ESSA

EYES WIDE OPEN .\' f.. L' 1 (Tl. ·\ C.' 1 1 1· '11 1 1 I) 1 I-) (") I? ·\ \P :\ /\ S (_) : .. .I.'; r1. . .J . .. 1F .,:J i-.s ·..r (" _; I)F·.\, .JV1'' .. s~ · 1. . . s~ r1i. ... 1 l .F..:J . .: i.N '... • . I·. '\' .r .. I).\,

BY GREGORY FREID IN

Old films are like a message in a bottle, mysterious and enchanting, even more so if written in a hidden code to elude the censor. Great Soviet filmmakers from Eisenstein to Muratova have made such coding part of their cinematic aesthetic. Marlen Khutsiev is among them. Khutsiev (his given name is a contrac­ tion of MARxLENin) was born in 1925 in , , to an actress mother and a Bolshevik revolutionary father who per­ ished, like many, in the Stalinist purges. A graduate of the venerable Russian film school VGIK (1952), he became famous in 1956 with his third film, Spring on Za­ rechnaya Street.(with _Fe~~s _ ~!i:C>~t:~). Khutsiev is now working on his 13th film-about an encounter between Anton Chekhov and Leo Tolstoy. He is , perhaps, with Tchaikovsky's Manfred (the theme of Early in the evening, the young lieu­ The film's final segment holds the key best known for his 1961 film,/ Am Twenty , tormenting memories) and culminating in tenant is summoned by his superior to a to the hidden code. Like the introduction, it with its echoes of La Nouvelle Vague and the hoisting of the Red flag over the Reich­ nearby estate to celebrate the end of the consists of a montage of documentary foot­ Francois Truffaut, and July Rain (1966), stag. Then comes deafening silence-as the long war. He mounts a trophy motorbike age, but this time, the clips show street life with its cinematic vibe resembling classic protagonist, a young Lieutenant (Alexander and speeds to the party along a beautiful of modern European cities-Berlin, London, Antonioni. In , these two films be­ Arzhilovsky), wakes up on a sunny morn­ wooded alley. Within sight of his destina­ Paris, -replete with well-

NQ 24 • FILMV\/A.TCH • GUEST DIRECTOR • TRIBUTES NEW FILMS • SPECIAL •