La Fièvre de Petrov

In his feverish hallucination of contemporary Russia and its ties to the past, Serebrennikov reels between Altmanesque mosaic, festival exploitation and an ostentatious display of his own abilities as a director. It is definitely necessary to tip one’s hat to the expansively elaborate yet natural-seeming mise-en-scene in combination with the long, complicated tracking shots. But the moment you understand that the fever is a justification for the fact that absolutely anything is possible, it takes the wind out of the sails of the premise consisting in the contrast between the helpless and aimless lives of ordinary people against their materialising fantasies, where they vent their frustrations in escapades of strength. What remains is primarily a spectacularly delirious formalistic exhibition and treatise on Russia, which characteristically bubbles over despite any attempt to somehow generally deal with it. (09/12/2021)