Watch Chapiteau Show: Love and Friendship - Part 1 For Free

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

I started watching this film from the Western understanding of musical. And I realized that it won't lead me anywhere. This is the story with absurdity and paradox which is usual only for Russian culture the way even 'Assa' didn't show it. There is the dark irony (it's not humour, because it's not funny, but scary) on very strong characters. And the good thing is that director didn't make personal remarks. Even Elvis, Zoy, The Beatles are just icons.Unfortunately, you feel tired of the film as it's tree hours long, despite the fact that it is less than two. This is the common error of many Russian movies. Who knows why? There are no unnecessary scenes or long dialogs.'Shapito-show' is a good rare example of Russian musical of modern times.

Honestly, I haven't expected from the creators of rather experimental independent "Pyl" such a high artistic and at the same time entertaining film. "Shapito-shou" is so-called "art-house"film and "a film for wide audience" at the same time. 4 stories told successively but in fact developing at the same time, contain so deep and controversial meanings. Story named "Love" is not about love but about difficulty or impossibility of it. That can also be said concerning the following "Friendship", "Respect" and "Collaboration".At first the film seems a typical "film for youth", romantic comedy developing during a summer vacation at Yalta. But as it turns out to be a nightmare or hallucination of people who are alienated and incapable of living with "love" and other human virtues listed by authors. The director Sergei Loban cites and makes parodies from many images and personalities of Cinema History and Soviet-Russia culture-from Victor Tsoi to Eisenshtein(an old video operator is named "Sergei Mikhailovich" ). Although one can find in its style rather apparent influence from Fellini and Lynch, Loban's self-control as an director is kept from the first to the last moments of the film.Shortly, this film is "must see" for those who are interested in Russian cinema and for serious movie lovers.