Product description

Of Freaks And Men [DVD] [1998]

Price: £17.79
RRP: £19.99
Average customer rating: 4.0

Binding : DVD
EAN : 5023965330420
Label : Tartan Video
Manufacturer : Tartan Video
Publisher : Tartan Video
Release date : 2000-12-04
Title : Of Freaks And Men [DVD] [1998]
Actor : Array
Audience rating : Suitable for 18 years and over
Format : Array
Languages : Array
Number of items : 1
Original release date : 1998-01-01
Region code : 0
Running time : 89
Studio : Tartan Video
Theatrical releaseDate : 1999-09-08
Number of discs : 1

Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-08-19 rating:

worth watching!
I'm really glad I watched this film - its dark, Dostoyevskian, packed chockful with symbolism and layers of meaning - hence the very long review contained in the 'extra features' section (which is worth reading and cribbing from in case you are a media studies student!). The film seems to be about exploitation, travel, the history of cinema, industrialisation - but aside from all this cerebral stuff - its a sheer, unthinking, joy to watch and listen to. The sequence with the steam boat going down the river, belching smoke - the man in front with flowers -accompanied by that luscious Mussorgsky music is about the best thing I can ever remember seeing in cinema - I couldn't stop myself re-playing the scene over and over on my DVD player. Nice simple Russian too - a GCSE student could follow little chunks of it I think. I recommend renting it though - who pays 20 pounds for a DVD nowadays?

review by: real_metal_listener date: 2005-09-09 rating:

WEIRD...
I just couldn't get my head around this movie. It was like I was sleeping and was having a dream. I admire the fact that the movie is well directed and uses some ineresting camera angles, but the rest of it is just pure nonsense and doesn't mean anything...to me anyway.

review by: arakis2002 date: 2002-11-30 rating:

The idea is better than the whole
This is one of those films that you like thinking about afterwards but sit there bored through. The way it is filmed is excellent- in sepia with intertitles and the story is quite interesting but it is very slow. even though it is little more than 90 minutes long it feels longer and this detracts from the overall effect. I saw it at the cinema originally and it caused a lot of discussion but as a viewing experience you only need to see it once.

review by: date: 2000-10-29 rating:

Dreamlike tale of turn of the century SM film industry
Alexei Balabanov is a director from whom you can certainly never know what to expect next. Having had two monster successes in Russia with the taut gangster thrillers Brat (Brother) and Brat 2, the director then turned to a most unusual story indeed: the beginning of the Russian porn industry. But it's not a thriller, oh no, 'Of Freaks and Men' is a dreamlike lyrical film set in a marvellous sepia-hued St Petersburg. A local gangster, suffering from his own version of angst and some kind of oedipal longings, and his cohort invade the lives of two respectable families, including a blind matriarch and Siamese twins, forcing them to participate in 'spanking'movies. A kind of dream of turn of the century Russia is brilliantly evoked in the autumnal light, as the characters move silently through the deserted city on canal boats, horrible threat and aching beauty alternating with each other constantly. Of course, under Communism, porn was absolutely outlawed; with the fall of the Red Power, it's everywhere. Balabanov's fantasy story takes the sleaze out of porn and examinesit in terms of the psychological states of the characters involved. By the way, once you see this film you will want to visit St Petersburg - I did!

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