Dovlatov

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!

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.

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.

The female roles in this film were stereotypical, was there not even one talented female writer in their group in that time? The women are either in love, in awe or supportive, none of them has an authentic plan of their own, the only female remotely doing something artistic, the actrice, is a sell out. But the men on the other hand are all hero's standing their ground.. how pathetic to enforce these harmful and dishonest stereotypes..

Why? I was waiting for this movie and familiar with Dovlatov's story, but the movie was disappointing from the very beginning. First, something is completely wrong with the way Main actor talks. He murmurs, doesn't pronounce half of the letters and sound completely non-professional. Second, the work of director very primitive. Also, acting stars were only supporting characters and you couldn't really enjoy enyone's performence. Overall, feels like everyone is slacking while working on that movie set.