Death of Stalin’ Almost a Soviet Spin on ‘Veep’

Home , Georgy Malenkov, The Death of Stalin

CHICAGOLAWBULLETIN.COM FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2018

Volume 164, No. 63 Serving Chicago’s legal community for 163 years

‘Death of Stalin’ almost a Soviet spin on ‘Veep’

inutes before a which was not as strongly word - Stalin, Beria was keeper and cre - live-broadcast ed as in the movie. ator of Stalin’s lists of those to be Mozart concerto is There was a late-night orches - tortured, exiled or sent to the gu - about to end, the tra round-up; Stalin did lay dying lags. He was a genius at mass ex - Radio Moscow sta - on the floor for hours because his ecution, ghastly humiliation and tMion manager receives a telephone guards were too fearful to enter perverse sexual exploitation. call from the office of Supreme his room after hearing him fall; REBECCA Iannucci says he began Commander Josef Stal in. The and the Politburo members de - mulling a movie idea about a fic - premier loved the performance, liberated at length whether to L. F ORD tional contemporary dictator says the voice on the other end of call a doctor as Stalin expired, after ending his four-year run as the line, and requests that a fearing the consequences of call - the creator of the Emmy Award- recording of the concert be sent ing the “wrong” doctor. Rebecca L. Ford is counsel at Scharf winning HBO series “Veep.” to him immedi ately. Writer and director Armando Banks Marmor LLC, and concentrates While pondering this prospect, There’s a problem. The con - Iannucci didn’t ask the American her practice on complex litigation, he was given a copy of Fabien cert wasn’t recorded. and British cast to assume fake compliance, board governance and Nury and Thierry Robin’s Now the station must scram - Russian accents. (The members specialized employment issues. She is French graphic novel “The Death ble to round up the exiting or - of the Politburo were from differ - the former executive vice president for of Stalin” (soon to be published chestra musicians, convince the ent Soviet states and spoke in a litigation and intellectual property at in English by Titan comics). No MGM. She can be reached at lovely piano soloist to replay her variety of regional accents any - [email protected]. need to look further. Everything recital, and find a new conductor way.) He believes pseudo-Russ - he wanted was right there, docu - (the original conductor having ian accents would cause the mented in noir-toned, comic fainted, conked his head, and movie to seem like a place too far believable as a cajoling, conniv - book chiaroscuro. rendered himself unconscious) away, “not here and not now,” ing character that even shows Both “The Death of Stalin” who won’t even be given time to and lose its immediacy. glimpses of compassion on his and “Veep” share the same ab - change out of his pajamas. The point of “The Death of way to the Soviet Premiership. surdist sensibility. The spirited pianist slips a Stalin” is about the present. We know that Malenkov must be The movie is a lavishly recre - note of defiant protest into the By casting well-known charac - a vain, weak, narcissist. Why else ated, historically detailed, Sovi - sleeve of the recorded disc sent ter actors in the roles of key would Jeffrey Tambor be cast in et-era version of the HBO series: to the leader’s dacha. politburo comrades, Iannucci this role? High ranking government offi - Stalin enjoys the record, rings translates the Russians’ person - And the same Monty Python cials, claw, climb and politically up the station master to accuse alities for modern audiences with immovability that Michael Palin assassinate each other in their him of betraying the people by a kind of shorthand. The flaccid famously displayed in defending grasp for power. delivering it so late, reads the pi - pompousness of Stalin’s immedi - the vitality of an expired parrot Except the Soviet firing anist’s missive, and has a mas - ate successor, Georgy Malenkov is evident in the demeanor of un - squads aren’t just circular, sive stroke on the spot. (Jeffrey Tambor), the rigid hard - wavering party hardliner Molo - they’re real. This scene of Stalin’s March liner-ism of Vyacheslav Molotov tov, who assented to his own “The Death of Stalin” has no 1953 death is the prologue of (Michael Palin) and the clownish wife’s imprisonment and torture. payoff. There are no heroes or “The Death of Stalin,” a “comedy thrilling escapes. We know the of terrors” covering the chaotic ending, which continues to be fight for power that followed this The point of “The Death of Stalin” written in the present. It is a inciting incident. protest film, conceived as the Incredibly, the film’s underly - is about the present. current European neo-national - ing story is true. There is confla - ist and American populist waves tion of events, of course, and goofiness of Nikita Khrushchev As Lavrenti Beria, the head of began to swell, delivered at a exaggeration to serve the story - (Steve Buscemi) are telegraphed Stalin’s secret police, acclaimed timely transitional moment. line. For example, according to by the comedic essences of the Shakespearian actor Simon Rus - Iannucci says he made this Irwin Weil, Professor Emeritus actors who portray them. sell Beale stands apart. movie to remind those who are of Slavic Languages and Litera - The cadaverous Buscemi does - Beria, an unfamiliar name to currently chafed by democracy’s ture at Northwestern, Stalin’s n’t look like the bearish most Americans, spent years or - frustrations of just how fragile it stroke occurred weeks after Khrushchev we remember from chestrating torture and terror can be — and what the alterna - reading the pianist’s actual note, newsreels, but Buscemi is easily operations. A sadist in service to tive to democracy looks like.