Wednesday 25 October 2017

Film: 'The Death of Stalin'

Another of those films I hoped I'd like more than it turned out to be. A reputedly 'biting' comedy which did manage to draw maybe four or five laughs from me despite my not finding it anything like as funny as many of the large audience did.

Director Armando Ianucci (and co-writer, along with David Schneider) is one of this country's foremost and well-regarded satirists, though apart from his 'Alan Partridge' radio and TV shows and one feature film (all of which I found immensely amusing), I've never quite managed to get onto the same wavelength with his other creations. Even his well-received, sardonically political feature film 'In the Loop' (2009) left me largely unmoved.

Here he's come up with a comedy around the sudden death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 and its immediate aftermath, with the undignified shambles of leading Russian politicians jockeying for power and influence in the continuing Communist administration.
He brings together a host of (mostly) established British actors - Simon Russell Beale, Michael Palin, Jason Isaacs, Rupert Friend, Paddy Considine, Paul Whitehouse - all speaking in a range of British accents, reflecting the fact that Russian accents too are multifarious. All these are near-eclipsed by the clownish presence of Steve Buscemi, here playing Nikita Krushchev who, despite haplessly floundering, is still very much his own man, and who would three years later, succeed to the topmost 'job'.

It's largely a farce - verbal joshing and needling and some knockabout stuff - but what makes this very different is that it's set against the horrors of Stalin-era brutality - torture, imprisonment, summary 'justice' with immediate executions. We see some grisly scenes though they are not quite overplayed, being merely sufficient to give an idea (if we hadn't already guessed) of the sort of things that did go on. 

The film is a tightrope act between humour and horror, the latter clearly intended to 'point up' the other. For some it seems to have worked. I only wish it had done so for me, the nasty taste left in the mouth lingering just too ominously for me to fully appreciate the surrounding lighter moments.

Female presence is thin - Andrea Riseborough as Stalin's daughter showing some dignity up against Rupert Friend as her drunken, megalomaniac and living embarrassment of a brother.
Then there's Olga Kurylenko as Stalin foe and concert pianist. But neither of these have anything like as much to do as the men.

Among the motley of undesirable characters it's Simon Russell Beale's 'Lavrentiy Beria' who carries the most weight and authority and is the most terrifying, someone whose mere slight nod can signal the end of a foe. 

I will give the film one thing - it's very different from anything else I've seen, so it scores well for originality. But whether it all comes together as a cohesive, satisfying entertainment I'd find more problematic to maintain. A lot of it does work. For me just as much of it didn't - which doesn't mean that you'd agree.................6.



8 comments:

  1. Thank you for the review Ray. I may go and see it. I saw the trailer and it made me think along the lines of what you have written. May go if I have time but several things going on this week.

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    1. I'd urge you to see it if you can, Rachel. You may turn out to be one of the many who are showering it with praise, and there's one sure way of finding out if you are. I don't think your presence there would be wasted.

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  2. Ray,
    Hmmmm, I don't think I could find humor in Stalin. Thanks again for the heads up!
    Ron

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    1. It's a bit of a tough sell, Ron, though it achieves its aim through being enough for a sizable number to be at least inquisitive about it.

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  3. Stalin as farce sounds a stretch.

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    1. The writer, Ianucci, was fully aware of that (i.e. the aftermath of Stalin's death and Stalin-era intolerance of opposition and criticism), Dr Spo - luckily we and Russia don't have them any more, do we? - but he was tempted by the challenge of finding humour in a bleak historical landscape. There can be no doubt that some of it works effectively but for me the harsh realities kept putting a dampener on it.

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  4. Raybeard, I've been scrolling through your reviews and I see you've given Maudie a good score. It's on in Vienna at the moment. I shall go and see it. Maybe even today. Thanks.

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    1. I'm flattered at having your visit here, G.W. You're welcome anytime.
      Yes, I was mightily impressed with 'Maudie', actually rather more than some were. I hope you're on my side when you see it. Remarkable and pleasing that such a film of geographically 'local' interest should get shown in such a place as Wien. Good that you've got the opportunity and I'd certainly take the chance to see it - with the hope and expectation that it'll be subtitled rather than dubbed into German, a practice which I can't abide for ANY language.

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