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Powerful

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

An Exercise In Nonsense

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

There is another aspect that was not mentioned yet - the historical. Ul'yanov's character visits his ex-wife to make sure she is not going to disclose that he betrayed his friend who is her husband now. He did that in dark times of Stalin's rule and (not to excuse him!) was in part a victim of that time (as were many, MANY others)... That adds to the intensity and makes the film more powerful... Later is his life Mikhalkov went on to make few more brilliant films showing how horrible Stalin's time was (namely "Burned by the Sun" with its two recent sequels, (Utomlennye solntsem-2- see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0403645/)...

I was blown away by this film! The title means "Without Witnesses" The action takes place all in one night, within a few hours. Almost perfectly shot, entirely inside an apartment with just two actors. I wasn't a big Mihalkov fan, my favorite film of his was "Anna: From Six Till Eighteen ", which is a documentary. His other films I always thought were either too unrealistic, goofy or historical pieces. This however, is a story that takes place in then-present day. The look of the film is absolutely beautiful, the colors and art design is gorgeous. The script is perfect. A woman sits alone watching a concert on TV when her ex-husband sneaks quietly in and scares her half to death by blowing a whistle on his keys. They then spend some hours of that night together. At first we don't think anything is up, but a deep complex story unrolls before us little by little, one that the characters are already fully aware of, but not us, we must take every single of their words as clues to what they have been through. This movie is at that level of pure genius that is completely the director's own brilliant vision. This film could not be made in the US now, it is completely unorthodox, but here it is alive, beautiful, perfect. The perfect form has been found for it. It is a funny film but then it is every sad film too. This is now one of my fave films and I now appreciate Nikita Mihalkov waaay more than I did before, I now call myself a fan. I am about to watch "Rodnya" by him, which looks similar, another modern-day story. Another film I like of his because of these same traits is "Five Evenings". The acting is perfect. The woman, Irina Kupchenko I found so beautiful and so sad; there is an American actress that looks exactly like her, but I don't know her name or what movies she was in. Ulyanov is brilliant as always, this and "Tema" by Gleb Panfilov are my favorite of his performances, the characters are so original and brilliantly portrayed.

At first sight, you may say that "Bez svideteley" is a boring movie. And it is. It really is. That is why because few of us have the experience of breaking up a relationship that went on for more than 10 or 20 years. So you can't put yourself in the characters mood. But if you are patient enough they'll make you feel it. They'll make you feel how a relationship takes sometimes years to come to an end. Although the divorce takes place a long time ago, the love cools down way too hard, and it involves all the persons around you. I don't have the instruments to determine you to watch this movie, my comments are poor and you'll perhaps get bored in the first half of the movie, but I tell you to be brave and watch it entirely. The end makes it all.

It is the story of two people who once loved each other. He thinks he still loves her, but she understands, after nine years, that she doesn't love him and that she cares about somebody else now. It is a very intense movie. The action takes place in one single afternoon, in a communist apartment, and it is focused on these two people. Actually, all the other characters are not physically present and they appear only through photos or phone calls. It is as if that flat is a place where you cannot hide from yourself. He sees in her the simple life that he could have had and the happiness that he gave up in order to climb the social ladder. When he realizes that he had lost her, he tries to prolong her unhappiness. But, after all these years of waiting and suffering, she is mature enough not to fall in his trap. She sees in him the involvement, the indecision, the hypocrisy. He wanted so much of his life, but in the end he is left with his shallow accomplishments. He asks himself whether life can be so simple and so real like the life of his ex-wife. Because it is so concentrated, the movie makes you think of the essence of life and love and about what one has to do in order not to waste one's life. This symbol of the essence of life appears in one of her lines, as 'the inner song.' She says that all that one has to do in life in order to be happy is to do everything according to one's inner song ...