{"id":9103,"date":"2018-02-15T21:01:54","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T19:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/?p=9103"},"modified":"2018-02-15T21:02:49","modified_gmt":"2018-02-15T19:02:49","slug":"oscar-nominated-movie-lovelesshuman-selfishness-is-universal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/2018\/02\/oscar-nominated-movie-lovelesshuman-selfishness-is-universal\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar-nominated movie “Loveless”: Human selfishness is universal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Variety<\/a>\u00a0–<\/p>\n

Andrey Zvyagintsev<\/a>\u2019s Oscar-nominated film \u201cLoveless\u201d opens in the U.S. on Friday via\u00a0Sony Pictures Classics<\/a>.\u00a0Alexander Rodnyansky<\/a>, the film\u2019s producer, speaks to\u00a0Variety<\/em>\u00a0about its reception at home in Russia and abroad, and his views on recent developments in the Russian film industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cLoveless\u201d was recently nominated for France\u2019s Cesar Awards, adding to its nominations for the\u00a0Oscars<\/a>, the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs, the British Independent Film Award, the Independent Spirits, and the European Film Awards. It is the only foreign film in the awards race to have received nominations in all of these contests. It was also awarded the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and best film at the BFI London Film Festival. The film, about a 12-year-old boy who disappears from his Moscow home while his middle-class parents are going through a bitter divorce, has received a positive response from audiences and critics alike, scoring 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and 89% on Metacritic, with Los Angeles Times\u2019 Justin Chang describing it as \u201ca searing, overwhelming film.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zvyagintsev and Rodnyansky have just completed a tour of Britain and Ireland ahead of the film\u2019s release in those territories. Rodnyansky remarks on the enthusiastic standing-room only audiences \u2014 including many young people \u2014 that greeted them. The same was the case in New York, he says, where the director was honored with a mid-career retrospective at MoMA last month.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

61st BFI London Film Festival – Official Competition, First Feature Competition and Documentary Competition<\/p><\/div>\n

Rodnyansky is pleased that the crowds on both sides of the Atlantic have wanted to speak about \u201cthe art of Zvyagintsev\u201d and the film\u2019s overall theme \u2014 the devastating effects of selfishness \u2014 rather than focusing specifically on Russia society itself. \u201cThey appreciate his talent, his sophisticated cinematic language and his ability to come up with a strong message,\u201d Rodnyansky says. \u201cThe story of human selfishness is universal. It is much more than a Russian tale of a couple going through a painful divorce.\u201d<\/p>\n

As screenings continue for Oscar voters, Rodnyansky is pleased with the reception from Academy members. Thanks to the Oscar nomination for Zvyagintsev\u2019s last film, \u201cLeviathan,\u201d many of them are already familiar with his cinematic approach. \u201cThey understand this is not just about a political statement. It is also an important human statement, expressed through the cinematic language and unique vision of the director,\u201d Rodnyansky says.<\/p>\n

The film had its release in Russia straight after its Cannes premiere. This helped avoid the devastating piracy that afflicted \u201cLeviathan,\u201d which had to wait eight months for its home-turf release while the government mulled whether to give it a distribution license.<\/p>\n

\u201cLoveless\u201d proved less controversial than \u201cLeviathan,\u201d also produced by Rodnyansky, as was Zvyagintsev\u2019s \u201cElena.\u201d This was partly a question of timing, Rodnyansky says, as \u201cLeviathan\u201d had come out at a time when Russia\u2019s war with Ukraine had just started and nationalistic fervor was at a high. \u201cZvyagintsev\u2019s movies are often regarded as being critical [of Russia] because he has a specific way of telling his stories in a very precise contemporary landscape,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Zvyagintsev is Russian so he, naturally enough, sets his films in Russia, but his stories are universal, albeit \u201ctold through the details of the only life he knows \u2013 life in Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodnyansky adds: \u201cBecause it is set in contemporary Russia many people treat it as a critical depiction of the country. It divides audiences. Some people feel offended, and unfairly criticized. They definitely don\u2019t appreciate a film that they believe shows the country\u2019s bad side.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continues: \u201cOn the other hand we have some very strong supporters who believe that it is important to tell the truth and tell a story that is able to live on after the film has ended.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same selfishness depicted in the film can be seen \u201call around the world,\u201d Rodnyansky says. \u201cNo one needs to know anything about Russia before watching the film. It\u2019s a very understandable story of two people who feel the lack of empathy and the absence of love. It\u2019s about their inability to communicate with each other, and their willingness to pay any price to achieve what they want.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film grossed almost $2 million in Russia, released by Sony, and may return to theaters for a second run. It was sold widely in international markets by sales agent Wild Bunch.<\/p>\n

Rodnyansky is upbeat about Russian filmmaking in general, noting the strength of local films at the home box office, which nabbed a 25% share last year, led by basketball movie \u201cThree Seconds.\u201d Although he backs the government\u2019s financial support for the production of local films, he is less happy with the protectionist approach of the minister of culture, Vladimir Medinsky, toward movie distribution in Russia. He believes that the banning of \u201cThe Death of Stalin\u201d is in contravention of Russian law, and, furthermore, a pointless exercise. \u201cEvery Russian knows Stalin was a bloody tyrant. His regime killed millions of Russians and other people living in the former Soviet Union,\u201d he says. \u201cThe fact that this movie is laughing [at Stalin\u2019s regime] is the key to understanding the reaction it has provoked.\u201d Rodnyansky is also enraged at Medinsky\u2019s attempt to delay the release of \u201cPaddington 2,\u201d on the pretext of removing competition for Russian films. He says such moves to suppress the box office of non-Russian films will damage the distribution and exhibition sectors in Russia. \u201cThe actions of the minister [of culture] have brought instability in the whole business,\u201d he says. \u201cThe health of the system is based on competition and the ability of the theatrical chains to decide for themselves which films to put on the screens, not for the minister to decide. I believe Russian movies are able to compete in the market. The audience should have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Variety\u00a0– Andrey Zvyagintsev\u2019s Oscar-nominated film \u201cLoveless\u201d opens in the U.S. on Friday via\u00a0Sony Pictures Classics.\u00a0Alexander Rodnyansky, the film\u2019s producer, speaks to\u00a0Variety\u00a0about its reception at home in Russia and abroad, and his views on recent developments […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":9104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[846,90,88,10],"tags":[584,848,849],"class_list":["post-9103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cinema-gender","category-editor-selection","category-slider","category-world","tag-cinema","tag-film-critic","tag-russian-society","country-world"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9103"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9106,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9103\/revisions\/9106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}