On the very obvious level, Loveless is a modern tale of a middle-class
family living in Moscow. Boris and Zhenya, the parents of a 12 year old
schoolboy Aloysha, are on the verge of a divorce. This might appear to be a tale of the disappearance
of the anguished kid deprived of parental love—but the film is much more. What is not so obvious in Loveless, is precisely what makes the film outstanding—as is the
case of any Zvyagintsev feature film. The key to appreciating Zvyagintsev is to
“suspend your belief” in the obvious and re-evaluate what was presented. And
every shot of his films is loaded with silent commentary for any astute viewer
to pick up and relish.
There is a special flavour that
exudes from original screenplays conceived by directors in contrast to adapted
screenplays based on novels, plays and historical events. That flavour will make an erudite viewer sit up.
Barring the exception of Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Banishment (built on the framework of the US novelist William
Saroyan’s The Laughing Matter) all four
other Zvyagintsev’s films are based on the original screenplays. The last four of the five Zvyagintsev feature
films were co-scripted with Oleg Negov. If there is one common thread that
binds all the five works --it would be love and absence of love, often within
the walls of a family. To the more astute viewer, there are two other common
perspectives in all the five films: the political state of Russia and religion
in Russia, as practised by the Russian Orthodox Church today. These statements are explained in the
paragraphs that follow.
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| Aloysha: at the mercy of parents who want to divorce |
Zvygaintsev in an interview with
Nancy Tartaglione published in Nov 2017 in www.deadline.com stated (http://deadline.com/2017/11/loveless-andrey-zvyagintsev-oscars-interview-news-1202209229/)
“These events (in Loveless) take place against a very specific historical background.
The film begins in October of 2012, when people were full of hope and were
waiting for changes in the political climate, when they thought that the state
would listen to them. But 2015 is the climax of their disappointment: The
feeling that there is no hope for positive changes, the atmosphere of
aggression and the militarization of society, and the feeling that they are
surrounded by enemies.” This statement is further testimony to what any
Zvyagintsev film enthusiast already knew; that all Zvyagintsev films’ plots can
be viewed as political metaphors/allegories. Zvyagintsev’s and Negin’s Aloysha is an
obvious allegory of Russia today.
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| Boris: the father who is more worried about keeping his job after the divorce than looking after his son |
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| Zhenya: the mother more interested in a richer lifestyle after the divorce |
Zvyagintsev’s first film The Return was about two young boys who
grew up in the apparent absence of love from their biological father and their
affinity to him when he does return. When
the kids understand their father’s love, it is too late. In his second film Banishment, the focus is on love and absence of love between mother and father,
as also between father and children. When the husband ultimately appreciates his
wife’s love for him, it is too late. In Zvyagintsev’s third film Elena, a rich man has a hedonistic
daughter from his first marriage, a grown-up offspring whom he loves but that
love is only reciprocated by her in an aloof manner. Elena, also has a
biological son, daughter-in law and grandson from an earlier marriage, whom she
loves and cares for financially. The focus of Elena is also on the love or the lack of love between husband and
wife. In Zvyagintsev’s fourth film Leviathan,
the husband forgives his erring wife and obviously intensely loves her and
their son. That film had included a
sermon by a Russian Orthodox priest in the church (towards the end of the film)
that stated "Love dwells not in
strength but in love". Thus, love or lack of it within the family
connects all the five Zvyagintsev films.
Apart from Zvyaginstev, much of
the high quality of the last four films ought to be attributed to co-scriptwriter Oleg Negin.
Their collaboration is akin to late career collaborations on scripts of director
Andrei Konchalovsky with Elena Kiseleva, of director Krzysztof Kieslowski with
Krzysztof Piesiewicz, of director Aleksandr Sokurov with Yuri Arabov, and of director
Ken Loach with Paul Laverty. Each of these collaborations has been spectacular.
In Loveless, the script reflects the socio-political
Russia (mention of the Ukraine war on television is like a loss of a child to
father Russia), partially cut trees preparing the ground for more concrete
constructions, while older buildings are crumbling, uninhabited and neglected.
(In doing so, they seem to be paying a silent tribute to Andrey Tarkovsky’s
films Stalker and Solaris.)
Loveless may seem to be lacking in the religious fervour of the
scriptwriters more obvious in the earlier works such as Leviathan and Banishment.
