Title/Year: Come and See, 1985
Director/Birth Country/Year Born: Elem Klimov, Soviet Union, b. 1933
Budget: No budget found on imdb.com or boxofficemojo.com. Perhaps this film was funded by the Soviet government, implying that the workers "own the means of production," the production being the film itself.
Gross: ?
Synopsis: A teenage Byelorussian boy, Flyora, is drafted by the Soviet Resistance to fight against the Nazis. He is told to stay behind, wanders the forest and village, eventually experiencing the pain of becoming both a soldier and victim of war. In the end, he's a lucky survivor.
Political/Social Commentary: Director Elem Klimov clearly had a vision for the more visceral horrific aspect to experiencing World War Two.
Narrative/Visual Keywords: World War Two, war, resistance, rape, genocide, audience POV, Steadicam shots, trauma, loss of innocence, experimental, horror
Camera/Lighting/Editing techniques: Natural/Available light. The use of Steadicam shots is well done, giving the sense of wandering from one place to the next, sometimes we are running after them for cover to a safe hiding spot in the ground.
Something must be written/said about the excellent sound design in Come and See. The sounds are certainly increasingly horrific, giving us the sense that we're in a horror film. The sound levels increase in volume as we hear incessant droning.
Main character/Arc: Flyora is a teenage boy who is either reluctant to join the Soviet resistance, or is hoping to honor their code. He eventually experiences the rape of his rural home life by the Nazi regime, and undergoes a psychological trauma of World War Two, scarring him for life.
Notable collaboration: Work on the film began in 1977 with screenwriters Elem Klimov and Ales Adamovich.
Historical relevance/recognition: Won the Golden Prize and the FIPRESCI prize at the Moscow International Film Festival in 1985. Audiences around the world were affected deeply by the film, needing ambulances. After one of the film's screenings, a German confessed to being a soldier there when was younger.
Roger Ebert added the film to his Great Movies list in 2010, writing, "This film is much more than allegory. I have rarely seen a film more ruthless in its depiction of human evil."
Fun Facts: Come and See supposedly influenced Steven Spielberg's films Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan in terms of cinematography and the herding of the villagers.
1. The "evolving group integration" is apparent in Come and See. The creative use of casting an ensemble of extras is effective in the film. The group integration of the soldiers rallying for a cause shows the perversion of war, that a clear majority is in a way it's own tyranny.
2. Self-sacrifice is apparent near the end, when the Nazi soldiers and commanders are surrounded by the Soviets. Of the group, three of them are Soviets who helped follow German orders. One of the Soviets begs for mercy and explains that he should live because he's a Soviet. But they eventually die with the Germans at gunpoint.
3. Yes, the characters' motivations are sound. Although it seems Klimov is manipulating their performance for a cinéma vérité effect (there are moments when the actors are looking straight into the camera lens), it gives this feeling that we the audience are being addressed, and that they are talking to us as victims in a world so much more horrific than ours. It's breaking the fourth wall. Jonathan Demme uses this technique of actors looking into lens in his film, The Silence of the Lambs. Oliver Stone's film JFK uses it briefly at the end of Kevin Costner's speech. Errol Morris documentaries also use this technique, using an interrotron.
4. There are moments before the herding scene at the end when Flyora is increasingly becoming vigilant and defensive, aware that the Nazi regime is nearing them. His actions here show the nuance of the performance (he was in tears in the beginning). The setting of war matures him into a militant beast; his actions are natural and sound for his character, becoming a victim (physically and psychologically) of the perversion of militarism. The decision to have a teenage boy as the protagonist going through this experience is dramatically sound, and all the more jarring and horrific for the audience.
The greatest moments in the film are when the sound design is giving us an incessant ringing in our ears, which happens after a forest and its trees are bombed by planes. The sound effects are rightfully creepy and enhances the experience of terror.
Other great moments are using the Steadicam shots, giving us the sense of urgency and movement, and thereby keeps our attention.
The scene in which Flyora and Glasha are wading through a muddy swamp, and a thick viscous layer of mud at the top is breaking it's solidity as they tread through it. The sound effects during this are eerie and incessantly droning. Reminds us of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.
The moments when characters look into the camera are well done; begs meaning to a what a dramatic film can do using a brief cinéma vérité technique. It is a wise choice for developing their characters, for example, Glasha is looking into the lens (Flyora's POV) and is mistaking him for another man. She is in this state of disarray, of mental exhaustion, and presumably raped. It's horrific yet effective.
Sources:
Gross: ?
Synopsis: A teenage Byelorussian boy, Flyora, is drafted by the Soviet Resistance to fight against the Nazis. He is told to stay behind, wanders the forest and village, eventually experiencing the pain of becoming both a soldier and victim of war. In the end, he's a lucky survivor.
