Père, fils

I was impressed by this movie, no only for the topic it touches but the cinematography..! It is endless beautiful and the colors used in the movie are marvelous. One feels the movie flows with colors and poetry. This is not a normal movie, this is not a blockbuster, this movie comes from a genius mind. The director used so many different tactic to get this from a script to the screen, the colors, the dialog, the actors, so perfectly done that every single shot looks a piece of canvas placed into the big screen. The atmosphere is at times claustrophobic but nevertheless engaging Can't say enough good things about this film BRAVO MAESTRO !!

Maybe if I had seen the first film in director Aleksandr Sokurov's trilogy, "Mother and Son," then "Father and Son (Otets i syn)" as Part 2 would have made some sense.

Instead, I found the beautiful imagery contradicting the limited dialogue. The camera loves the two lead actors to the extent that I simply could not figure out if paternal love was crossing over into incest or just homo-eroticism.

Andrei Shchetinin is one handsome, presumably widowed father and he spends a lot of time shirtless and working out. Aleksei Nejmyshev as his 20 year old son has mesmerizing blue eyes who understandably makes his possibly current or ex girlfriend weak in the knees by his penetrating stare.

And that's about all that happens.

The lead characters and their male friends spend a lot of time urgently telling each other they need to talk and then staring into space, or down at their shoes, or at each other. They do kick around a ball like such a pair would in American films, but they don't even talk about sports as a substitute for real interchange.

I was sorely reminded of Andy Warhol films, let alone satires of Ingmar Bergman films, but the cinematography was warm and lovely.

At least I got to see some of St. Petersburg and Lisbon, which I think is standing in for parts of St. Petersburg, while they are wandering around emoting and inarticulate. (At least all the final credits were in English.)

The intensity of the central relationship is shown very effectively as they enter each other's dreams, but the repeated parables about father's and son's roles in crucifixion sounded pithier than was demonstrated metaphorically.

Father and Son is a film about a special relationship. one who has not explanations, definitions or a precise form. one who remains, always, out of words. so, the work of Sokurov is more than admirable. because he propose a translation of so personal links that only a father and a son could understand the reality beyond the images. like each translation, the film is far to be perfect. maybe for the sin to be too abstract or too sentimental or to direct, or too poetic. in fact it is only a honest confession. about a special form of love. about duty. about solitude. about looking of fundamental answers for become yourself. a film about past. about ages. about meaning of life. about the best manner to discover the other as part of yourself and as different man. this is all. the homoerotic references, the army, the ambiguity of relation

Time has passed before seeing a film that was so heart warming and involving. I have ever loved slow and sometimes annoying movies. But for some reason I wasn't intrigued by the genre anymore (just know one of my favorite is 'Aliens''86).

I started watching it and I felt so charmed by it all. The story is practically inexistent but you won't mind.The visual aspect and how things are going in this lovely and simple way can't let you indifferent.

As some others said it is although sensual and homo erotic. Such a relationship between father and son is almost unthinkable but not impossible. This in fact is not that important seen the poor story 'content'.

If you watch this movie in a relaxed way you will feel very good in the end, especially if you're not going with the idea of expecting great things.

Just a short note: It seems that a lot of people don't know what to make of Aleksandr Sokurov's "Father & Son". Though more accessible than the monumental "Russian Ark", "Father" is still a baffling, hard film to grasp. Looking like an archival photograph from beginning to end and lacking a traditional story, it very much resembles a dream. There's a lot of vague poetic talk about abandonment, security, being saved, and such. Largely abstract, one of the few concrete elements of the film is the fact that both father (Andrej Shetinin) and son (Alexei Nejmyshev) are beautiful. Shetinin especially is stunning. It's not unexpected for people to see some homoerotic angles. When a film is this abstract I guess the tendency is to latch on to the most obvious, most concrete aspect. And we can never underestimate the fear—possibly homophobia?—of seeing men getting emotional with each other, much less 2 attractive ones. It's a taboo so strongly ingrained in some cultures that it surpasses the simple fact that the 2 men in question are father and son. It's rare for me to see explorations of paternal bonds on film, especially one this deep so I had to readjust my mindset. If one can go beyond these obstacles you may just see an intense, poetic look into the relationship of two adult men, father and son.