Plot in one sentence: a female scientist's husband mysteriously disappears while a spate of
murders of beautiful young women rocks the Russian capital.
Giallo films aren't exactly renowned for being particularly deep or meaningful.
STEREOBLOOD, a modern Russian throwback to that 70's genre feels shallow and anaemic
despite the non-stop barrage of dazzling imagery.
Former director of music videos Roman Prygunov has no concern for strong narrative and is busy
practising his flashy editing tricks.
On the plus side STEREOBLOOD has great cinematography and a haunting central performance
by Ingeborga Dapkunaite, but these aspects do not redeem the film's many weaknesses.
Murders are nothing special.
The killer may be decked out in classic giallo fashion, but his nasty deeds are captured without
much panache, as if in a TV movie.
STEREOBLOOD is pretty but not for one second thrilling.
There's simply not much happening in the film.
We see our supposed protagonist do her household chores, have her nails done, or kill time
photographing oranges in close-up. Murders stay somewhere on the sidelines.
We see them reported on TV but not once is there any shade of threat to the hero's safety.
Lack of any tension or even basic cause-effect connection really hurts the script.
There are several exciting, inspired sequences in STEREOBLOOD but none of them are crucial to the plot.
What transpires from all this is that director Prygunov probably watched a few gialli but hadn't quite
figured out the recipe of making one himself.
He's much more at home showing isolation and boredom
of Metropolitan existence.
If you don't mind a movie being an empty (but pretty) package, give STEREOBLOOD a spin.
Hey Alex,
ReplyDeleteI actually reviewed this one on my site. It's not a very good review but I'm curious as to what you might think.
"On the plus side STEREOBLOOD has great cinematography and a haunting central performance
by Ingeborga Dapkunaite, but these aspects do not redeem the film's many weaknesses."--This is what I also like about the film.
"He's much more at home showing isolation and boredom
of Metropolitan existence."--For whatever reason, I love movies like this.
Alex, I hope that you review more Russian cinema as I've seen about a dozen or so in the last few years. As I'm an American and an outsider, it is really interesting to read your comments. By the way, have you seen Morify with Dapkunaite?
Great stuff, as always, Alex.
Thanks man:)
ReplyDeleteI did read your review a few months ago, so it may have actually influenced mine, as I seem to cover the same key points!
I've seen STEREOBLOOD at least four times.
It's a film that doesn't work as a whole but I admire it as a collage of some fantastic scenes.
Shame more films in the same vein didn't follow, it could have developed into an interesting genre.
When it came out, STEREOBLOOD was something new for Russian cinema and was met with hostility at festivals. Russian critics booed it and the film even got awarded 'the worst film of the year' prize, I think.
Basically, some people were pissed off that such a shallow 'style over substance' movie that doesn't show gritty reality and focuses on comfortable lives of well-to-do characters could get decent funding.
The heroes were hard to identify with because only a tiny fraction of Russian people had prestigious jobs, nice apartments and vintage cars.
Today, 9 years on, dozens of polished movies come out of Russia and the fact that mnost of them are aping Hollywood doesn't bother anyone anymore...
I don't review much Russian films as I only see 2-3 of them a year.
But I do have plans to review one or two soon.
Probably something with Dapkunaite, as I really like her. Speaking of MORFIY, I haven't seen it but heard a lot of good about it. Balabanov's work is always interesting, even if I hardly ever agree with his views.