Kira Muratova DVD release

             

Studiocanal release to Home Entertainment a double bill in their Vintage World Classics, two seminal works by Russian female director Kira Muratova on Blu-ray/DVD from 18th September

A Ukranian film director, screenwriter and actress of Romanian/Jewish descent, Kira Muratova’s work was overlooked for many years due to the censorship of her early films in the Soviet Union - Brief Encounters was banned for twenty years and The Long Farewell for 17 years.  Muratova spent much of her artistic career in Odessa in Ukraine and made nearly all of her films at Odessa Film Studios.  Her work has been celebrated by film scholar and critic Dr Elena Gorfinkel as “one of the most distinctive and singular works of world filmmaking.”  

The first film The Long Farewell (1971) tells a tale of a relationship between a mother and teenage son. Their close relationship becomes clouded when adolescene arrives and after a visit to his father, Sasha (Oleg Vladimirsky) wants to breakaway from his overprotective mother and live with the father instead.

Muratova takes great care with crafting a coming-of-age tale filled with tension with underlying issues rising to the surface. Her film style is reminiscent of the early nouvelle vague with jump cuts and experimentation with form and presentation, yet there is an observant eye throughout of the location and the black and white photography helps create a more archive feel as if memories being presented on the screen.

Brief Encounters (1967) was Muratova's debut feature and shows the genesis of her impressionistic style again embracing the tropes of the French new wave. The film focuses on a love triangle between a city planner (Muratova herself), her free-spirited geologist husband (Vladimir Vysotsky) and a young woman they employ as their housekeeper (Nina Ruslanova). 

Eastern Europe has always been good at these by chance love triangles - such as Knife in the Water (Polanski) - but this one is different in that it focuses more on the women than the man in this instance and the man is outnumbered, whereas in Polanski's for example it was two men fighting over a woman. 

Muratova was ground-breaking in so many ways and putting female stories front and centre is paramount to her appeal and its a shame she is not more well known due to political ramifications. Hopefully these Studiocanal releases will help spread the word of her work which is extensive and gratifying.

The Long Farewell/Brief Encounters are released by Studiocanal in their Vintage World Classics strand on Blu-ray/DVD/Digital. Both discs feature interviews with scholar Dr Elena Gorfinkel who states that Muratova is “one of the most distinctive and singular works of world filmmaking.” along with video essays.

My thanks to Studiocanal for the review discs for an honest review