Elena, a revolution unconscious

Andrei Zvyagintsev is the new revelation of Russian cinema and head, along with Sokurov, a film that is always supported by directors lighthouse. And like all Russian director, you should start following in the footsteps of genius Andrei Tarkovsky, as he did in his The Return and The banishment. But Elena, winner of Special Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard Cannes 2011, and has disengage from its influence and has signed a personal work and detached from existing production, filmed through spaced planes, many sequence, making reconcile different events in the same temporal fragment: that's where the genius of this flash maker.

In Elena shoots a work split between social drama and the psychological drama between the social and political criticism and the portrait of a dysfunctional family. Hence the appeal to the median plane, which weaves throughout the film: there is hardly any shots, nor close-ups, it seeks at all times a balance between individual and society. Moreover, the composition reflects an influence of painter Edward Hopper, as the characters are not very expressive, are absorbed, and not reveal their psychology is the very composition of the sketch plan that allows its interiority. Just as in the paintings of: are the elements and motifs which narrate her life, but his actions lead to emptiness, to nothingness.

The film tells the distribution of the properties of a businessman, Vladimir, after suffering from a disease that progressively degrades. And that reason is used to weave a wonderful drama of ambiguity, avoiding the judgment of the viewer, as the motivation of the characters is revealed always late, after the act, so that we can not issue an assessment of their behavior. And the thread will be Elena, the woman-servant of Vladimir, which seeks to support his first family.

Elena is the bridge between two worlds, high finance and low suburbs, and has only one purpose remains unchanged throughout the film: Vladimir obtain money to pay for college for his grandson Sasha. And each reveals a different world staging: the geometry is Vladimir's mansion, while the organic compositions and imperfection are the protagonists in the family home. Even the plans of the mansion are more balanced and more air, while the image is always obstructed by objects in the suburb. This shows the contradictions involved in each place.

The interesting thing about film is the possible socio-political projection of the characters in the film without becoming a political allegory: it is simply a portrait of themselves archetypes of Russian culture that dominate the scene in the country since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Vladimir is the embodiment of Vladimir Putin or other Russian president, despite his government found in democracy, they adopt dictatorial ways. And is that the tsarist archetype seems impossible to remove from a country where freedom is increasingly undermined. Vladimir Elena is an abstraction of power: a patriarch at home and in the company, equipped with an archaic masculinity to the point of making his wife a servant, it is unable to recognize gender equality. Everything's submission in its environment, as he has the engine of the country: money.

His daughter, who avoids returns on his deathbed to seek heritage, and perfectly embodies the archetype of Russian billionaire daughter of the father untied, like many Spanish children of parents distanced themselves located in the Halls of Power Franco. It is the most Nietzschean nihilism incarnate, the gap establishing all of Western thought, for life, after all, has no meaning in itself, we must bestow it. But she is unable to continue with the meanings that his father has imposed and can not create its own: it is only drift.

On the other hand, the overthrow of the ruling class because of illness allows access to money from the working class, as if a new Russian revolution in question. But this success does not reveal a utopia: there emerges the terrible complexity of this film. The house of the employer sabotaged by the impoverished family as chaos erupts, and the son seemed to go to college takes refuge in outbreaks of violence. Elena feels morally whole, but what the film informs us that what Nietzsche is revealed in all his work: we have judged the moral intent, and have forgotten their consequences. Elena's intention was irreproachable, but their ruinous consequences despite their unconsciousness.

In short, a film that uses deep-rooted archetypes in the collective unconscious of Russia to make a portrait of American society, and only through a small family drama. All this supported by an excellent soundtrack, which highlights the main theme, in my opinion a masterpiece in itself. This is the Third Symphony by Philip Glass, a musical genius who has composed soundtracks exquisite, like The Hours and Notes on a Scandal (Notes on a Scandal). This composition reminds me a tour of the city, surrounded by stimuli that I am unable to assimilate and with overwhelming anxiety. Or at least I associate with this situation. Precisely, Andrei has given the song of a similar significance as in the walk through the city Helena, where he is besieged by signs that he is unable to interpret trains, noise, passengers, graffiti ... In short, the reality Russian social, that slips through the crack plane. I leave you with the composition and I recommend listening to it, because it is a pure marvel:

Photos: Depesha