This entry has 'Art House' writ large on every frame so it was gratifying to share Screen 2 of my local art house with about 25 other buffs. This appears to be the type of film which encourages viewers to interpret in their own way and already I have read about society, morality, motivation and God knows what. It may well be about all these things, none of them, or all of them and more but it boils down to one man, Andrey Smirnov, choosing his dissolute daughter over his second wife, Nadezhda Markina, thus forcing the wife to act decisively (and arguably immorally and illegally. What we learn via the eye-dropper approach to Back Story is that the extremely wealthy Vladimir met Elena whilst in the hospital where she was his nurse. This was some ten years ago but they have only been married for two. Both have grown children and neither are anything to be proud of. Vladimir's daughter is, by his own admission, a hedonist and Elena's son is unemployable and unable to support his family without Elena's pension which she collects each week and then takes a train to his ghetto to hand over to him. The film makes much of the Us and Them that is post-Communist Russia and makes it easy to see why many older Russians are on record that life was better under Stalin, presumably on the basis that in those days EVERYBODY was miserable whereas today only the Have-nots are. In terms of pace we're talking heavily sedated sloth but this is not necessarily bad. The acting and camera-work are first-rate but I wouldn't want to view it again for about a decade or so.
Review of Elena
