Without any doubt, one of the best films shown at the festival was Valentin Vasianovich's film "Black Level". The film, which did not leave anyone indifferent in the hall, caused a variety of emotions, from rave reviews to ardent dislike.
Emotions went on high. And among these paints of human feelings there was only one thing: indifference. Maybe because everyone who felt in the room felt the director and the creator of the film touched on a very acute, very social theme, an unusually relevant one for all. It did not exist 5 years ago. But now it comes more and more, like a real tide, capturing, flooding large modern cities. So let me say to myself not about the form in which the film was shot (although this must necessarily be said), but about the content.
Strange. At a press conference for some reason, the ridiculous idea that this film was about loneliness sounded lonely. And even more stupid idea, about the topic of not needed, not found themselves people. Bullshit! In this film, there is no loneliness. And the main character is absolutely successful, fully realized in all. And it is he who is the typical hero of our time, the person we meet in certain social circles (of course, not among builders, salesmen, security guards and all kinds of parkers there). And such people are becoming more and more.
It's not about age. Let me note that there is no age. There is a completely different. And this other was completely absent in modern people five years ago. But now, unfortunately, has acquired spontaneous forms.
I recognized many of my friends-men from forty to fifty, successful, realized and quite content with their lives. By the age of 50 they all have either a favorite business or their own business that brings a stable good income. There is an apartment, there is an expensive car. There are many costumes and masks that can be changed, trying on different forms. There is even someone to fuck-in the car, in the garage, the hotel. And the most important thing is what makes emblematic of the protagonist the emptiness, indifference, lack of purpose in life, not the desire to build relationships, to overcome boundaries, go somewhere, because you do not want to go anywhere, and in general you do not want anything anymore , Even comfort is not desirable in its own small comfort zone.
In fact, this is a real disaster when, reaching a certain milestone in life, a person suddenly stops and deliberately fills himself with an emptiness that gradually overwhelms his life as snow piles up his expensive car. He could dream, but there's nothing. He could love, but he can not. He could build a relationship, he does not understand why. He could go ahead-but do not see where. And therefore remains in his closed world of acute social indifference, he is indifferent to the world, and the world to him, and so lasts for years, often until the end of life.
Such a person does not believe in happiness, which is why, with a tremendous, incredible luxury of intellectual delight, the scene looks when a hero burns wedding flowers in a vacant lot. Burns all this ridiculous glossy "Mimi", knowing full well that in real life this slobbery "Mimi" has long since ceased to exist.
The hero is a modern man, he belongs to this world, and he lost the purpose of life. He has everything, and everything to him on figs. Therefore, the collective image of a successful person so amazes those who recognize him from the side.
He loses loved ones, but not particularly lonely. Losses for him are symbolic, because he lost himself a long time ago. I do not know where, but I really do not want to return. There is no need.
Against this background, a particularly sharp note looks the plot line of relations with the hero's girl. It's stupid to think that a girl threw the poor, an already lonely man! Nothing like this. It's not she who left him.. It was he who threw it. Because fucking on the litter in the garage is not a relationship. It's just the physiology of indifference. Relations are walking around the city, holding hands, and kissing on the lips, and being there when it's bad, and helping. In the relationship you need to invest your soul, they need to build. What for? He does not want this. And he does not care that absolutely none of the women do not want to fuck in the garage. This is a law that is not accepted to be seen. Even the coolest and fashionable wants to be brought to the apartment, to where the cat and father, and said "this is my girlfriend". And not taken to the garage. But now there is no relationship. They do not want. They do not have successful modern people. And because it is he, the main character, threw her. Good girl, by the way.. And stayed where he was.
In fact, there is no loneliness now. There is a deliberate detachment of personal boundaries. People deliberately move away from each other. And so with such force the best (from my point of view) scene of the movie with a wheelchair in the garage. This scene of death almost by Van Goghu-armchair, in which it is not.
Words are not needed at all. They are not in the movie. Words are not needed because in modern life we ??do without them. We no longer talk to each other. We have already stopped calling and talking on the phone. We sit in the touch surface of the rectangle and poke fingers, thinking that we build relationships by contacting your loved ones in all sorts of messengers there. We do not understand that in fact we are destroying not only relations, but also our lives, our souls.
At the press conference the creator of the film told that the black level is the technical term for setting up video and photographic equipment. This term reflects the essence of the film. The film was shot completely without a script, with a minimum budget of only $ 10,000. The actor who starred as the protagonist is not a professional actor, but the famous photographer Konstantin Mokhnach. The director traveled throughout the locations of his hero, watching his life. The visual part was more important. Such a creative process was for the director as a challenge. A challenge is always good.
So clearly revealed the main idea of ??the film: in life it is necessary to move to a different level at a certain level of life. Either you go, or you do not. But if you go, if you go further, then everything will be good. As with the main character who managed to climb up and go. And this is completely independent of age. Rather, from an attitude toward life on the black level border, which sooner or later will come to one particular point. To the point of oneself.
Irina Lobusova.