Political/Social Commentary: Director Elem Klimov clearly had a vision for the more visceral horrific aspect to experiencing World War Two.
Narrative/Visual Keywords: World War Two, war, resistance, rape, genocide, audience POV, Steadicam shots, trauma, loss of innocence, experimental, horror
Camera/Lighting/Editing techniques: Natural/Available light. The use of Steadicam shots is well done, giving the sense of wandering from one place to the next, sometimes we are running after them for cover to a safe hiding spot in the ground.
Something must be written/said about the excellent sound design in Come and See. The sounds are certainly increasingly horrific, giving us the sense that we're in a horror film. The sound levels increase in volume as we hear incessant droning.
Main character/Arc: Flyora is a teenage boy who is either reluctant to join the Soviet resistance, or is hoping to honor their code. He eventually experiences the rape of his rural home life by the Nazi regime, and undergoes a psychological trauma of World War Two, scarring him for life.
Notable collaboration: Work on the film began in 1977 with screenwriters Elem Klimov and Ales Adamovich.
Historical relevance/recognition: Won the Golden Prize and the FIPRESCI prize at the Moscow International Film Festival in 1985. Audiences around the world were affected deeply by the film, needing ambulances. After one of the film's screenings, a German confessed to being a soldier there when was younger.
Roger Ebert added the film to his Great Movies list in 2010, writing, "This film is much more than allegory. I have rarely seen a film more ruthless in its depiction of human evil."
Fun Facts: Come and See supposedly influenced Steven Spielberg's films Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan in terms of cinematography and the herding of the villagers.
Some of the costume and jackets were actually used during World War Two.
The original title of the film was "Kill Hitler"
1. The "evolving group integration" is apparent in Come and See. The creative use of casting an ensemble of extras is effective in the film. The group integration of the soldiers rallying for a cause shows the perversion of war, that a clear majority is in a way it's own tyranny.
2. Self-sacrifice is apparent near the end, when the Nazi soldiers and commanders are surrounded by the Soviets. Of the group, three of them are Soviets who helped follow German orders. One of the Soviets begs for mercy and explains that he should live because he's a Soviet. But they eventually die with the Germans at gunpoint.
3. Yes, the characters' motivations are sound. Although it seems Klimov is manipulating their performance for a cinéma vérité effect (there are moments when the actors are looking straight into the camera lens), it gives this feeling that we the audience are being addressed, and that they are talking to us as victims in a world so much more horrific than ours. It's breaking the fourth wall. Jonathan Demme uses this technique of actors looking into lens in his film, The Silence of the Lambs. Oliver Stone's film JFK uses it briefly at the end of Kevin Costner's speech. Errol Morris documentaries also use this technique, using an interrotron.
4. There are moments before the herding scene at the end when Flyora is increasingly becoming vigilant and defensive, aware that the Nazi regime is nearing them. His actions here show the nuance of the performance (he was in tears in the beginning). The setting of war matures him into a militant beast; his actions are natural and sound for his character, becoming a victim (physically and psychologically) of the perversion of militarism. The decision to have a teenage boy as the protagonist going through this experience is dramatically sound, and all the more jarring and horrific for the audience.
The greatest moments in the film are when the sound design is giving us an incessant ringing in our ears, which happens after a forest and its trees are bombed by planes. The sound effects are rightfully creepy and enhances the experience of terror.
Other great moments are using the Steadicam shots, giving us the sense of urgency and movement, and thereby keeps our attention.
The scene in which Flyora and Glasha are wading through a muddy swamp, and a thick viscous layer of mud at the top is breaking it's solidity as they tread through it. The sound effects during this are eerie and incessantly droning. Reminds us of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.
The moments when characters look into the camera are well done; begs meaning to a what a dramatic film can do using a brief cinéma vérité technique. It is a wise choice for developing their characters, for example, Glasha is looking into the lens (Flyora's POV) and is mistaking him for another man. She is in this state of disarray, of mental exhaustion, and presumably raped. It's horrific yet effective.
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100616/REVIEWS08/100619989/1023
http://www.google.com/search?num=10&hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=897&q=come+and+see&oq=come+and+see&gs_l=img.3..0l7j0i24l3.7537.8699.0.8793.12.8.0.1.1.0.142.381.0j3.3.0...0.0...1ac.5jqNfYhk75s
http://www.google.com/search?num=10&hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=897&q=come+and+see&oq=come+and+see&gs_l=img.3..0l7j0i24l3.7537.8699.0.8793.12.8.0.1.1.0.142.381.0j3.3.0...0.0...1ac.5jqNfYhk75s
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