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Movie club: Wild Field
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Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen! I'm David Saralidze and this is Igor Malikov.
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Today we would like to discuss the 'Wild Field', by Mikheil Kalatozishvili. It's his only full-length film, am I right?
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- Yes, that's true.
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- The only full-length film, he had time only to shoot some other short film while studying.
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(Look! Who's standing over there? - Where? - Oh, must be able to see him! - That's my angel. - And now the truth? - My guardian angel)
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The script of the film was written by Pyotr Lutsik and Alexey Samoryadov. Both of them have already passed away. So what can you tell us about the film? Let's start with the plot.
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- If you try to retell the story, it turns out to be very simple.
There is a certain doctor, who lives on the steppe…
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- Young?
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- Well, let's say of undetermined age. He was be placed in a job in the steppe after graduating from university. He treats various people, healing those who are clearly going to die without any sophisticated instruments.
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- The film, however, has a romantic story line: a woman comes to him…
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- Yes. He constantly awaits a letter from this woman…
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(She likes walking around in her red dressing gown with red underwear. Really hot one - want to meet her? She told me herself to introduce her to some refined man… - Do you have any letters for me? - If I had one, I would buy you a bottle of ***…)
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- At last, she comes, but then again leaves him. So the story itself is pretty boring. The film is more of a meditative one.
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- More like Parajanov's films? Especially the pictures of the steppe…
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- I'd rather compare this film to Vyrypaev's 'Euphoria'. These films are of different genres, 'Euphoria' is much more ideological, but they have the same atmosphere, I think, along with the film 'The Return'. They all are based on a certain mythologem. 'The Return' shows a child in search of its father, 'Euphoria' - the hunt and the sacrifice, and the 'Wild Field' is about being away from the civilized world and trying to sort out the chaos around you.
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- So a person finds himself beyond civilization and time itself. Major events like perestroika overthrow political regimes but the steppe stays the same and even news reaches it far too late.
- That's right. We find out about these events only when characters mention them. We will not see those 'scoundrels' who 'ruined the state', as the police officer said, or the state itself. We will only see the steppe and the characters living there.
- Living on the rim…
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- Yes. Living on the steppe. It's really something of a parable. All the characters are abstract as well as the scene itself. It's a metaphor.
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- So let's talk about the archetypes. The film shows us a lot of 'resurrection' scenes. A herdsman hit by lightning, revived like Lazarus
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- Yes, and the one that drank for 40 days just like he was carrying out his own wake, eventually healed by the doctor.
- So you mean the archetype is…
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- Yes, the Saviour.
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- The healer?
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- Yes, the one who brings you back from dead. He is righteous, he awaits his bride, he is faithful. He agrees to go to town and meet a woman to satisfy his soul and not his flesh.
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- And the villagers resort to him like to an altar, bringing lambs...
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- Yes. They come to him to sort out all their problems, whether it is the lack of company or a sick cow.
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- So it's like his dimplexxx in the steppe?
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- Oh, no, not a temple!
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- But if we consider this as an archetype…
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- Well, may be. If we regard a temple as a place where everyone gets help. Like a supermarket.
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- You mean?..
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- A cure for all ailments.
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- Well, people come to a temple seeking a universal cure.
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- Oh, that's right if so. But I don't think that if you need to repair your shoes you'll go to a temple…
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- Not as literal as that…
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- We don't see the whole picture in the film, either.
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- What can you say about the screenplay by Pyotr Lutsik and Aleksey Samoryadov? All their films have something in common, don't they? All the characters come to no good…
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- Yes. They are masters of the dismal mood. All their major works, like 'Duba-duba', appeared in perestroika, when gloomy movies were in favour.
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- A sort of Perestroika film noir?
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- Yes, but film noir involves a femme fatal…
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- Their 'Duba-duba' also involves a woman…
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- Yes.
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- As well as the 'Wild Field'.
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- But she is not a 'femme fatal'. Alexey shot the film 'Okraina' as a director, when Pyotr has already passed away. Alexey died a bit later, in 2000. He wanted to shoot the 'Wild Field' himself, as he was always dissatisfied with filming his previous screenplays. These two script writers put the main accent on the dialogue, on the atmosphere, and not the action, unlike the directors. Both of them were short story writers basing their creations on the dialogue and the atmosphere. So 'Wild Field' is the best screen version of their stories in this regard.
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- I think we should thank Mr Kalatozishvili for that.
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- Yes, naturally. But I think they found each other - the scriptwriters and the director. On the other hand, we don't know if Lutsik or Samoryadov would appreciate this picture.
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(What have you seen? - Your grandfather! Mitrophan Romanovich Skovorodnikov! - Oh, come on! - Yes, he looked alive… all dressed in white)
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