Today marks twenty-three years since Aleksei German's head scratcher premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was met with an overwhelmingly negative reception and provoked a mass walkout from the critics. This was German's penultimate film and i returned to the film today after 3 years. Personally, I still consider this as his finest, even many years after its creation. Some scenes just keep repeating in my memory, especially the last shot of the film.
I know the majority will lean towards his early films and the other half will go with his swan song Hard to be a God (2013). Much has been said about the latter, and it deserves all the praises.
This film an odyssey through Stalin's regime which isn't a surprise as it's a well-known fact. In 'Khrustalyov, My Car', Alexei German partly combines historical facts, draws memories, or more aptly labelled nightmares of growing up and imbues them in the screenplay. Briefly to the plot, it is set in Moscow during the final days of Stalin's regime. A series of arrest occurs targeting Jewish doctors who were accused of conspiracy to assassinate the Soviet elite. A military surgeon, General Yuri Georgievich Klensky (Yuri Tsurilo), finds himself a target of the conspiracy and escapes to avoid Gulag sentence or execution. The essential escape story is made into a complex and ambitious mosaic, interweaving surrealism, dark humour, perverse behaviour. The complexity of the drama deepens and, together with the Klensky, as he is immersed in the cold hell of uncertainty, an increasingly absurd and dangerous situations. My favourite is where all the doctors are attempting to make the dying Stalin's stomach to fart. There even more, lots of absurd sequences that is showcased during the entirety of this fever dream which some might feel as a totally confused mess.
There's no point in telling the plot and it would be an an exercise in futility if I attempt it. It must be seen as German takes us through the dehumanization of life under Stalin's regime. Its black and white tone depict a world of monstrous inhumanity and devastating cruelty blended with surrealisms and metaphors. A true visionary German knew what his universe was, this film is an example. His ability to stage great settings and he effortlessly manages to set the right accents between apocalypse and drama. This is certainly one of the craziest works ever and the production for filming are no less insane than the film itself. It took Aleksei German almost ten years to create this surreal trip.
In the past, I have seen few comments comparing screenshots from this movie and Béla Tarr's masterpiece Werckmeister Harmonies (2000). Yes, maybe few shots looks like it is lifted straight out of Tarr's universe. But I would like to mention that German's work predates Tarr and it is not an offense or a crime to appreciate the comparison.
I want to mention about the acting, it is at the center of the film and every character are phenomenal in their respective roles, i personally loved plays Klensky (Yuri Tsurilo), the shiny bald-headed neurosurgeon. I always draw comparison to Iron Sheikh class, one of my favourite wrestlers of all time. Yuri Tsurilo is impressive in this role; he is in a grey zone. He oscillates between different emotions, sometimes boisterous, and larger than life. Also, the ending is one of the most striking I have ever seen, the shot is so fresh and will remain etched in my memory as Yuri balances a glass of wine on his head and smokes a cigarette. I've seen cinephiles going gaga over Mads Milkeslene dance in the ending of Another Round (2020), they have already labelled it as the best closing ever. I would suggest the same crowd to witness the last shot in this one, an ending that commemorates the bridge between the humiliation, loss and victory. I recommend this film to the cinephiles who love the works of David Lynch, Piotr Szulkin, Yuri Ilyenko, Grzegorz Królikiewicz, Tengiz Abuladze, FJ Ossang, Herbert Achternbusch, Konstantin Lopushansky and Rogério Sganzerla.
