House of Fools

Rating:
Summary: a rare beauty from Russia
Review: This is like almost from Russia with love to Hollywood. The story of a mental assylum in the war torn Russia Chechnya border. This is one of the best war satires I have seen. The character cast can be compared to that Satyajit Ray and photography is superlative. The back drop of the movie is tragic but still there is a sense of carnival - as you compare the inmates of the assylum and soldiers you tend to see the similarities - the walls between the normal owrld and the world of insanity breaks down - war is after all measured insanity

Andrei Kochalovsky's film setting is a run-down psychiatric hospital on the Chechen border, where a Russian doctor (Vladas Bagdonas) cares for patients of a lunatic assylum. There is quite a mix of chareters among them are Ali (Stanislav Varkki), a large but reticent man who writes and wears a bulging backpack filled with his scribblings; Vika (Marina Politseimako) and a variety of other types-including a dwarf. But the central character is Janna (Julia Vysotsky), a fragile but vulnerable, sweetly-smiling person who is lost in her world of love with Bryan Adams. Janna is a musical sort--she plays polkas on an accordian--and her benign madness involves believing that she's the girlfriend of pop singer Bryan Adams (who periodically shows up playing himself in her mental ramblings). War breaks through and torns down the peaceful rambling of the assylum - chaos was already there but it becomes mortally danferous.Chechen rebels groups take over the assylum -one of whom jokingly offers to marry Janna, leading her to abandon her beloved Bryan and go off to him. In the disorder the inmates literally take over the asylum when the doctor disappears to secure a bus for the inmates to transport them to safety. I was touched by a scene where theRussian soldiers and Chechen rebels exchange corpses, money and munitions.
When it seems that the assylum will be destroyed then the doctor returns and a small twist to the story occurs which I am not going to mention. This movie is worth watching - better than most Hollywood flicks

Rating:
Summary: Mad Good!
Review: what can i say? this is one of the most odd and amazing and beautiful and gorgeous movies i have ever seen!! With its beauty and literal insanity all rolled into a Russian film, you will find yourself moving from emotion to emotion. Try to catch it on tv (as i have done) and wait to buy it later because, honestly, $73.00?? that;s a little much. but you definitely need to see this Russian treasure!

Rating:
Summary: Mad Good!
Review: what can i say? this is one of the most odd and amazing and beautiful and gorgeous movies i have ever seen!! With its beauty and literal insanity all rolled into a Russian film, you will find yourself moving from emotion to emotion. Try to catch it on tv (as i have done) and wait to buy it later because, honestly, $73.00?? that;s a little much. but you definitely need to see this Russian treasure!