That were fookin' brilliant.

[chickenfeet]

Back from seeing Ianucci's The Death of Stalin. TL:DR Go see it. Spoilers follow. It's very clever the way that the events of 1953 to 1956 are here compressed into a few days either side of Stalin's death. It really falls into three parts. While Stalin is still alive we see everyone around him trying desperately, and often hilariously, to stay in favour. There is some truly epic sucking up. This is interwoven with visceral and extreme violence. Act 2 deals with Stalin's seizure and death and Beria's attempts to seize control which turns into a tussle between Kruschev (Steve Buscemi) and Beria (Simon Russell-Beale). The rest of the Politburo seem too traumatised to even protect themselves. THey can't even agree on calling a doctor for the critically ill leader as all the good ones have been executed and no-one wants to be responsible for calling an incompetent. Molotov (Michael Palin) in particular is utterly feeble and can't even keep straight whether he's supposed to think his own wife is guilty or not. There's also a lot of really squicky stuff around the handling of Stalin's corpse; knives, saws and chisels are involved! In the final act Kruschev persuades his colleagues to use Zhukov (Jason Isaacs playing him as an extremely physical and laconic but foul mouthed Yorkshireman) to stage a coup. Beria is tried and executed. There is more cringe worthy and extremely dark humour. Kruschev is still building support among the waverers while they are actually carrying Stalin's coffin at the funeral. And there's lots more bloodshed. It's worth the price of a ticket just to see this portrayal of Zhukov (completely ahistorical but funny as all heck). All in all, a brilliant piece of film making and no wonder the current Kremlin lot are less than chuffed.

Comments

[sabotabby]

I loved it more than cake and maybe even more than pie.

[coughingbear]

We thought it was horribly brilliant.

[loup_noir]

I just hope they release it here in the US. It's been on my Netflix queue, since I first read about it.

[mountainkiss]

What makes a good politician or conspirator, in this context? Why was Kruschev successful where Beria was not?

[chickenfeet]

I'm not sure one can generalise from this particular situation. Everyone hated and feared Beria who really was a monster. It's not just what he did as head of the NKVD it's his personality. He loved torture and raping little girls. But he was very able as well as ruthless. Most of the people who might have stood up to him were paralysed by fear. Kruschev was the one who had the smarts and the courage to mobilise the rest of the Politbureau and the army but I'd say it was a close run thing and that Beria got pretty close to hanging on (and of course eliminating any potential opposition).

[mountainkiss]

Gotcha. Thanks for taking the time to explain.

[cmcmck]

People may giggle at Molotov but the bugger survived to see the end of the Soviet Union!

[gramarye1971]

Definitely an enjoyable film!

[nanila]

I really enjoyed this. Just about everything was dreadful but the depictions were all so incisive.