Sex on the screen in Russian: 5 main domestic films
Russian cinema is still learning to talk about sexuality and show it in a way that we believe in. About the evolution of erotic cinema - in our selection.
Angelica has a strange and rare syndrome - sexual hyperexcitability at the sound of thunder. During a thunderstorm, the control centers in her brain turn off, she has sex with the first man she meets, and after that, amnesia covers her.
This comedic-erotic trash by Alexander Polynnikov with elements of mysticism and detective could appear, it seems, only in early post-Soviet Russia. Absolutely everything has become possible: in places, the "Passion for Angelica" is teetering on the edge with pornography. Inside the film, in the words of one of the characters, however, there is even an answer why: "In some other place it may be porn, but here it is a visual aid!".
The insane film incredibly accurately reflects its time in terms of the lack of minimal sexual education, culture and degree of insanity among the population. What is the idea of the creators of the film, and the masses, about what a sex therapist does (spoiler: this is a doctor who comes to have sex with him ...).
First, Marina, a social worker, goes to the outskirts of a provincial town to meet her lover, a family friend, in his rented apartment. Then, after another night outing to her lover, she is raped by a district policeman, and she begins to drive to the same suburb to him.
Angelina Nikonova's film has a successful sexually pathological line about the Stockholm syndrome - the obsession of the victim of rapists, which makes it a little related to "Last Tango in Paris" (the atmosphere, by the way, the film is quite oppressive). But it's also a good social movie, playing a little on the field of "Elena" of the Cannes favorite Andrey Zvyagintsev.
A girl from the Moscow business bohemia strikes up a secret relationship with a builder from the province, which turns into five years of mutual molestation, moral degradation and a couple of corpses.
The producers called Yegor Baranov's "Locust" an erotic thriller, but it's not worth waiting for the heat as in "Basic Instinct" from him. Sex, here, is rather present as a metaphor for the corruption of the soul and morals in big cities and does not occur so often. Although it is shown more erotically and artistically than was customary in Russian cinema in 2014.
In a word, "Locust" is an attempt to establish an erotic thriller-drama not as trash for amateurs, but as a full-fledged, serious genre. Some people think it's a good attempt.
The film debut of the scandalous theater director Konstantin Bogomolov became a furore regarding the image of "content" as an established phenomenon of secular Moscow and sex on the screen.
The archetypal story of the conquest of a big city by a provincial woman has already been released in the form of a series (two seasons). By the end of the second series, the provincial woman will confidently beat off "a place in the sun". Then the vicissitudes of the everyday life of a kept woman bound with a criminal line will begin.
In terms of the number of spectacularly filmed female and male nudity, Bogomolov's series is comparable to the number of murders in Game of Thrones. The cast consists entirely of beautiful and talented stars of Russian cinema: Alexandra Kuznetsova, Dasha Ernst, Alexandra Child. For lovers of sensual and bold erotic scenes, the series will be a godsend.
A serious, successful and the latest attempt of modern Russian cinema to make its way in the genre of erotic drama. "Fidelity" by Nigina Sayfullayeva recently debuted at Kinotavr— the main independent film festival in Russia, and received a lot of laudatory reviews.
Critic Alexey Filippov wrote about the emergence of a niche unique to Russian cinema, "where they know how to have sex, talk like in life and exist outside of moral assessments."
The story about a married couple in Kaliningrad, a city surrounded by Europe, is not about sexual liberation, but about fragile heart-to-heart conversations within a family that has been overtaken by a crisis. Sex plays the role of an integral part of spiritual, not bodily life here, and it looks impressive.
Keywords: Selection | Russian cinema | Movies | Erotica