I found a scene in this movie unclear; I'm talking about the scene after Pierre leaves Sergei and enters the subway station. Two uniformed policemen follow him, he notices them, and stops by a newsstand. Then a man approaches flashing an official badge. And nothing more. There seems to be no consequences to this scene, no pay-off.
What happened? What was its purpose?
This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.
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What I saw was that the police were not in fact after Pierre, (who naturally seeing them there assumed that he was the one in danger) but were after a white haired woman whom they arrested in front of him and other witnesses. No one asks for explanation...none is given. For me it was a brief but telling glimpse into a police state at work...I felt that her crime might have been a negative comment about Brezhnev, similar to the one that Sergei's son had been reprimaded for at school.
shareHm, that does make sense. But, like in many things in this movie, I believe it could have been more clearly shown.
This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.
But, like in many things in this movie, I believe it could have been more clearly shown.
They picked up a woman who was standing next to him. Apparently they were following her as she went the same route as Pierre.
"Unless Alpert's covered in bacon grease, I don't think Hugo can track anything."
I felt that her crime might have been a negative comment about Brezhnev
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They wouldn't arrest one for a such a minor thing... the most she'd get would be reprimanded at work by colleages... and as she was already grown up, probably there would be no consequences at all.
She'd be a leader of some anti-USSR underground party or someone who'd publicy crticize the whole state to be arrested.
It turned out that they weren't after him, but the woman standing next to him at the newspaper stand, whom they arrested. I think this was to show how paranoid he was and how much the spying business was wearing on him mentally.
shareThe scene showed the pervasiveness of the police state in the minds of Soviet citizens. No one in the scene behaved as if anything was out of the ordinary. If someone on the street sees official looking men walking in a certain manner, they immediately know that someone's going to get arrested. All the offical has to do is show his ID and everyone knows what's happening. Off the victim goes for questioning and maybe no one sees them again.
It doesn't matter what the woman's particular "offense" was. The point is that it happened every day, every place. Paranoia isn't the right word for people's mindset, because it isn't paranoia if they're really after you. It's just oppression.