The Long Farewell (Muratova, 1971): Cine Lumiere, 6.30pm
This screening will be introduced by Dr Elena Gorfinkel (King’s College London). The evening is programmed by Oliver Dickens to raise funds for Ukraine humanitarian aid and the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre in Kyiv. The Russian invasion has disrupted funding, making it not only impossible for the Dovzhenko Centre to cover basic costs such as utilities or to continue its regular activities, but also to pay its staff’s salaries. Proceeds from this screening will be split between the Dovzhenko Centre and Ukraine humanitarian aid.
Cine Lumiere introduction:
Ostensibly the story of the strained relationship between a divorced translator and her teenaged son, The Long Farewell’s “almost unbearable tension… is explored in a series of fluid, inventive sequences, which … show Muratova [to be] streets ahead of her male contemporaries” (Ian Christie). Completed in 1971 and promptly shelved by censors for sixteen years, Muratova’s important early feature, scripted by prominent feminist Natalya Ryazantseva, was deemed too aesthetic, personal and elitist by Soviet authorities and got her disqualified from directing at Odessa Film Studio. Heralded as a lost masterpiece when finally released in 1987, this simple tale of maternal jealousy and filial rebellion is transformed by Muratova into a thrillingly odd drama full of visual sophistication, exquisite camerawork, and quietly stunning piano score by Oleg Karavaichuk.
Here (and above) is a trailer.
No comments:
Post a Comment