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The Worst Film Ever

As Good As It Gets

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

It's almost impossible to appreciate the extraordinary conditions which inspired this Soviet political allegory, and which (after four years in limbo) allowed it to finally be released. But is it worth the necessary mental arithmetic required to understand it as a native Russian might? Certainly the film is a worthwhile barometer of (then) current Soviet attitudes, but most of the dramatic potential in the scenario is wasted on transparent symbolism and too many ponderous soliloquies into the nature of sin and guilt. It wants to be a satire of Josef Stalin's bloody dictatorship, but the story is little more than a simple political fantasy, set in a nameless city where the corpse of the recently deceased mayor keeps reappearing in public, prompting several flashbacks to the tyranny and oppression of his life in power. The daring comparison of Stalin to Hitler must have been heady stuff for sheltered Soviet filmgoers, just then coming to grips with glasnost, but for the rest of us the most memorable aspect of the film might be its striking poster art.

A community governed by paranoia, injustice and revenge exposes the truth of those who hide behind certain pretenses while revealing the false accusations of those who stand for justice. It is a community that has mistaken that which is good for that which is evil. The people within the community have been duped by a powerful political figure named Varlam. Though his actions and motives from the outside appear interested in the common good, on the inside he is really a menacing tyrant who stops at nothing for possession of absolute power and control. He is representative of many cultural tyrants throughout the ages—Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin. When challenged by the commoner, he unjustly oppresses them; stripping them of their rights and in worst case scenarios, killing them (very similar to every other tyranny in history). All this is done in order to maintain the status quo. Two primary characters who challenge Varlam and his governing despotism are Sandro and his daughter Keti. Both see through the governing façade and seek to expose Varlam's deceit to the common people. However, most within the community conform to a type of herd-mentality; never questioning the governing morality but always blindly obeying the powers at hand. Sandro and Keti are those who are falsely accused by Varlam due to his fear of losing political standing in the eyes of the people. Both are imprisoned: Sandro for revolutionary artwork; Keti for unceasingly digging up Varlam's dead body. The irony, then, is casted upon the dichotomy between those in the community who revere Varlam as a political demigod (e.g. as seen by those who mourn at his death) versus those who see him as he really is—a manipulative and insatiable power monger. Comparing this community to those of the past and present, it varies with an interesting dynamic: Governments that do not have security checks and balances will always become corrupt, causing the people to mourn. Interestingly enough, however, though the government in this film was corrupt, the majority populace did not seem to notice. Ironically, then, when Varlam dies the people do not celebrate in delight of becoming free, but instead mourn because they believe that they had lost a great political leader.The community also displays an interesting clash between church and state. "State" in this sense, can be more properly rendered as science. Thus, then, is the battle between religion and science. A recording of Albert Einstein's last public address helps capture the essence of this battle during a particular dream sequence: Man's drive for science will cause him to create weapons of destruction upon himself less he finds a spirituality higher source of strength. This spiritually higher sense of living is captured through the film's theme of repentance—changing from one state of being to another. Religion seems to be the spiritual strength of the community. The passion to keep religion alive in the community is explicitly demonstrated during Sandro's appeal to Varlam in hopes that he'll extinguish certain lab-experiments from the church's monumental sites. Though Sandro's appeal is promised to be fulfilled, it is here that Varlam begins to suspect Sandro of revolutionary ideas. Not till later in the film when Varlam, unknown to the public, burns down the church does it seem that the gross secular world is taking over. The God of religion is losing its voice while the God of politics—Varlam—is securing his voice as to what is supreme. The old lady's comment at the end of the film implies what the importances of churches are: "What good is a road if it doesn't lead to a church?" Churches are symbols of spiritual places in which to worship God. If man made roads are not built in ways that would lead to spiritual roads of God, what hope does man have of ever getting anywhere in life? If a community is built upon the belief in God, they are more likely to prosper due to recognizing how little they can achieve on their own. With the help of God in their lives, all things are possible.

The action takes place in the USSR province of Georgia, today. Varlam Aravidze's funeral has been a very solemn ceremony. And yet, the very next day, his body is dug up and dumped into his son Avel's garden. Buried once again, the body is once again unearthed, as if this man's corpse was destined not to rest in peace. The culprit is soon found. Ketevan Barateli is dragged to court where a long flash-back shows us the persecutions her family had to endure under the dictator. He persecuted her father, her mother, who have since both disappeared and then Ketevan herself, with a cruelty sadistic and pervert.The trial brings to light the truth about a man who was but the mayor of a small town but whose personality and behaviour bring to mind both Mussolini and Hitler, as well as Stalin and Beria.Varlams Grandson commits suicide when he discovers the truth about his grandfather and denial of everything by his father.And still the dictator's corpse cannot rest in peace...Varlam & Avel Aravidze is played by Avtandil Makharadze. Brilliant performance - one of the best dictator faces ever done.

Only history buffs will understand "Monanieba"; most Americans under 60 will get the gist only. The idea of combining the traits (some only physical) of Stalin, Beria, Mussolini, and Hitler was an interesting move, universalizing - if only in a European sense - the tyranny of Varlam. The fact that he is only the mayor of a town, and yet able to act like a national dictator (sending people to slave labor at logging camps, rounding them up in mass imprisonment, speaking of how he embodies the fatherland, etc.) increases the general surrealistic bent. The government becomes something amorphous; modern in its methods, archaic in the way those methods are achieved (the midaeval knights as secret policemen/soldiers, the use of carriages to cart victims off), something that is both small and large at the same time. I like the fact that Varlam's corpse is constantly unearthed and yet never rots; a possible reference to Lenin's Tomb. That the new mayor is a dwarfish man may also be read as a commentary on how Soviet leaders after Stalin could never recapture the man's pitiless strength or his shadow over the Soviet citizenry. In the end, "Monanieba" is one Georgian's apology for another's deeds.