{"id":8921,"date":"2024-11-27T12:42:17","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T17:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8921"},"modified":"2024-11-27T12:42:17","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T17:42:17","slug":"beanpole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/27\/beanpole\/","title":{"rendered":"Beanpole"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Beanpole <\/strong>(2019)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Kino Lorber\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 137 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPAA rating (graphic nudity, sexual content, violence, thematic elements)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Kantemir Balagov\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay:\u00a0 Kantemir Balagov and Aleksandr Terekhov\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Evgueni Galperine\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Kseniya Sereda\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 21, 2020 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Viktoria Miroshnichenko, Vasilisa Perelygina, Andrey Bykov, Igor Shirokov, Konstantin Balakirev, Kseniya Kutepova, Alyona Kuchkova, Timofey Glazkov, Veniamin Kac, Olga Dragunova, Denis Kozinets, Alisa Oleynik.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $196,258 (US)\/$2M (World)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Spoken in Russian w\/English subtitles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0You may want to bring your antidepressants with you if you opt to see Beanpole<\/strong>, an unrelentingly depressing Russian import centering on two damaged women in post-war Leningrad. To be honest, I was dreading watching it. This time of year, the mainstream movies are bleak enough. After enduring the likes of Underwater, Dolittle and Fantasy Island, I wasn\u2019t sure I wanted to deal with a movie about life in a war-ravaged, poverty-ridden Communist country regardless of it being a quality film (unlike the other titles I mentioned). In fact, it was Russia\u2019s entry for this past year\u2019s Academy Awards. Well, I\u2019m not going to NOT watch it; surely you know me better than that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m going to tell you from the start that the two main characters in Beanpole<\/strong>, Iya (Miroshnichenko) and Masha (Perelygina), suffer from what we now know to be PTSD. It\u2019s the reason behind their behavior and actions throughout the sophomore effort of Kantemir Balagov (Closeness), a 28YO filmmaker uncommonly fluent in the language of cinema. Iya, nicknamed Beanpole due to her height, has a post-concussive disorder which makes her prone to sudden fits of freezing in place, unable to move or speak until the episode has passed. She acts as mother to Pashka (Glazkov), the 3YO son of fellow soldier and best friend Masha. During one of her fits, she accidentally smothers the boy. When Masha comes home and finds out what happened- in a protracted, near-unbearable scene- she doesn\u2019t get all emotional. Instead, she compels Iya to conceive and bear another child for her as she can\u2019t have children anymore. She additionally blackmails a doctor (Bykov) at the hospital where they both work into being the surrogate father.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It also bears mentioning that Masha becomes romantically involved with Sasha (Shirokov), a horny rich kid and son of a government official best described as a \u201clap dog\u201d. He\u2019s the type that confuses love with servitude. He\u2019s nice but otherwise useless like all the men in Beanpole<\/strong>. Forgive me for jumping ahead a bit, but the central idea of Balagov\u2019s film is one of female empowerment, the notion that the two protagonists don\u2019t need men to define their being. It\u2019s a good message, but the journey to it is a rough one.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A significant amount of Beanpole<\/strong> is tough to take. Take the scene where the doctor tries to impregnate Iya. She insists on Masha being present during the act leading to a harrowing scene of Masha being pinned between the wall and the copulating couple. This \u201cthreesome\u201d isn\u2019t any man\u2019s fantasy. Then there\u2019s the scene I mentioned earlier between Iya and Masha. In it, Iya can\u2019t bring herself to speak the truth about what happened to her friend\u2019s child. Without uttering a single word, Iya manages to communicate the horrific truth to Masha. It\u2019s a long scene, about five minutes, and it\u2019s a hard five minutes. It\u2019s also a fine example of cinema done right. Everything in this scene- the lighting, the acting, body position- is perfectly calibrated. It still gives me chills when I think of it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Balagov also makes excellent use of color especially green which he uses to represent the creation of new life. Look at the carefree way Masha spins and twirls when she tries on a green dress made by a neighbor. It\u2019s obviously representative of her desire to have a baby even though she\u2019s sterile as a result of her duties during the war. Red- as in the nosebleeds Masha frequently gets- acts as a symbol of the trauma caused by the women\u2019s experiences in the war. This is the work of Kseniya Sereda whose brilliant cinematography allows the story to be told visually more so than through dialogue. The silences say far more than words ever could. The production design by Sergey Ivanov and Evgueni Galperine\u2019s haunting score complete the ensemble. Setting the action in wintertime makes it all the more cold and bleak.<\/p>\n

\u00a0This is the first time Miroshnichenko and Perelygina have acted and they are both wonderful. In fact, I\u2019d even say their performances are flawless. They are 100% natural. It\u2019s no easy feat to act with one\u2019s eyes and facial expressions yet both of them pull it off perfectly. Miroshnichenko\u2019s height and lanky frame enable her to loom over the proceedings like a specter while Perelygina\u2019s red hair conveys the fire in her soul and her calculating nature. Beanpole<\/strong> is a movie where acting is of paramount importance. You have to have legitimate talent to successfully pull off either lead role. These two ladies have it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I was going to say that Beanpole<\/strong> runs too long but after taking time to think about it, I\u2019m going to say that its slow pace is ideal. This is a movie about character NOT action. The story is driven by how the ladies react to situations and circumstances, an especially precarious thing given their PTSD. That is where the tension truly lies. Still, Beanpole<\/strong> can be a bit much emotionally. If you think you can handle it, go for it. Just be sure to refill your Zoloft beforehand.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beanpole (2019)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Kino Lorber\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 137 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPAA rating (graphic nudity, sexual content, violence, thematic elements)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Kantemir Balagov\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay:\u00a0 Kantemir Balagov and Aleksandr Terekhov\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Evgueni Galperine\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Kseniya Sereda\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 21, 2020 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Viktoria Miroshnichenko, Vasilisa Perelygina, Andrey Bykov, Igor Shirokov, Konstantin Balakirev, Kseniya Kutepova, Alyona Kuchkova, Timofey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas","category-foreign"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Beanpole-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8921"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9244,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8921\/revisions\/9244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}