Hana Nour writes:
“In Praise of Gray”
If they were able to prevent the creations of Marc Chagall from the world, can anyone remove his impact from the hearts of his fans?!
The Russian-French-Jewish Chagall wanted to unite us and unite us with love, so how can this world become without love?!
In the movie “Without Love,” Russian director Andrei Zvyaginsev presents a gray and sad world in which capitalism overwhelms feelings, so life becomes consumerist and tasteless.
Zvyaginsev wanted to fix in the viewer’s mind the scene of hiding and crying the child “Alyosha” behind the bathroom door as he listened in terror to his parents’ quarrel over him. The two want to get rid of his responsibility; The mother wants to put him in a boarding school, and the father wants the mother to bear the responsibility of taking care of the child alone, as he is preparing to build a new life and she is also dating a man with whom she wants to establish a new life.
The morning following the quarrel, Alyosha leaves this cold house devoid of love and mercy without returning, and the police cannot find him.
The life of the father and mother continues and their lives repeat themselves.. Alyosha’s father gives birth to a child from his new wife, and the viewer predicts, from the father’s dry treatment of him, that his fate will become the same as Alyosha’s..
At the same time, we see the mother living with her new husband a cold life, like the one she lived with Alyosha’s father.
This is how Andrei Zvyagensev, and one of the most important features of his cinema is this gray character, with the meanings of sadness, extinction and coldness that this color carries. Zvyagensev is also distinguished by linking the endings of his films to their beginnings.
At the beginning of his movie “The Return”, we see the child “Evan” and his older brother “Andrei” among a group of children on the roof of a tall building that leads to the sea. He was so afraid that he was prevented from going down the stairs of the tower.
Evan’s mother comes to rescue him from his fear and help him go down the tower. Evan hesitates for a moment, despite his fear, to go down with her. He doubts that she can hide the degree of his cowardice from others; This suspicion, we discover, is one of Ivan’s personality traits, which Zvyaginsev mastered in building.
The name Ivan means the mercy of God, or the one who does good without expecting anything in return, as stated in the Bible.
So what good does Evan do?
On an unusual day, Ivan and his brother Andrei return home, and the mother informs them that their father has returned home. The father has been absent for 12 years and was not expected to return.
Ivan wonders why he has returned, while Andrei accepts his return without questioning or objecting.
Zvyagensev does not offer redundant or free scenes, for each scene has its own importance and significance.
The father presides over the dinner table, with Andrei and Ivan sitting on either side of it, while the mother and grandmother sit at the end of the table. Perhaps Zvyagensev wanted to show through this scene the decline of women’s place and role in the presence of male authority..
There is what I tend to call alcoholic thinking. For example, if I wanted to write regarding Cate Blanchett, I would imagine her drinking a “Martini with lemon.” His request and his appearance were repeated with her in more than one work. I saw her distinguished by it, and befitting it, and in the same way I imagine that everyone who holds Russian citizenship drinks vodka on all occasions..
When I saw the returning father filling glasses from a bottle of red wine, I thought regarding the reason for using red wine, so I remembered the story of the Last Supper of Christ and his disciples..
This religious dimension that Zvyaginsev added to the character indirectly and needs to be watched carefully, through which he wants to see the father as a totalitarian ruler in which religious, political and patriarchal authority come together..
In the scenes of the children’s journey with the father, we see the father seducing us, commanding us, and his rulings are not subject to discussion.
We also see him more firm with Andrei, the eldest son, who embodies complete obedience; That is, the largest segment of the peoples subject to totalitarian regimes. As for Ivan, the father deals with him with some caution, as he notices in Ivan the idea of doubt and the tendency to rebellion..
In one of the scenes that confirms the suspicion of Ivan, we see him say to Andrei in a whisper: What confirms that this man is our real father?!
Andrei answers him angrily and submissively: My mother said that he was my father!
When the father orders them to go fishing, and we discover their ability to hunt, we remember that almost half of Christ’s disciples were fishermen, and although Russia is a religious country, more than 40% of its people belong to the Orthodox denomination; However, Zvyagensev does not specifically mean Christ, but rather wants to remind the viewer of the existence of other dimensions of the father’s personality and indirectly, which is noticed by those who watch Zvyagensev’s films carefully..
Ivan wants to escape from this man who does not believe that he is his father, and does not understand the reason for his return, or his sudden appearance in their lives.
Andrei and Evan are late on a cruise for the date set by the father for their return, so the father hits Andrei, this bullying breaks his silence and shouts at the father, saying: He is the reason for the delay, not Andrei, then he grabs a sharp instrument and threatens the father, and in the father’s attempt to control the matter, he runs Evan until he reaches the tall building that appeared at the beginning of the movie…
Evan climbs the stairs of the tall tower without fear.
The father climbs behind him to try to save him from self-harm, but the ladder collapses and the father falls from the top of the tall building, dead.
Perhaps Zvyagensev wanted to connect the moment of Ivan’s liberation from fear, with the end of the father’s role; which is a multifaceted authority.
Ivan’s revolution once morest Andrei’s injustice is doing good for which Ivan was not waiting for a reward, but it freed him from his fears.. There is no salvation from injustice in the shadow of fear..
#Hana _ Nour
#Solidarity _ with _ the _ separation _ of _ politics _ from _ art
Hanaa Nour writes: “In Praise of Ramadi.” If they were able to ban Marc Chagall’s creations from the world, can anyone remove his influence from the hearts of his fans?! The Russian-French-Jewish Chagall wanted to unite us and unite us with love, so how can this world become without love?! In the movie “Without Love”, the Russian director Andrei Zvyagensev presents a gray and sad world in which capitalism overwhelms feelings and life becomes consumerist and tasteless. regarding it. The two want to get rid of his responsibility; The mother wants to put him in a boarding school, and the father wants to put up with…
Hana Nour writes: “In Praise of Gray”
Hana Nour writes: “In Praise of Gray”
2023-01-21
The Y news
