avidadollars

I may be one of few Russians who were happy that this film was actually being made. And critical as we may be of certain aspects (I'm a rare one for scripts), Veselchaki is without a doubt a great achievement.

Those who are better versed in all things queer state that the film is heavily influenced by Priscilla the Queen of Desert. Veselchaki follow the last day in the lives of 5 travesty actors who tell their life stories to a journalist who is trying to figure out why they do what they do.

Whatever the influence, one thing is true: this is a ground-breaking film. The point is not merely that for years travesty actors and Russian gay people have lived in all sorts of closets. The point is that the very attempt to bring these characters to screen is often thwarted by the omnipresent disdain, guilt and shame, whereby the characters appear comical and unreal.

The film's English title is the same as that of 1934 musical comedy about a Soviet jazz band. Arguably, the only thing the Soviet and the modern Russian film have in common is the musical component. Love in 2009 is a hard thing for travesty guys to find; yet each of the five life stories brims with truthfulness, and this is a good achievement.

It is also wonderful that straight actors appeared as queer folk in the movie. There is a tendency to believe that wearing female clothes is a no-no for a man, even an actor. The leading Soviet actors, such Oleg Tabakov or Alexander Kalyagin, successfully donned wigs, stockings and skirts to portray their female characters. Yet this may be seen as a Shakespearean trend, whereas travesty actors practically bare it all to entertain the public with not so classical tastes. The crew dealt with this openly, escaping the safe option of beating around the bush. Travesty performance, male legs in stockings, obvious reference to a gay erotic scene - all this make Veselchaki a good European film, free from usual attempts at "Russification".

Like I said, especially as someone who writes for a living, the story could be better explored. Towards the end characters appear out of the blue; this may have to do with editing, but, as with the scene when one of the characters is murdered, the only way to guess such twist was coming was the trailer that hinted at the meet-up in Paradise. And yet I am still glad such film appeared in my native country. As for scripts, I'll happily to write one for the next Russian movie in queer genre ;-)

When I first watched this film in 2005, I loved it, although at the time I was perhaps ready to agree that the second half of the film stumbles in a lot. But having recently seen 'Camera Buff' by Krzysztof Kieslowski, I am absolutely convinced 'Torremolinos 73' was inspired by it, in one way or another. This is not to deny originality to Berger's creation, but the acquaintance with the Polish film can seriously help understand and evaluate 'Torremolinos'. It can let us appreciate some details (compare, for instance, a cameo appearance of another Polish filmmaker, Zanussi, in 'Camera Buff' to the ever-powerful presence of Bergman's loudspeaker in 'Torremolinos'), but, most importantly, it allows to see, what exactly the subject of the film is. If our understanding is not informed by 'Camera Buff', then 'Torremolinos' is a vinaigrette of politics, porn and art-house cinema. If it is, then the main topic is exactly the one that makes the film somewhat 'heavy' in its second part and which was one of the central topics in Kieslowski's film. Cinema becomes a wedge, which is hammered between the routine and creativity. Aspiration to make 'serious' films and the cherishing of a film as one's child violently confronted the parental responsibilities of Kieslowski's protagonist, who gave in to creative impulses. The conflict in 'Torremolinos' is slightly reversed in that cinema becomes a more complex agent: it is the reason for misunderstanding, but it also unveils the problem and in the end even helps to resolve it. It is nevertheless the importance of the choice and its connection to various problems concerning family life that bring a kind of dullness into the second part of 'Torremolinos'. In this case it might be useful to agree with those who call this part 'subtler' in comparison to the upbeat start. In particular, this second part contains an easily-unnoticed topic of how much insult the male pride can take, and whether or not it is worth being guarded when love is at stake.