Is it really so? Boris and his co-worker
at work talk about their boss (they refer to him as “Beardy”) as a
fundamentalist Christian who wants all his employees to be happily married, if
they want to keep their jobs. Another
worker, it is revealed, who was not happily married, paid someone to act as his
wife and progeny at an official get together to keep his job. Zvyagintsev revealed in an interview that the
character of Beardy was built on a real Russian industrialist with a similar
mindset.
Zvyagintsev is a deeply
religious director who is disapproving fundamentalist religious fervor
indirectly in Loveless. Similarly, when Zhenya’s mother invokes God
briefly, it is not a religious outburst but more of a reflex comment from a “Stalin in skirts,” as Boris describes
his mother-in-law, invoking God. Zvyagintsev
and Negin are clearly pointing to the lack of understanding of religion of
those who profess their faith but act to the contrary. Another commentary on
Russia today!
When the police force gives up on locating
Aloysha, social groups get into the act without any monetary reward. Even
though Zvyagintsev protests that his films are universal and not social or
political, it might be a strange coincidence that the age of Aloysha is
precisely the number of years Putin has headed the Russian government.
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| The mother is more concerned with her smartphone than looking after her biological son, who she claims is even beginning to smell like his father |
The absence of love in Loveless is not merely between a set of
divorcing parents and their growing son.
There is no love lost between Zhenya and her mother, the “Stalin in skirts,” who lives alone in a
fortress, hardly ever in touch with her daughter. In the search for the missing Aloysha, the
police find a body of a similar 12 year old—evidently there are other Aloyshas
in Russia today. Perhaps the current generation is behaving thus because of how
their parents behaved and acted religious in the past when they did not
translate their belief into actions.
What are the reasons for these instances
of absence of love? Loveless suggests
that it could be hedonism, the love for modern smart-phones overtaking interest
in their immediate family, or it could even be the pursuit of wealth and
comfort.
Much of these opinions are not
said overtly but effectively captured by Zvyagintsev and cinematographer
Mikhail Krichman, as they did together in four of the five Zvyagintsev films. Krichman’s camera lingers to capture more than
the action, he focuses on the environment that plays a silent role in the
events. Krichman is emerging as a major cinematographer alive and making films
today. The best sequence of Loveless is the silent scream of Aloysha,
reminiscent of actor Rod Steiger’s final anguished scream towards the end in The Pawnbroker (1964).
Zvyagintsev is also a master of
using silent sequences for effect followed by pulsating minimalist music. He
had used Philip Glass’ music very effective in both Elena and Leviathan. In Banishment, he had used the music of
Arvo Part. In Loveless, he asked
Evgueni and Sacha Galperine, a French duo, to compose the music by merely
providing the story. They came up with “11 cycles of E” made of one note and one
rhythm, which is quite similar to the soundtrack of Elena. The Galperines won
the European Film Award for Best Composer with the interesting citation that
stated the intelligent piano effects made the score work like an extra
character added to the unfortunate family.
The first and closing sequences of
both Elena and Loveless have a similar and familiar Zvyagintsev signature: the
sound/images of a hooded crow cawing on leafless trees in bleak and cold
exterior shots of an urban setting. It is depressing. Yet the subjects of these
five films are broadly, truly universal.
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| One of the final sequences with "Russia" in bold to reiterate the unsaid |
Is this the best work of
Zvyagintsev? Though the film Loveless
is remarkable in most respects, the lengthy hedonistic scenes make the previous
works of the director more palatable.
Leviathan was definitely more complex than Loveless. Yet Loveless
might prove to have more universal appeal than his other profound works.
P.S. The film Loveless won the Jury Prize award at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival and the Best
Film award at the London and the Zagreb Film Festivals. It won the Silver Frog
at the Cameraimage festival for its cinematographer Mikhail Krichman, who also
won the best cinematographer award at the European Film Awards. Zvyagintsev won
the Best Director award at the Asia Pacific Screen awards. The four Zvyagintsev films The Return, Banishment, Elena, and Leviathan have been reviewed
earlier on this blog. (Click on the name of the film in this post script
to access each review). Loveless is one of the top 10 films of 2017 for the author. Zvyagintsev is one of the top 10 active film directors for the author.
