Beanpole

Leningrad, 1945. In the aftermath of World War II, within the remaining ruins, two young women, Iya and Masha, try to give a purpose to their meaningless lives. They met at the front during this endless war but they stayed in touch, probably because they felt alone and were desperately disillusioned. They now live in the present, without any perspective for their future that they do not even try to consider. The complete disarray!

Beanpole (2019) is darkly sad, with an extremely but deliberately slow pace. If you are depressed before you even consider this movie, you should probably envisage another viewing. Otherwise, this film is breathtakingly beautiful and is excellently filmed. Moreover, the gorgeous actresses Viktoria Miroshnichenko (Iya) and Kseniya Kutepova (Lyubov Petrovna) shine despite a voluntarily sober play.

As a synthesis: 7/8 of 10

This movie is an intense and thoughtful exploration of relationships between survivors of war. The desire to find meaning and love and connection drive people to do beautiful and desperate things, and in the end to find either peace or conflict within depending on what they can accept and create within their minds. Beautifully acted.

This film set in post-war USSR is beautifully shot and superbly acted. Every scene is a work of art that reglects the melancholic mood of that generation. Not a light watch, but extremely rewarding.

A fascinating slow burn that is as exhilarating as it is difficult at times to watch.

"Beanpole" is actually a good movie to be watching during the 2020 COVID pandemic, as it's a reminder to a whole population of people who've never experienced any significant hardship how much worse things could be. Watch a movie about post WWII Russia and then ask yourself how big a deal it is that Trader Joe's was out of your favorite brand of crackers again.

The towering actress Viktoria Miroshnichenko, as the film's title character, and Vasilisa Perelygina, as her friend who's recently returned from the front, give amazing performances navigating exceptionally difficult material. This is one of those movies that would be off putting if the direction and acting didn't strike just the right tone. It's one of those movies about which people say "I didn't like any of the characters" as a way to dismiss the whole thing. But, like the best character studies, "Beanpole" doesn't care whether or not you like anyone in it. It instead asks you to live with the characters for awhile and see if you can empathize with them, and understand their choices based on the circumstances in which they find themselves.

And, directing and acting aside, the film looks beautiful. For a film set in such a drab time and setting, it uses saturated colors, especially green and red, to tie images visually to the mental states of the characters.

The movie year still has a way to go, but I imagine this one will make my own personal shortlist of favorites.

Grade: A

... and seared by the cold - this magnificently performed and beautifully filmed piece of cinema reveals the challenges faced by two young women in post war Leningrad. Damaged and psychologically disturbed by their experiences, shell shocked from the battles, real and imagined, battles they would never have aspired to fight some years earlier, while surrounded and enveloped by uncertainty, indignity, poverty and despair.