994 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Reflection | Religion | Murder | Water | Surrealism

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Aleksandr Cherednik
Sergei Barkovsky
Yelizaveta Korolyova
Galina Nikulina
Olga Onishchenko
S. Toropov
S. Shurygin
V. Maslachkov
Valeri Kozinets

Also Known As:

Verborgene Seiten (Germany)
Whispering Pages (International: English title)

Runtime:

77 min

Country:

Russia | Germany

Language:

Russian

Color:

Black and White | Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

France:U

Company:

The Northern Fund

Soundtrack:

Music and Paintings

Fragments of a gray underground world

As the title of the film suggests,the texture of "Tikhie stranitsy"(or "Silent Pages")is like that of scattered papers,on which you can see only some fragments of possible stories or episodes from them. And characters of the film also look like letters or figures on 2-dimensional space,gradually disappearing in time,in wind and in rain,silently whispering... ,she "dark" hero of the film reminds Raskolinikov from "Crime and Punishment" and in fact this young man has conversations about Murder,God and Repentance with the "white" girl,reminding Sonya in the novel of F.Dostoevsky.But one can also notice Gogol's tone in other "pages". The Prosecutor in "gray",with his melancholy little eyes,seems not having a will to accuse the hero and may be only a lower official who only wants to buy a new coat. In fact,the pages of the film are not monochrome,they change very delicately their nuances of color to show the underground world of characters as a Middle zone between Heaven and Hell,where they will continue to wander around until some Sign of the salvation,as white birds flew from upon the water in the first scene, suddenly comes to them.