By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Victor Ginzburg
Starring: Andrey Fomin | Mikhail Efremov | Sergey Shnurov | Vladimir Epifantsev | Vladimir Menshov
Country: russia, united_states
Year: 2012
Running time: 116
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0459748/
Bruce says: “The USA started the ball rolling with HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING in 1967 (based on the Broadway show that debuted six years earlier) and Canada gave us THE APPRENTICESHIP OF DUDDY KRAVITZ in 1974. Both films featured unlikely young men rising to the top in the business world through blind luck, cunning and chicanery. Now Russia takes a stab at the genre. Based on Victor Pelvin’s novel of the same name, GENERATION P is the story of Babylen Tatarsky (Vladimir Epifantsev), a Soviet slacker who begins his working life by selling cigarettes in a shabby
kiosk. Suddenly he falls into advertising and takes Russia by storm as the end of the Cold War propels western products into the frenzy of Russia’s new capitalistic consumerism. Soviet values rapidly are being replaced by Western values. Corruption is the only way; one cannot achieve success playing by the rules. Before long, Babylen is driving a Mercedes.
“There is nothing straightforward about GENERATION P; the film tips its hat to Russian folklore, psychedelia, theatre of the absurd and cultural anomaly. Babylen’s story is told in vignettes, each more preposterous than the previous. The CEOs of new Russian corporations make impossible demands. Many of his co-workers mysteriously disappear, are arrested on unknown charges or found dead. Babylen builds one success on top of another, often landing on his feet purely by chance. His reputation skyrockets. One suspects – as in any accomplished satire – there is more than a kernel of truth in each chapter of Babylen’s life. No doubt much of the satire was lost on this viewer, not knowing the details of the emerging Russian capitalism. (The largely Russian audience at the screening laughed uproariously at moments I did not realize were funny.) In spite of thinking I was often in the dark, the film had many amusing moments.
“In this long meandering film there is only one role for a woman and she is a minor figure. There are several others who are scantily clothed or nude both in and out of bed. I asked the director why there were no women and he said that women didn’t figure prominently in the businessworld which is controlled by ruthless, greedy men. This is a male corporate story, one without love. GENERATION P is a demanding, exhilarating and revealing film. 4 cats
“(GENERATION P screened at the 2012 New Directors/New Films Festival jointly sponsored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art.)”