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4
Directed by: Ilya Khrzhanovsky.
Written by: Vladimir Sorokin.
Produced by: Yelena Yatsura.
Director of Photography: Shandor Berkechi, Aleksandr Ilkhovsky & Alisher Khamidkhodjaev.
Edited by: Igor Malakhov.
Released by: Leisure Time.
Language: Russian with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Russia. 126 min. Not Rated.
With: Marina Vovchenko, Sergey Shnurov, Yuri Laguta & Konstantin Murzenko.

Like a joke, an advertising executive, a human cloning specialist and a food vendor to the Kremlin (or so they say) walk into a bar. But there’s no punch line. (This is Russia, after all.) Actually, they are a prostitute, a piano tuner, and a meat packer, respectively, drinking in a deserted nightspot together at three in the morning, and lying about themselves to pass the time.

This is the film’s longest and most subtle sequence, directing the plot’s course for the next two hours. The late night lies become more intricate, believable only with enough alcohol and the trio's eagerness to escape their lives for a moment. Each one leaves separately a little more disillusioned, with the film following their paths.

Novelist Vladimir Sorokin’s screenwriting is dense and compelling, with the three leads giving nuanced performances that the script deserves. And first-time feature film director Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s beautiful cinematography and slow camera movement is somewhat of a mix between Jean-Luc Godard and Tsai Ming-Liang (Good Bye, Dragon Inn). Many frames are spectacular to behold, including the slow, pitiless zoom during the opening bar scene – Khrzhanovsky’s imperceptible transition from presenting the sadness of an almost empty bar to the peculiar intimacies of strangers in such a desolate space is seamless and wonderful to watch. (One particularly unforgettable shot involves four prostitutes in a bed that could have been printed and hung in a gallery with its poetic composition and saturation of light and color.)

It’s the Ming-Liang touch that appears most strongly though, as almost every scene drags one to five minutes too long. Khrzhanovsky’s camerawork is the lens of an auteur, but his editor could have easily taken out a half hour without cutting or damaging the function of a single scene.

It could have also used someone to stand back and realize that of the three main characters, we only see about 20 minutes of the two male leads while the rest of the 126-minute film is spent on Marina (Marina Vovchenko), the prostitute, who we watch walking – in streets, forests and smoldering fields – at one point for almost 10 minutes straight.

Gratuitous and unrelentingly grim, 4 is a frank film with its bleak analysis of national culture, politics and outlook on life. Russian censors felt so strongly against the film that it was only released unedited in its native land after winning numerous awards at international festivals. That’s almost a shame, because this film could really use some intense scene snipping. Although I imagine that after all the desolation is taken away, we would have just been left with a half hour of three people roaming. Zachary Jones
April 7, 2006