niklsanchez

The first time I tried to get into it - must've been 3 or 4 years ago - I didn't really enjoy it. It felt painfully slow and even downright boring in places. But now, I can say with full confidence: this is officially one of my favorite films!

Once again, we're looking at a reinterpretation - this time of Shakespeare's immortal Hamlet. There have been many such deconstructions over the years, but arguably the most refined and distinctive one is Tom Stoppard's play, which this film is based on - and directed by Stoppard himself.

What makes it so unique is the shift in focus: the main characters here are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet's minor, almost incidental friends. Through their perspective, the film becomes a whirlwind of meanings and symbols. It dives deep into existentialism (very much in vogue in the '60s, when the play was written), theatrical symbolism, the cyclical nature of fate, and so much more. There's a ridiculous amount to unpack - so much that trying to "unsee" everything once you notice it can feel borderline maddening.

It's also fascinating from a storytelling perspective - watching how a playwright adapts his own work for the screen. The plot is tightly interwoven with the theater (much like the original Hamlet), and this fusion allows for an incredibly layered narrative. Whether all those layers were put there intentionally by Stoppard is anyone's guess. But that's the beauty of art, isn't it?

Watching Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, and Richard Dreyfuss is pure joy. The razor-sharp dialogue, the exquisite attention to visual detail - it all just floored me. I couldn't for the life of me remember why I hadn't liked this movie the first time around.

This is a diamond of a film. Without some knowledge of Hamlet, following the story might feel a bit flat, and you'll likely miss a lot of its richness. But if the names Rosencrantz and Guildenstern ring even the faintest bell, then you owe it to yourself to see this masterpiece.

The wildness of a crazy mind leads many people into dubious turns and exposes them to some kind of experiments on life. And this, in general, is not bad at all, and even on the contrary, it can be useful, if you are not too fond of it and keep yourself in control.

This picture tells just about such life vicissitudes of young and ambitious students, and about what it all can lead to. All people, of course, act in their own way. Some people like a normalized life in the village, some people want easy rises and successful acquaintances, and some people quietly plow, just proud of what they can do.

This is exactly what this story conveys very clearly. Such a huge variety and unpredictability of life, which starts from the student's bench, and then stretches to gray hair. And that, I think, is one of the great beauties of life.

Of course, nothing comes easy. The red line through the picture is the theme of loneliness. There are different temptations, and their choice can entail consequences of varying degrees of severity. But sometimes it is still worth screwing up to find the strength to move more confidently. After all, it's the mistakes that make our life experience complete.

Not a bad Soviet movie that can inspire some, warn others, and just pleasantly brighten up the evening. A fascinating story about the consequences of choices and growing up, which, it must be assumed, deservedly took in its time Oscar as the best foreign language film. Recommended!

And how everything began... Cheerfully, cheerfully, and even did not foreshadow such a development of events, which presents us with the further unfolding of history. It looked like a gathering for a merry drunkenness, as a courage on the threshold of fierce party, but in fact ... The drunkenness dragged on ....

There is a huge number of movies where a man struggles with all sorts of ailments, be it diseases, bad habits, etc. But what if we imagine a situation where nothing changes? There is no struggle with oneself, there is no overcoming and development, but only a dark abyss that slowly sucks in the soul and the flesh of the unfortunate.

When watching it, sometimes you catch yourself thinking that some details of what is happening are more fantastic than fiction. But it also bribes, making the viewer believe in such a strangely arisen and so sincere love. You look at this fairy tale, you realize how cool it is, but in moment you feel wild horror. Because on the screen love for a sick mind, for a sick person, which contrary to the purity and open-mindedness turns out to be destructive for the heroine Elisabeth Shue.

In the end we see a picture of chaos and pain. Nicolas Cage is a real actor, and his Oscar for his role in this movie is not in question. He showed the alcoholic in just the right way to make you uncomfortable with the sight of him. And the whole atmosphere of this movie is built in such a way that you emotionally split from the duality and painfulness of this relationship...