Beanpole (2019) - Kantemir Balagov

[Heinz-Klett]

Beanpole | Trailer | NYFF57 - YouTube

Director: Kantemir Balagov

Cast: Viktoria Miroshnichenko, Vasilisa Perelygina, Konstantin Balakirev

In immediate post-WWII Leningrad, two women, Iya and Masha (astonishing newcomers Viktoria Miroshnichenko and Vasilisa Perelygina), intensely bonded after fighting side by side as anti-aircraft gunners, attempt to readjust to a haunted world. As the film begins, Iya, long and slender and towering over everyone—hence the film’s title—works as a nurse in a shell-shocked hospital, presiding over traumatized soldiers. A shocking accident brings them closer and also seals their fates. The 27-year-old Russian director Kantemir Balagov—whose debut feature Closeness caused a stir at Cannes and the New Directors/New Films festival just last year—won Un Certain Regard’s Best Director prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for this richly burnished, occasionally harrowing rendering of the persistent scars of war.

https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2019/films/beanpole/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10199640

[thecooldud]

A Tripods sequel at last!?

[Cremildo]

This is Russia's submission for the International Feature Oscar.

[Mothravka]

Will be on MUBI UK next week.

https://mubi.com/specials/lff

[Cremildo]

Beanpole – Official U.S. Teaser - YouTube

[Mothravka]

Saw it yesterday, as well as Balagov's previous film Closeness (2017). It's okay at its height, but nothing really elevates it from being anything else than quite ordinary and miserable social realism, which was the same problem with both films.

[puddy77]

https://youtu.be/73_7Y95snIs

[BluBonnet]

Finally watched this, a bit bleak for the most part but offers a bit of hope towards the end. A well-acted movie for sure.

[scarletlion]

Seems I liked this alot more than most people. It's incredible that a 27 year old has enough guile to make any feature film yet alone one this good. And it's Kantemir Balagov's second feature. How does one so young get the life experience, technical know how, intellect, ideas and confidence to accomplish this project? I have no idea.

It's a tale of two women rebuilding their life after the war in the barren, torn apart Stalingrad, but could also be an analogy for how the city or even Russia itself begins to heal wounds and give itself new life after conflict. The film is bathed in a rich green colour palette to perhaps symbolise peace / fertility / hope / a new era etc. The performances by Viktoria Miroshnichenko and Vasilisa Perelygina are completely off the charts. They portray these broken women searching for any way to become fixed, if that's even possible. A search for new life after all the death they must have encountered.

Although the final 20 minutes is a tiny bit flawed, this is a stunning piece of work by someone who's seemingly one of the most promising young directors around.

9/10

[HipsterTrash]

Originally Posted by scarletlion

Seems I liked this alot more than most people. It's incredible that a 27 year old has enough guile to make any feature film yet alone one this good. And it's Kantemir Balagov's second feature. How does one so young get the life experience, technical know how, intellect, ideas and confidence to accomplish this project? I have no idea.

It's a tale of two women rebuilding their life after the war in the barren, torn apart Stalingrad, but could also be an analogy for how the city or even Russia itself begins to heal wounds and give itself new life after conflict. The film is bathed in a rich green colour palette to perhaps symbolise peace / fertility / hope / a new era etc. The performances by Viktoria Miroshnichenko and Vasilisa Perelygina are completely off the charts. They portray these broken women searching for any way to become fixed, if that's even possible. A search for new life after all the death they must have encountered.

Although the final 20 minutes is a tiny bit flawed, this is a stunning piece of work by someone who's seemingly one of the most promising young directors around.

9/10

Couldn't disagree more.

I went into this wanting to like it. I think anyone tries to do that, especially when the film deals with such heavy and morose themes.
But my god Kantemir Balagov not know a thing about women.

I did a weekend of watching Closeness and then Beanpole.
After the first film, I was shaken by how people were claiming this young man to be such a fantastic director. I don't see it. That film tried to be the talk of the town film with it's real use of snuff film footage, just so that there can be a cultural/religious divide. Except why so the real loss of human life as oppose to staging a snuff film to look like what he saw when he was younger that affected him so much?

His sophomore follow up, something I was more excited about due to Obama's liking of it and the setting of the film, is what really sold me on it.
Sadly it was more of a disappointment then his debut.
It tries to explain how women had it just as hard as the men in war, and even more so after the war.
But my issue is it's attempt to sympathize Masha. More so when

[Show spoiler]she decides that Beanpole must have her child, and blackmails her "friend" into being raped for her happiness. The film loses itself completely by then and it's impossible to come back from that and make her a person one can care about, something it does by focusing on her and her plights during the war and understanding her brokenness. It doesn't work.

So no, I don't think Kantemir knows a lot about life. His justification for his debut film was that he said he had a Jewish girlfriend. That's such a lazy reasoning for anything. Laughable.
And now the guy is doing some episodes for Last of Us. Cool. Keep him away from the script, and I'm sure his work will excel. That's where his talents brighten, as his blocking and staging of shots and colour palette were spot on. Writing about people? Not so much.

[scarletlion]

Originally Posted by HipsterTrash

Couldn't disagree more.

I went into this wanting to like it. I think anyone tries to do that, especially when the film deals with such heavy and morose themes.
But my god Kantemir Balagov not know a thing about women.

I did a weekend of watching Closeness and then Beanpole.
After the first film, I was shaken by how people were claiming this young man to be such a fantastic director. I don't see it. That film tried to be the talk of the town film with it's real use of snuff film footage, just so that there can be a cultural/religious divide. Except why so the real loss of human life as oppose to staging a snuff film to look like what he saw when he was younger that affected him so much?

His sophomore follow up, something I was more excited about due to Obama's liking of it and the setting of the film, is what really sold me on it.
Sadly it was more of a disappointment then his debut.
It tries to explain how women had it just as hard as the men in war, and even more so after the war.
But my issue is it's attempt to sympathize Masha. More so when

[Show spoiler]she decides that Beanpole must have her child, and blackmails her "friend" into being raped for her happiness. The film loses itself completely by then and it's impossible to come back from that and make her a person one can care about, something it does by focusing on her and her plights during the war and understanding her brokenness. It doesn't work.

So no, I don't think Kantemir knows a lot about life. His justification for his debut film was that he said he had a Jewish girlfriend. That's such a lazy reasoning for anything. Laughable.
And now the guy is doing some episodes for Last of Us. Cool. Keep him away from the script, and I'm sure his work will excel. That's where his talents brighten, as his blocking and staging of shots and colour palette were spot on. Writing about people? Not so much.

Personally I don't understand this 'I didn't care much about the character' attitude. It can still be a good film even if there are no likeable characters. Nobody is going to like the decisions made by the people in this a film. That's the whole point.

It's also about the city and country itself. The desire to heal and become something again, a mother. As in Mother Russia.

Jeez, I wish I was this talented at 27.

[HipsterTrash]

[Show spoiler]She forces her friend to get raped just so can have another child. Then the movie later tries to make us feel her pain as she reveals what she went through. But that point she's done too much damage that I don't care. I can understand her pain but I don't sympathize for her at all because of her actions. The film tries to make me both understand and feel for her.

I can see the healing aspect for sure. But yes, the film wants me to feel for these characters. Otherwise what's the point?

[SleazyForWeasley]

If you like films with meaningless, painful silences between each individual word.... This is the film for you.