After the grind that was the production of his atmospheric horror film Dead Daughters, Russian director Pavel Ruminov wanted to do something a little different. Okay, he wanted to do something a LOT different and what he settled on was a single set, dialog driven, slapstick comedy Work shopped and rehearsed for weeks with a troupe of theater actors Ruminov recently finished shooting the picture on a tight schedule and has just released the first key art from the film. The presentation of these images is still something of a work in progress but what he's given us now gives us our first look at actual images from the film and they look like a good time, though I wouldn't much want to be the guy with the fish.
Expect more details and, hopefully, some footage soon and in the meantime hit the link below to check the images.
Well, i expect some weird vintage freaky "comedy".
I don't know. This looks like six kinds of trite up front.
I didn't hate DEAD DAUGHTERS, but I can't say I was blown away in the fashion I expected after all the pre-release buzz and high-profile festival play. It took me a few sittings to get through it, in fact. I'd like to re-watch it, end-to-end - might do something for my impression of the film. There's good filmmaking there - it just didn't jell for me. Maybe this one will? I'd give it a shot based on the (partially realized) promise I saw in DAUGHTERS.
I'm sorry but I didn't see much promise in DD. As a first year film-school project it would pass muster but as a commercial film it's an amateurish affair. However many times you watch the DVD you won't discover profundity as there is none. I saw a film that didn't know what it wanted to be - art house drama or horror pic - and was ultimately neither. I saw wooden actors spouting irrelevant dialogue and half-baked philosophy about throwing apples off balconies, letting kids decorate their parents's flats, and people's kidneys being damaged. If these vignettes had the intention of helping us "know" the characters then they failed. The characters were cardboard cutouts whose sole reason of existence was to be murdered by invisible ghosts or as in the final scene to allow the lead actress to go topless.
Whether a "chamber piece" full of witty dialogue can come from the pen of Ruminov seems on paper to be highly unlikely. He knows his films and film history but I suspect this love of cinema comes at the expense of life experience and "real life" and that can't be faked. It also cannot make up for a lack of writing ability. I still think he might benefit from filming someone else's script. Some filmmakers only come alive when they are filming the words of others.
Look, let's wish him all the luck in the world. Miracles do happen!