Recommendations
What to watch, hear and go and see — short verdicts, with a link to the source and to the full text.
European Cultural Studies in Favour of the Glorious Palestinian People, or "It Must Be Heaven"
Elia Suleiman made a film whose hero changes almost nothing — which is exactly what leaves you alone with your own conclusions.
Two on a Swing: Where Am I in This, and Am I Wanted
Not a recommendation but an attempt to think it through — written straight after the run at the Lensoviet Theatre.
Looking for Inspiration, or How to Live Among Robots and Keep Your Head
How "Robot Kostya" came about — Russia's first robotic theatre production, where it turned out Chekhovian passions were within a robot's range after all.
Vera Polozkova — "High Resolution"
Poems that find more breath in the music each time round, and end up better listening than most songs.
How to Keep Your Head in This World — The Queen's Gambit, by the Rules and Otherwise
"The Queen's Gambit" made chess reachable even for people who've held a queen maybe twice in their lives.
In the Eye of the Beholder, or Dom Radio — Irrational and Grand
Since Teodor Currentzis arrived, Dom Radio has become the city's fixed point. On a building you walk into in order to come out different.
Currentzis. Knew, Saw, Felt
Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky and Satie in one evening at the Philharmonic — and a hall that came back to life along with the music.
Watching From the Bottom, or "Annette" — a Serious Conversation, Arriving on Time
Leos Carax's film, in which the end of the story isn't the end of it — everybody sets their own.
A Force You Envy and Bow To — Maya Plisetskaya
The moment where the question of age stops applying: she's fifty, and she's outside time.
Gerda, or a Breath of Air That Freezes Mid-Flight — But Does It Land?
Natalia Kudryashova's film — written in verse, about a city held down by snow, and about whether you're ready to get off the ground.
Everyone in General Is Pitiful, No One in Particular, or "Medea" — For Us, About Us, Against Us?
Alexander Zeldovich's film, where the words don't compete with the music — and one question is left standing: do you understand me?
Interview V, or You Don't Pick Your Times — You Live in Them
Vertinsky in the flesh on the Seventh Tier of the Alexandrinsky — and the question of how defenceless a person is, and how far shut inside their own body.
No Need to Write
On art not always saving you — and on trying to simply carry on living.
Screening Diary: Liminal Spaces and a Festival Run
Several short verdicts in a row, from "Hoppers" to the backrooms — and why the liminal-space trend works right up until somebody explains it.
"Michael" — Impressive, and It Plays Like a Party Broadcast
Watched it for free, and it does impress: serious money, a conflict that's properly built. But the context behind the accusations has been wiped.
"Shurale" — a Hope That Came Apart
Good cast, beautiful images, and the film still comes apart. On stepping behind the camera too early.
A Film With a Killer Turn, Seen at Dom Radio
The credits roll halfway through, and that turns out to be the whole point. On an elderly couple, flowers, and the premium version of ascending.
Antonioni's "Red Desert" — Cinema You Feel Rather Than Follow
His first film in colour, where even the colour he had wasn't enough — and the subject turned out to be a crisis of everything.
The New Ozon — Beautifully Shot, as Ever
A black-and-white film that ends with the hero losing his head but not his point. One of the few reasons to go to Dom Radio for something like this.
The New Jarmusch — Possibly Just Not My Film
Everything sits where it should and the moves are good, and there's still a sense he's simply got old.
Nikolai Kolyada's "Hamlet" — Physically Filthy Theatre on the Edge of Kitsch
A world about to disappear, turned into an enormous tip. Not theatre for the casual, and half a manifesto for the theatregoer hidden inside a review.
"The Admirer" — When a Soviet Classic Burns Out
A serious cast, a cinematographer who shot Balabanov — and the film still goes after your tears with a cheaply built romance.
"The Heavenly Tapper" — a Documentary Declaration of Love for Karavaichuk
A brilliant Soviet pianist and composer the Ministry of Culture is in no hurry to show anyone, despite having paid for the film.
Nigina Sayfullaeva's "Fidelity" — More Bad Than Good
A cast with no inhibitions, ready for anything in the name of art — and a film that drowns in a claim to meanings that were never there.
"The Irishman" — Three and a Half Hours of a Classic People Will Keep Going Back To
Scorsese, a de-aged De Niro and Pacino, 309 scenes across 117 locations — and a hero who simply goes with the current, having no further use for a soul.
"Beware of Pity" and "Close People" — When the Director Beats the Text, and When He Doesn't
McBurney got the better of Zweig without quite showing how. Bondar didn't get the better of Vodolazkin, or of the small stage either.
The New Lopushansky — Almost a Straight "Gentle Creature"
Expected another round of Russian misery, got a literary and religious story worthy of Dostoevsky. Maxim Sukhanov gives the best performance in Russian cinema this year.
"The Very Same Munchausen" and "Marriage Story" — On Nobody Wanting to Hear Anybody
The problem of tolerance sits above every other problem we have. Zakharov was shouting about it under Soviet censorship; it only rings louder now.
Gaspar Noé's "Love" — Art Either Arrives on Time or Not at All
Armchair critics called it pornography for intellectuals, and it was kept out of Russian cinemas. On landing in the wrong world for you — or the wrong year.
"Euphoria" — a Show About Drugs That Is Actually About Not Being Heard
A portrait of the modern person who prefers a screen to being in the room — and what that costs.
"Following the White Rabbit" — the Therapeutic Value of a Second Text About the Same Play
The second post I've written about one Roma Kaganovich production, because reciting the same stock phrases about quality is too crude a thing to do.
"Philosophers" at Lyubimovka — a Reading That Never Became a Production
During the young playwrights' festival, Teatr.doc comes apart at the seams with nerves and delight — and the best of these readings can be watched from anywhere.
Teodor Ioannovich and the Contemporary Viewer's Workshop
Currentzis turned Perm from a provincial backwater into a cultural centre — and was then sent off to the city where he'd been a student.
"The Elder Son" — a Production That No Longer Exists on Video
The Lensoviet Theatre never released a recording of Yuri Butusov's production. It has to be remembered through footage kind people put up themselves.
"Jojo Rabbit" — a Film About Nazism I Liked Far More Than Expected
Taika Waititi plays Hitler as a ten-year-old's imaginary friend — and the result is that rare thing, a form fused properly to its content.
Rimas Tuminas's "Uncle Vanya" — a Production That Works Even on Video
Ten years on, some of the devices already look archaic — and the catharsis still arrives, even through a screen.
Theodoros Terzopoulos's "Mauser" — Theatre of the Body, Live on Air
The Alexandrinsky streamed the premiere, and it turned my whole idea of theatre on video around. I understood about twenty per cent of it, which was plenty.
Noise and Anti-Noise — Evgeny Voronovsky's Lecture, Which Needed Time to Land
On the physics of sound turned into a form of art — and on a place you can't download, only walk into and feel.