Archive of films Brief Encounters / Korotkie vstrechi

USSR
1967, 91 min

Section: Out of the Past
Year: 2013

Valentina and Nadya love the same man; one is his wife, the other a fleeting encounter; neither knows of each other’s existence until a misunderstanding brings them together. A finely spun love triangle, in which the image of Maxim (Vladimir Vysotsky) is crafted solely from the reminiscences of two infatuated women.

Synopsis

Maxim, a geologist, has captured the hearts of two very different women – his zealous wife Valentina, a high-ranking official, and Nadya, the naive young village lass he met on one of his expeditions. The girl goes in search of Maxim and ends up working for his wife, of whose existence she was totally unaware. Valentina mistakes Nadya for the new maid and the latter accepts her offer of a job just so she can get close to Maxim. But on the eve of his return home Nadya realises that she has no part in this story. The director cast the then practically unknown Vladimir Vysotsky in the role of Maxim; Muratova herself appeared alongside him, replacing an actress deemed unsuitable even though shooting had already started. The unusual structure of the film, woven from scattered, non-linear reminiscences, together with its vision of the social disenchantment to come, rattled party officials to the extent that, within a few days of the premiere, it was sent to the censor’s vault for 20 years. This is the first time the film is being screened to Czech audiences in its digitally restored version.

About the director

Kira Muratova (b. 1934, Soroki, Moldova) is both a living legend and one of the most marginalised figures in Russian cinema. During the Soviet era her work failed to conform to ideological requirements, and today it doesn’t correspond with commercial trends – in the past, her films were locked away in the censor’s vault and now they are essentially left to tour the festival circuit. Over the past 55 years she has made 20 films, each of which betrays a different aesthetic and a unique ability to articulate the most fundamental qualities of society. A prime example is Muratova’s masterpiece, The Asthenic Syndrome (1989). Selected filmography: Obsessions (1994), Three stories (1997), Second-Rate People (2001), Chekhov’s Motifs (2002), Two in One (2007), Melody for a Street Organ (2009), Eternal Redemption (2012).

Contacts

Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre
Vasylkivska 1, 03040, Kiev
Ukraine
Tel: +380 442 016 574
Fax: +380 442 016 547
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.dovzhenkocentre.org

Ukrainian State Film Agency
10, Lavrska St., 01010, Kyiv
Ukraine
Tel: +380 44 280 27 18
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.dergkino.gov.ua

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About the film

Black & white, DCP

Section:	Out of the Past

Director:	Kira Muratova
Screenplay:	Kira Muratova, Leonid Zhukhovitsky
Dir. of Photography:	Gennadi Karyuk
Music:	Oleg Karavaichuk, Vladimir Vysotsky
Editor:	O. Kharakova
Production:	Odessa Film Studio
Cast:	Nina Ruslanova, Vladimir Vysotsky, Kira Muratova, Yelena Bazilskaya, Olga Vikland, Aleksei Glazyrin, Valeri Isakov
Contact:	Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre, Ukrainian State Film Agency

Guests

Ivan Kozlenko

Film Institution Rep.