Assa

Slow burn but worth the payoff. Simultaneously a gangster movie, love triangle relationship based drama, action thiller and arthouse project, the drama and intensity of the second half of the film combined with the fittingly moody and iconic soundtrack by Aquarium make this not only a thoroughly enjoyable action film, but also a masterpiece of cinematography and art. Perfectly finished with a cameo by rock legend Viktor Tsoi, the only complaint I have of this film is that I wish Tsoi had had a larger role.

Wonderful film, and a perfect depiction of the gritty, yet idealistic and romantic reality of life during Perestroika for the youth.

"Assa" gained a cult following in Russia upon its initial release, and I suppose that it still can be considered so. The movie is not very easy to get into. It's long, very slow-paced, and quite dark in terms of actual colors as well as atmosphere. Artistically, it has some good things going for it including the soundtrack, the actors' performances and some arty injections. I still don't think that the movie is as great as some people paint it out to be, although, one could probably argue that it, in a way, strided to fill a gap, one way or the other, for the young, subculture-oriented Russian 80's generation. Using the Soloviev connection, I'll say that if "Chernaya roza - emblema pechali..." was an, inverted, absurdistic take on later-period Soviet life, then "Assa" portrays a tragic clash between idealistic innocence and harsh Soviet reality.

Assa is considered one of the greatest films of the post Soviet generation. The soundtrack is not very far from what we call hipster nowadays - divergence from the mainstream. There are many underground musicians that either contributed musically or artistically. Also, it focuses on a major issue that existed among the "perestroika youth". How to choose a life of honesty and civility, when corruption promises "white mountains". Who can we trust if not our government? What will be the future, what is important in a life? These are all the questions that this movie focuses on.

Assa is a film for and by the youth and by the counter culture of its time. Aside from relevant problems being raised in the movie (a rare thing of its time), the film has notable music (that is still remembered and loved today by the grown up counterculture) and hipster style that existed and lived in Soviet Union before it became popular in US.

If pre-perestroika and the mindset of different people during that time interests you, as well as learning about non-mainstream music and counterculture, this is the movie for you.

"Assa" would have made a better vehicle for Stallone, but considering the taste of the average Soviet moviegoer........I guess my real objection to movies like this is that they waste the time and talent and money that could be spent making better movies or feeding the poor.

When I think of this now, 12 years after I saw this movie for the first time, I can probably compare it somehow with "Fargo". The same gloomy colors, the same snow everywhere, the same slow motion of people dozing in winter like bears. The same sad realism in all the scenes, including the car chases, the same end. And also -- and this is the most amazing of it all, in my opinion -- the same feeling of light you experience at the end, despite the end which can hardly be called happy.

This film also has a winning mixture of criminal plot and love triangle. (Remember "Heat"?). A young girl is waiting for her lover in the snowy Yalta, and he comes one night too late because of the storm -- and in this one night she meets a young musician who offers her to spend the night in his apartment. (Mind you, this is a Soviet film -- there are no sex scenes at all in the movie, but the simplest gestures become erotic as they are real, as we all have been in those situations of late teens who just discover each other). Her lover is an underworld tycoon who manages to plan some more of his dark affairs, to mislead the KGB trail and to entertain the girl -- he saw for everything but the musician. Clever, rich, attractive, charming when needed (although extremely cruel when needed as well), brilliantly educated erudite -- he can do nothing against a young boy who has nothing but a pure heart and a love this heart can generate. And as usual in the love triangles, it does not end well for the involved sides -- for some lethally, for some with awful soul scars...

The movie is slow and viscous -- but this is its charm. The music of Grebenschikov (and the XVII-century piece of "Gorod Zolotoi", of course) became a real Russian classic; the historical jumps to the times of Paul I look like an original move of Sergei Solovyov and not like a ridiculous trial to look educated. The guest appearance of Victor Tsoi seems well-timed as well. And finally, Sergei Bugayev (the musician) has a winning role in itself, a martyr against his will -- but to play the parts of Alika and Krymov, it took all the talent of Tatyana Drubich and Stanislav Govorukhin, and they deliver the performances which will never be forgotten.

A good test of movies' quality is watching it again, 10-12 years after its release. I watched it recently, and it became worse -- the colors of the Soviet film faded, and the voices became muter. Technicalities. But as for the movie itself, I dreamt of it at night. This was an epochal movie for the 80-ies, but one that remains as a monument even in the XXI century.