Leviathan (2014)
Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev
In a Russian coastal town, Kolya is forced to fight the corrupt mayor when he is told that his house will be demolished. He recruits a lawyer friend to help, but the man's arrival brings further misfortune for Kolya and his family.
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17 films that influenced Leviathan
What critics say influenced Leviathan
Although the most accessible of the director's four features, the drama sometimes waivers between pretension and profundity -- at best recalling the Russian art cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky ("Ivan's Childhood") and Aleksandr Sokurov ("Mother and Son").
Although the most accessible of the director's four features, the drama sometimes waivers between pretension and profundity -- at best recalling the Russian art cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky ("Ivan's Childhood") and Aleksandr Sokurov ("Mother and Son").
In the pantheon of great recent Russian works, Nikita Mikhalkov’s “Burnt by the Sun” makes for a good companion piece in the sense of violent undercurrents, but in texture and exploration of the human condition, the more ethereal and subtly complex “The Sacrifice” by the late, great Andrei Tarkovsky is a more apt specter of the beast.
In the pantheon of great recent Russian works, Burnt by the Sun makes for a good companion piece in its staid, violent undercurrents, but in texture and exploration of the human condition, the more ethereal and subtly complex The Sacrifice by the late, great Andrei Tarkovsky is a more apt specter of the beast.
His scathing depiction of all-consuming bureaucracy is reminiscent of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, except this isn’t a work of satirical science-fiction fantasy.
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Toward the end, Serebryakov reminded me of Robert De Niro in Raging Bull at the point when he's a bloody pulp in boxer shorts, taking blow after blow just to prove he can.
He becomes the target of the corrupt mayor (Roman Madyanov, brilliantly conjuring up shades of Bob Hoskins in “The Long Good Friday” and current Russian prez Vladimir Putin) in a northwestern Russian province near the Finnish border.
Kolya becomes the target of the corrupt mayor (Roman Madyanov, brilliantly conjuring up shades of Bob Hoskins in The Long Good Friday and current Russian President Vladimir Putin) in a northwestern Russian province, near the Finnish border.
In the pantheon of great recent Russian works, Nikita Mikhalkov’s “Burnt by the Sun” makes for a good companion piece in the sense of violent undercurrents, but in texture and exploration of the human condition, the more ethereal and subtly complex “The Sacrifice” by the late, great Andrei Tarkovsky is a more apt specter of the beast.
In the pantheon of great recent Russian works, Burnt by the Sun makes for a good companion piece in its staid, violent undercurrents, but in texture and exploration of the human condition, the more ethereal and subtly complex The Sacrifice by the late, great Andrei Tarkovsky is a more apt specter of the beast.
The film is in some ways a more obvious successor to "Once Upon A Time In Anatolia" than Ceylan's own "Winter Sleep," matching the meditative rhythm and uncompromising artistry with a genuinely compelling story, and scenes as outright entertaining as anything we've seen in the festival.
With the exception of this drawn-out courtroom scene, which he plays for absurdist comedy (a la Romanian satire “Police, Adjective”), and a few extended driving sequences (echoes of Turkish procedural “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia”), “Leviathan” typically moves much faster, covering far more ground over the course of its densely packed narrative.
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No movie called “Leviathan” and not about a sea alien eating Daniel Stern (or about fish ) should be this nimble.
His 2003 debut "The Return" won the Golden Lion at Venice, 2007’s "The Banishment" picked up Best Actor at Cannes, and 2011’s "Elena" won the Special Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard.
In Zvyagintsev’s past films, from 2003 Venice Film Festival winner “The Return” to 2011’s Un Certain Regard-selected “Elena,” the helmer meditatively held certain shots to the brink of patience.
As complex as a novel, and apparently loosely based on the Book of Job, Andrey Zvyagintsev's official Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film, Leviathan is not as arty as his previous films The Return (2003) and Elena (2011), but it's still brainy enough to please hardcore cinephiles.