Moya lyubov

"Moya lyubov" or "My Love", paint-on-glass-animated 2006 short film (26 minutes) directed by Aleksandr Petrov is based on "A Love Story" or "Istoriya Lyubovnaya" (1927) by Ivan Shmelyov. It takes place in the 19th century Russia and tells about the first love of the sixteen-year-old boy Anton who is torn apart by his feelings for a pure and gentle girl, the maid-servant for his wealthy family, Pasha and a mysterious enigmatic next door neighbor Serafima. Shemelyv's story was inspired by one of the most captivating love stories ever told, his famous namesake Ivan Turgenev's "Pervaya lyubov" (1860; First Love), a novella that depicts the love of a sixteen-year-old boy Vladimir for his neighbor, 20 years old princess Zinaida, unattainable, devious but alluring and unforgettable. By the words of Petrov, the film "is about waking of first love, naive and childish, both resolute, and silly, with all tortures of a romantic soul. Not that I have gone through such feelings myself, but I deeply felt all of them." At the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, "Moya Lyubov" was called an "exquisite impressionist vision with a very poetic narrative and profound psychology". I believe that Petrov's film was the best of five nominees in the category Short Animated Films and deserved all awards possible. As much as I enjoyed the 2008 Oscar winner, the slow-motion updated to modern Russia version of Sergey Prokofiev's "Peter and Wolf", Petrov's film is simply in league of its own. Work on the film took place in Yaroslavl, Russia over a period of three years painting on glass sheets, using mostly his own fingers, resulted in 18720 paintings. The film's style is similar to that used in Petrov's other films ("Korova", "Rusalka", Oscar winning "Starik i More") and can be characterized as a type of Romantic realism. People and landscapes are painted on glass and animated in a very realistic yet delicate and dream-like fashion. In "Moya lyubov" Petrov includes Anton's inner thoughts while the boy reads Turgenev's "Pervaya Lyubov" and identifies with its narrator, Vladimir, the boy of the same age and the nightmarish scene when the ill boy imagines himself being buried beneath freshly-fallen deep snow on a dark night.

Every frame of the incredibly beautiful work is literally breathtaking. I can't compare him to any working animator. His films bring to mind the paintings of such poetic Russian Artists as Mikhail Nesterov, Vasiliy Polenov, Victor Borisov-Musatov, and even frescoes and icons of Andrei Rublyov that under magic fingers of the master became living and breathing.

it is a great travel. across a feeling. across the images of a lost Russia. it is an admirable work. for the details, for the dialogue and for the magnificent art to reflect states out of words. it is a masterpiece and this is not a real surprise from Aleksandr Petrov. the special thing is the emotions after the end of film. as a ball of tenderness and seductive secret and childish - clear feeling. from a long time ago, for me, the films of Petrov are a sort of gifts of the Christmas Eve. but my love is more. maybe because I am East European. or for Slavic origins. it is a form of rehabilitation of a Golden Age using the perfect tools. and the result is more, real more than you expect.

The love and lust of an adolescent boy. The innocence, confusion and fantasies in a world so complex that he choose his imagination to live while the two woman he fell in love with is dealing with their own confusions, mistakes and tragedy while loving him back. I am falling in love with Aleksandr Petrov's style of animation and filmmaking, one of the most beautiful films I have seen in recent times.

Just watched this Russian film that's nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short of 2007. Moya lyubov (My Love) seems to be an oil painting come to life that tells the story of a young man's infatuation with two women: one that's dark-haired who seems so far away from him to have any contact with and one who's blond in pigtails who is very close in proximity and seems to have a very good interest in him. Since I saw this on YouTube as linked from Cartoon Brew in the native country's language with no subtitles, I couldn't completely understand what was going on but many of the painting-like movements presented such a visual dream-like state to the proceedings that I was mesmerized just the same. Very worthy of the Oscar nomination so I wouldn't mind if it won but I saw two others of the nominated that were interesting in their own way so here's to them all.

impressionist art. delicate theme. Alexandr Petrov science to explore each nuance in admirable manner. and his unique animation. it is more than a movie. maybe an experience. a beautiful, useful, almost magic one. because more than a film about love, dreams, expectations and grow -up, it is the film about a special age. and the delicacy to explore it does it real great show. it is a film about subtle nuances of an experience and the chance to discover an live the magic of life. a superb movie for the grace of image, for the science to reflect the magic of a delicate episode of life. the story of the young Anton is universal. the talent of director is to transform it in personal experience for each spectator in a splendid manner.