State Funeral. (PG.)
Directed by Sergey Loznitsa.
Featuring Josef Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, Lavrenti Beria, Vyacheslav Molotov and Georgi Malenkov. In selected cinemas and streaming on MUBI.com from May 21st. 135 mins.
The plot ain't up to much, but what a cast. Loznitsa is a Ukrainian filmmaker best known for Donbass, a striking, ambitious but a touch hysterical, portrait of the Russian occupation. Propaganda and manipulation of perception was a major theme of that film so it's not surprising that he would jump at the chance to make something from unused footage of Stalin's funeral. The surprise though is that his version could pass for the official soviet state version they never got round to compiling. It's insanely boring but totally fascinating.
It starts with footage of citizens from across the vast length and breadth of the USSR gathering to hear the news, before moving into Moscow for the period of lying in state and the eventual internment. The footage, a mix of colour and black and white is truly remarkable. Some shots from on high looking down at the mourners gathered in Red Square are breathtaking. It is though all a bit samey. How many shots of committee members stumbling to carry oversized wreaths do you need? The lying in state section is torturously dull and takes up nearly an hour.
Stalin was a monster but the mass mourning provoked by his cult of personality is oddly dignified; certainly in comparison to that unleashed by Diana or Kim Il Jong. There are tears but mostly hard faces, uncertain of the future and their past. They may be deluded, but they are not hysterical. In the film, it seems that the whole country really was united in grief, perhaps because they all knew that they were in this together. Whatever he had done, they had done.
Directed by Sergey Loznitsa.
Featuring Josef Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, Lavrenti Beria, Vyacheslav Molotov and Georgi Malenkov. In selected cinemas and streaming on MUBI.com from May 21st. 135 mins.
The plot ain't up to much, but what a cast. Loznitsa is a Ukrainian filmmaker best known for Donbass, a striking, ambitious but a touch hysterical, portrait of the Russian occupation. Propaganda and manipulation of perception was a major theme of that film so it's not surprising that he would jump at the chance to make something from unused footage of Stalin's funeral. The surprise though is that his version could pass for the official soviet state version they never got round to compiling. It's insanely boring but totally fascinating.
It starts with footage of citizens from across the vast length and breadth of the USSR gathering to hear the news, before moving into Moscow for the period of lying in state and the eventual internment. The footage, a mix of colour and black and white is truly remarkable. Some shots from on high looking down at the mourners gathered in Red Square are breathtaking. It is though all a bit samey. How many shots of committee members stumbling to carry oversized wreaths do you need? The lying in state section is torturously dull and takes up nearly an hour.
Stalin was a monster but the mass mourning provoked by his cult of personality is oddly dignified; certainly in comparison to that unleashed by Diana or Kim Il Jong. There are tears but mostly hard faces, uncertain of the future and their past. They may be deluded, but they are not hysterical. In the film, it seems that the whole country really was united in grief, perhaps because they all knew that they were in this together. Whatever he had done, they had done.
