Dir; Vladimir Khotinenko
Oleg had to duck out so part three of RM6.2 got bumped a week and Goeg, Palle and I all settled down to watch a film at Goeg's place. Next on the list was the Russian historical fantasy, '1612', and a fairly decent film it was too. Certainly it was no masterpiece, and the director himself admitted it was anti-Polish propaganda in the special features, but from the point of view of costumes, art direction and just general mayhem, it was great. I had a fine time laughing at the stereotypes and playing spot-the-character (matching characters in the film with the player characters of our little thursday band). The best character in the film I thought was a Spanish mercenary called Alvar played by Ramón Langa, who stole every scene he was in, until the character died (all too briefly). Alvar was deffo a Palle character, they even have a vague resemblance to each other.
The acting was fairly good, though some what forced on occaision and the subtext was understandable. Every so often the fast editing and the strange way in which the film switched from adventure to historical mode left an eddy of confusion but on the whole it didn't matter. What carried the film was the sets, the costumes and a cheerful disregard for logic. The main character/hero of the film, Andrei is about ten years old when the villain, referred to only as 'the Hetman, murders the former Czar and his mother and then carries the Czaar's sister back to Poland where he fathers a child on her. Seven years later the Hetman is back and Andrei is now about twenty five years old.
Andrei also learns how to fence like a master during a dream sequence, invents a functioning leather cannon and then goes on to invent bar/chain shot. The fact that Andrei has a passing resemblance to Orlando Bloom makes me wonder if this film wasn't inspired in some way by 'Kingdom of Heaven.
After the film, Palle and I tried to recall how many films we've seen as part of our gaming group film nights. So far I can recall; 1612, Moon, Admiral, District 9, The Good, the Bad the Weird, Mongol, The Battle of Algiers, Alatriste, 300, The Duellists & Kagamusha
2 comments:
Alvar was very definately THE character of the film, and a definate plus for me/with him was the duellist's circle, for we still work from that when we fight.
He has no resemblance to me whatsoever, except a great liking for himself, which I admit to share. I would be a great liar indeed if I did not admit that I have a certain fondness for me ;-)
To me The Duellists and Moon are the top points of our film nights.
Oh BTW, I liked the Oleg-character as well. And playing "Spot the character" is quite amusing. We still need to pin down Goeg's taste in character though.
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