Konstruktor krasnogo tsveta

It is hard to have an opinion about "Engineering Red". One could get excited by it, be disgusted too. It is so called based on the works of Thomas Mann, but just as much as Pasolini's "Salo" is based on the works of De Sade... and a bit less, to quite tell the truth. In all it's esthetics, it remains a medical documentary and all the rest around it is just fancy talk. Interesting food for the eyes, sure, but necessary for life values enrichment?? Certainly not.

It is a really funny name Andrey E. He chose his Manchu mane. And it is his first, University time, movie which attracted attention right away, especially in the country of dying social realism. Firstly, it is a story of a real medical surgery operation on separating the Siamese twins Masha and Sasha. (Later they would live long enough to learn they are nobodies, to become alcoholic's and die). secondly, a girl is quoting some lines from Tomas Mann "The Magic Mountain" with description of the gore scenes of Wolrd War I. Then there is some info about horrific efforts to produce a super man in Soviet Russia. All those plots may make you really disturbed and puzzled. You are sure it is a talented job deserved to be awarded. But... what did the director wanted to say by his work? He is in a cozy position: like, this is, folks, what I tell you and, well, you...ah... watch it and... I don't know what. Later Mr. E made another interesting (not documentary) movie called "Scientific Section of Pilots" (Nauchnaya sektsiya pilotov (1996) here in IMDb.COM) about strange, fake and real, dead bodies in Moscow metro (which is funny too, for we are ready to see something like this in American movies, and, thank God, not here in Moscow) with a slogan like "7 millions go underground and some never get out!" Now he has done a TV-series about mysterious places (like abandoned KGB bunkers) located in all over Russia. So Mr. E seems to have only one track: mystification. So when you are in the right mood, you may watch it but it is just Russia movie past, as it is already outmoded now.