I really enjoyed this film. It seemed more down to earth and easier to relate too. I also enjoyed how it showed the changes in Russia from the Thaw to the era of Stagnation. Foreign names were less heard of in the era of Stagnation, there were more vehicles on the road, and it seemed like everyone was busy. Although movies tend to over exaggerate how things were actually, there still had to be some truth to what was happening around this time period. It also seemed that there were still very few men around. The scene where Katerina is talking to the lady at the matchmaker's place, expressed that there were two women to every forty-year-old man. Whether or not that statistic is true, it still gets the point across that there were more women.
There is one thing I must draw attention to and that is Rudolph's character. I was very upset when he left Katerina and about some of the things he said to her. He said that her getting pregnant was her own fault. How can a woman get pregnant by herself? That's just impossible. I've heard this line from several movies and every time I hear it it aggravates me. I think he was an irresponsible dolt. I did not like him at all. He deserved it when Katerina said that he couldn't see her daughter. After all, she got herself pregnant so he couldn't possibly claim her as his daughter. He wasn't even there while she was growing up. I'm so glad that Katerina met Gosha and fell in love with him so she didn't get back with Rudolph. Gosha seemed to be a better man, even if he did come on strong at the beginning. He just seemed to know that they were going to end up together. Too bad that doesn't happen in real life all the time.
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3 comments:
I do agree with you about Rudolph's character being an ass-
How its Katya's fault for being pregnant (right, it takes two to tango not one) and noticing that statement being said in more than a few films. Quite frankly, he should have helped her out in some way. Hey, you're having a baby maybe you could play some sort of role in that child's life?! Possibly step up and be a man- obviously not.
And did you note that the two parts of this film often reflect each other in a mirror-like fashion? That is, something that is said in the first half often has a counterpart in the second, and vice versa. You've hit on one such important recourse: note how Rudolph's first claim that she got herself pregnant and then his later insistence that Alexandra is his daughter are made in the very same location (in the park on Gogol Boulevard) and, as a matter of fact, when he's sitting on the very same bench! This fact helps enhance the irony and self-contradictory nature of his words.
I agree that the movie does directly reflect the two different time periods. The first part of the movie reflects the optimism and hope of the thaw period, while the second part of the movie reflects the somberness of the stagnation period.
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