This is being posted to the UKRAINE, RUSSIA, and SCREEN-L lists. A similar note was posted in the last month and a half. Because of a suddenly available ridiculously low fare I had a chance to be in Paris for about a week this past May . Near the end of my stay I came across a notice in Le Monde of a a French-Ukrainian production, film that is, opening at movie theatres throughout the city. The name of the movie is Le Milicien Amoureux, roughly (real rough) The Amorous or Romantic Policeman directed by Kira Mouratova. The movie was shot in Odessa in Russian with French sub-titles. Needless to say, I was impressed by the quality of the production to the point that I have dredged up a review from Le Monde, translated it (as the amateur that I am with French), and am posting it in the hopes of generating some interest in this flick. As yet I haven't been able to determine if the film will be distributed in this country (USA). Since it is an art-house film local aficionados tell me that Vincent Canby has to give it his benediction and absolution. The distributor in France was ACACIAS. What I'd be interested in: Has anyone else seen this film? If so, any thoughts? How about Kira Mouratova? Who is she? I understand she has made one other film Le Syndrome Asthenique, roughly Asthenic (of asthenia, meaning weak) Syndrome. Has anyone seen that? Any thoughts on in? Max [log in to unmask] -------------------------------------- Copyright 1993 Le Monde |Copyright 1993 Le Monde Le Monde |Le Monde May 28, 1993 |May 28, 1993 SECTION: Culture |SECTION: Culture LENGTH: 586 words |LENGTH: 586 words | HEADLINE: CINEMA Le pandore et |The story of the gendarme and the orphan l'orpheline Sous couvert de conte |told in the guise of a modern fairy tale; de fees moderne un cri rageur et |a sarcastic, furious scream. The sarcastique LE MILICIEN AMOUREUX |Amourous Policeman by Kira Mouratova de Kira Mouratova | | BYLINE: JEAN-MICHEL FRODON |BYLINE: JEAN-MICHEL FRODON | KEYWORDS: CRITIQUE D'OEUVRE, FILM, |KEYWORDS: CRITIQUE D'OEUVRE, FILM, KIRA MOURATOVA, LE MILICIEN |KIRA MOURATOVA, LE MILICIEN AMOUREUX |AMOUREUX | BODY: Ouverture en forme de | BODY: The opening is like a dragee au poivre : un flic russe |shot of pepper: a Russian cop erre la nuit dans un champ de |strays one night into a field of choux. Plan d'une beaute absurde, a |cabbage, an expanse of absurd couper le souffle. Mais il dure, |beauty, to gasp for breath. The more dure, et un bebe pleure de plus en |he persists, the louder the cry of a baby plus fort, il faut le trouver, et |becomes; it becomes necessary ce grand flandrin de Kiriliouk |to find it; and this big lanky (Nikolai Chatokhine) doit avoir du |fellow Kiriliouk (Nikolai Chatokhine) bortsch dans les yeux pour ne pas y |must have borscht in his eyes in parvenir. Il finit par le ramasser, |order to not be able to see it. l'emmene. Aussitot, Mouratova |The scene ends by him picking it up and declenche une hilarante scene de |taking it away. At once, Mouratova rue. |cuts to a hilarious street scene. | Des voisins s'engueulent, et | Neighbors argue angrily, and pour n'importe quoi, tandis que des |for no important reason, while the chiens s'egosillent en aboiements |dogs make themselves hoarse through assourdissants. Les gens repetent |deafening barking. People repeat et repetent encore leurs identiques |over and over there identical et derisoires recriminations. C'est |derisive recriminations. It's too trop, et c'est insupportable. En |much and it's unbearable. In two deux sequences, la realisatrice a |sequences the film-maker has done fait le necessaire pour qu'on se |the necessary things to make herself souvienne qu'elle est probablement |known as probably the best active le meilleur metteur en scene en |director in the former USSR. The activite dans l'ex-URSS. La plus |most savage, also. teigneuse, aussi. | | Aurait-elle voulu decourager | If she