Dovlatov

I have to admit I was shocked by the low quality of the acting. Most conversations (and in this movie there are plenty of those) seem really unnatural and awkward, most actors seem to recite their lines as if they were reading them from a paper... There is neither chemistry, connection nor emotion between the actors whatsoever: they seem to be talking past each other instead of to each other (maybe on some occasions it's deliberate, but this is happening throughout the whole movie, which makes it completely absurd.. ). Female characters have no importance on their own terms - they are only there to serve as background to the male characters. Weirdly, all females have bags under their eyes... Slight positives: the main character is mildly charismatic and the movie gives you a glimpse into how live could have been during the seventies in Russia (no idea if it's accurate enough). However, overall the movie is quite a waste of time, unfortunately.

It's not an easy movie for the viewer. However, it is an addictive cinema. The film is a biography of a writer who did not live to see his work published during his lifetime, so it focuses on impotence, unfulfillment and bitterness. A few days from Dovlatov's life, which we observe on the screen, is therefore a pretext for showing his everyday work - the attempts to publish a text instead of a little ambitious journalistic texts, showing his family and friends, the bohemian environment of Leningrad / St. Petersburg.

The film has a very calm rhythm, it is beautifully photographed and well played. The central figure is the ubiquitous Milan Maric (strikingly similar to Sergei Dovlatov), but although he is present on the screen in almost every scene, he does not dominate history and other characters.

Definitely worth seeing is a film for all those who are interested in showing the creative process on screen or in the reality of life in Soviet Russia.

Dovlatov is a good biographical film about a famous Russian writer. The majority of biographical films are divided into 2 types: either the film tells the whole life of a person or in detail about some period of life. It is type 2 that I consider preferable, as in 2-2.5 hours of conditional timing it is difficult to lay down a whole life of a person. Dovlatov is just such a film, the action of the film unfolds in just a couple of days 1971. Transfer of an era, life and life of Leningrad of the 1970th years simply 10/10. One of the best films about the period of Brezhnev stagnation of society. Just a good film, in which there are only dialogues and internal conflict of the writer, who alone opposes the state structure.

Maybe not the best. for Comunism. for Dovlatov. for the atmosphere of Soviet Union. the cause - the less courage/art/science of director to move the things out of superficial perspective. sure, for a Eastern public, it works. for the memories about period, for the lectures about it, maybe for the familiarity of Dovlatov and Brodsky writings. but it is not real enough . the good point - the work of Danila Kozlovsky. but this is not a surprise.

What a good movie!!!

In this movie audience witnesses a week of Russian author Dovlatov's life. Panoramic view of those seven days shows interesting details of everyday lives of intellectuals and artists in the late period of USSR.

Within a plain but masterfully designed visual composition, with no agitative langue, the movie presents satirical sub-texts on pressure of state-bureaucratic principles on artistic production, degeneration of USSR administrative regime and confliction of factual-economical position of artist in life and existential and inherent artistic motivation etc...

Critics on state-art relation in this movie not only satire historical conditions in USSR but also compose a general and actual critical sense on relevant matters indicating negative picture of the ideal conditions.

Watching "Dovlatov" is a great cinematic pleasure, a great experience!