Weekend [Uik-end]

A Russian remake of Louis Malle's 1958 "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud" was the standout film of the 11th Russian film week in Paris ~ "Regards de Russie" held from 13~19 Novembre at the Arlequin cinema in Montparnasse. Title: WEEKEND ~ УИК-ЭНД is straight from English. Director: Stanislav Govoroukhine,75, is a seasoned veteran with a track record going back to Soviet days. The star is Maxime Matveev as "Lebedyev" in the Maurice Ronet Role and blonde knockout, Youlia Peressild, is his sassy bombastically stacked secretary. Other main roles are the inspector investigating the case and the young double murderer of the Swedish couple in his baseball hat. (In the original they were German tourists). The existential killer in the baseball cap which is actually the second most important role in the picture, reminds one of a Slavic Belmondo recycled from Godard's "Breathless". The name of this rising new actor is Vyacheslav Chepurchenko, evidently a presence to watch for in forthcoming Russian films.

Lebedyev (Matveev),the handsome young central figure of this bizarre set of murders with twisted evidence is a handsome young corporate executive in a thoroughly modern Moscow with an insanely sexy secretary. The basic tale is the same in both versions. A young manager in a major corporation kills an elder superior in an adjoining office with a pistol to obtain certain papers that will make him rich. The carefully orchestrated murder is made to look like a suicide and is reported as such ~ a seemingly perfect crime. He has a perfect alibi but later gets pulled in, accused of, and condemned for another pair of murders he had nothing to do with. The suspense laden tone is set at the start when Lebedev edges perilously along a high bldg ledge over to the office of a company elder from whom he gets the valuable papers he needs then shoots him making it look like a suicide. If this caper is successful it will put him on easy street forever. He gets back to his office over the same ledge barely in time to make it look like he never left his office at the time of the death next door -- just as his sexy sec'y opens the door to tell him his wife has been calling. The intrigue follows the main outlines of the Malle scenario fairly closely but is somewhat different in certain details as the double killer goes scot free at the end (in the French version he committed suicide) while the central figure(actor Matveev) takes the fall for his crime on the grounds of overwhelming -- but false --circumstantial evidence.

Weekend is a perfectly orchestrated neo-noir thriller in black and white with very subtle barely audible music replacing the original Miles Davis soundtrack and the well known mid-century Gallic ballad "C'est si bon" streaming playfully over the end titles as we see the blonde killer scot free smiling triumphantly amidst a crowd of anonymous people filling the screen.

New Russian star Maxim Matveev (31) billed lately as "Russia's answer to Brad Pitt". is very convincing in the lead role as the scheming killer trapped in an elevator and actually looks a bit like Maurice Ronet, the French star of the original.

This film by the veteran Russian cult director Govorukhin, active in the USSR since the mid sixties, is a minor masterpiece in its own right but was not too well received in Russia itself. The director was particularly peeved when audiences at the annual review of Russian cinema in Sochi laughed at places where no humor was intended.

Malle's late fifties original is updated to the present and set in an ultra modern Moscow that looks like any modern city anywhere in the west except for a few signs in Russian to tell you that you are not in New York or the Paris of La Défense. No Soviet wedding cake architecture or Kremlin turrets here -- nothing but spotless business offices, up to date parking structures and shiny sleek late model cars on neatly paved streets. The business apparel of the main cast is international to a T and all the good looking actors could be taken for Americans if they weren't speaking Russian.

Although the elevator shaft imagery is prominent throughout suggesting the original title "Elevator to the Gallows",the title "Weekend" not only suggests the weekend our anti-hero spends tapped in a company elevator, but also recalls another famous film by Godard which was also called "Weekend" -- and not "fin de semaine"!

While partly a nouvelle vague homage Govorukhine's Weekend is a glossy compact thriller that stands on its own two feet with no anterior references needed to make it work smoothly and flawlessly. Remakes of classics tend to fall flat on their face but this one is every bit as good, in some ways better than the original -- hopefully marking a new direction in Russian cinema. Can't wait to see it again! Viewed at the Arlequin Cinema, Rue de Rennes, Paris V. Thursday night, Nov. 14, 2013.