had wanted to depress les mieux disposes de ses |the hardiest audience, she spectateurs qu'elle ne s'y serait |would not have set about pas prise autrement. Passe ce |otherwise. This prelude having preambule, elle racontera avec a |passed, she will tell with hardly peine plus de serenite comment le |any equanimity how brave Kiriliouk brave Kiriliouk remet l'enfant |delivers the found child to the trouve aux autorites pataugeant |floundering authorities, who dans un ocean de paperasses et |themselves are in an ocean of wretched d'incompetence lasse. Puis comment |forms and weary incompetence. Then il tombe amoureux du bebe confie a |how he falls in love with the une clinique kafkaienne et convainc |baby who is confined to a Kafkaesque sa compagne que cette gamine doit |clinic and convinces his mate that devenir la leur, intrigue pour |this kid must become theirs, recuperer le bambin avant d'ester |plotting how to claim the en justice. Ce n'est jamais |child before the court of justice. prudent. A Odessa moins |This is never prudent. In Odessa qu'ailleurs. La camera de Mouratova |less so besides. Mouratova's est partout, dans le documentaire |camera is everywhere, in the de la vie quotidienne et dans le |chronicle of daily life and in conte de fees, dans le pamphlet et |fairy tales; in the lampoon and the dans le burlesque venu du cinema |burlesque arising from silent muet. L'ensemble est une sorte de |cinema. The ensemble of these melodrame beckettien, |things constitutes a type of Becketesque definitivement inclassable, |melodrama, definitely imprevisible. |unclassifiable and unpredictable. | Du naturalisme sensible et | Similar to the sensitive and merry rieur de Breves rencontres au long |naturalism which Breves meets in the long poeme desespere du Syndrome |desperate poem of Syndrome Asthenic asthenique, Kira Mouratova a |[her first movie], Kira Mouratova parcouru et refute, avec un egal |goes over and refutes, with an deft bonheur de cineaste et une |filmaker's skill, using a complete conscience inalterablement |range of representational systems furibonde, toute la gamme des |Le Milicien Amoureux is tempted systemes de representation. Le |to go to the great Milicien amoureux tente d'aller |beyond. Around this baby au-dela. Autour de ce bebe |incurably falls the Eisenstien baby irremediablement tombe du landau |carriage, the film explores a d'Eisenstein, le film explore un no |cinematic no man's land in the man's land du cinema, dans l'exces |excess of gestures, words, feelings, des gestes, des mots, des |and also lights, colors, and sentiments, mais aussi des |durations, in the visual puns, lumieres, des couleurs et des |hyperrealism, the deliberate bad durees, dans les calembours |taste and the materiality of bodies visuels, l'hyperrealisme, le |(gorgeous waking scenes of the mauvais gout delibere et la |young couple). It strives to materialite des corps (splendides |create a space which would escape an scenes de reveil du jeune couple). |obligatory/pressing logic Il tente de fabriquer un espace qui |("socialists" or "liberals", cynics echapperait aux imperieuses |or mystics) akin to an accomodating logiques (" socialistes " ou " |slavic pathos that Kira Mouratova liberales ", cyniques ou mystiques) |a long time ago indentified comme au complaisant pathos slave |and denounced as a fatal dead-end. que Kira Mouratova a de longue date | identifies et denonces comme de | funestes impasses. | | Un carre de choux nocturne ou | A nocturnal cabbage patch pleure une orpheline, ou un flic |where an orphan cries, where a russe peut etre foudroye d'amour ? |Russian cop is able to be Pourquoi pas, s'il sert de terrain |thunderstruck by love? Why not, if d'envol a ce film OVNI, propulse |it serves as a launching pad for par un detonnant melange de |this UFO of a film, propelled by a violence et de tendresse. |detonating blend of violence and |tenderness.