Pro urodov i lyudey (1998)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Aleksey Balabanov

Writer:

Aleksey Balabanov (writer)

Release Date:

8 September 1999 (France)

Genre:

Drama | History

Plot:

Dariya the maid getting a boy to touch her large breast is just one incident that occurs when Yohan and Victor infiltrate two families, forcing young Liza and blind Ekaterina to appear in porn, but they are not so innocent themselves. |

Plot Keywords:

Maid | Spanking | Pornographer | Buxom | Siamese Twins

Awards:

6 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Sergei Makovetsky	...	Yohan
Dinara Drukarova	...	Liza
Anzhelika Nevolina	...	Ekaterina Kirillovna (as Lika Nevolina)
Viktor Sukhorukov	...	Victor Ivanovich
Aleksei Dyo	...	Kolia (as Dyo Alyosha)
Chingiz Tsydendambayev	...	Tolia
Vadim Prokhorov	...	Putilov
Aleksandr Mezentsev	...	Doctor Stasov
Igor Shibanov	...	Engineer Radlov
Dariya Lesnikova	...	Grunia
Tatyana Polonskaya	...	Dariya
Olga Straumit	...	Nurse
Richard Bogutskii	...	Notary
Valeri Krishtapenko	...	Owner of photographic studio
Evgeniy Erokhin	...	Priest

Also Known As:

Про уродов и людей (Russia)
Of Freaks and Men
Tikhie lyudi (Russia) (working title)

Runtime:

93 min | Argentina:97 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival)

Country:

Russia

Language:

Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Certification:

France:U | Hong Kong:IIB | Ireland:(Banned) | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

St. Petersburg, Russia

Company:

Kinokompaniya CTB

Soundtrack:

Kolokolchik

Freud goes East

This movie is my first encounter with Balabanov's cinema,and I was really shocked,not so by the movie in itself,but by its rhetoric which is the most opposite one might imagine or expect from a Russian movie. I am deeply in doubt that this movie speaks about the pre-revolutionary pornographic film industry;it's a bleak,tragic,morbid,kinky gaze on the Russian bourgeoisie society in the beginning of the 20th century.Petersburg here has a lot from Schnitzler's or Freud's Vienna-it's a decomposed,moral corrupted and bored society.The way Balabanov films Petersburg is a reflection of this feelings;it remembered me "Death in Venice" by Visconti-the unforgettable travel on Neva,and generally the outdoor scenes seem in the way that another Russian master,Sokurov filmed,in "Father and Son" the city. It's clear that this atmosphere is the same one that Freud encountered in Vienna,the same pathological sexual explorations,which mirror a convulsion and basically corrupted personality.Everything is,in a way,out of joint in the characters, Johann and Vladimir that are a very bekettian couple-remember Colin and Vladimir from "waiting for Godot",or Clov an Hamm from Endgame-they lack logic,and even psychology;Putilov,and his Bakunin-friendly look is a clumsy and impotent man,to say nothing about women,very Russian in their next to pleasure victim role.

This is an uneasy,difficult,but also rewarding movie.If you want to see pornographic stuff,BDSM,or spanking,this is not your movie,sorry.