I am amazed at the critics, some of them usually intelligent and perspicacious, who state that Georgy "disappears" halfway through the film. He's the mute guy with the beard, presumably having suffered brain damage after the incident in the woods.
shareIs Georgy the character that tried to give money to the young hooker girl and told her to go buy food to feed her mother? If so, then I think Georgy and the Mute character are two separate persons, since the Mute was one of the 3 criminals who attacked him in the woods. Or am I way off here?
shareHmmmm, maybe I was wrong! The movie has faded a bit in my memory now. However, other reviewers share my opinion, and it does seem more plausible than writing Georgy, who from the beginning of the film appears to be the central figure, out of the movie. It certainly makes the ending more resonant by referring back to Georgy's earlier experience at that cop station.
shareAbout two thirds into the movie, I started getting confused about who was who. I couldn't keep up anymore. I did good until then, but it remains a mystery to me whether most of the characters in the last third of the movie were some of the same characters from earlier on in the movie.
shareWillie, I think you're right. When Georgy pulls into town with the girl, around the 35 minute mark, the bearded mute walks up to the driver's side of the stopped truck, looks in the window, then walks away.
Could it be folks are trying to make this film fit a narrative form that requires a central character? If Georgy is "the" central figure, what is his relationship to the victim who gets unceremoniously buried at the start of the film or to the woman who, a few minutes later, after staring out an apartment building window, wraps herself in a blanket on the couch. Maybe, the only thing tying this film together is a theme of despair in the face of despicable behavior. In this case, the apparent exception of Georgy's attempt at generosity serves merely as the field against which the girl's ingratitude may be contrasted.
By the way, I haven't done any research or heard (or read a translation of) a director's commentary, so please don't take my opinion as a final (or even informed) word on the subject.
Georgy is the mute guy with the long hair & beard, he appears all the way through the movie & only "disappears" briefly after being struck on the head.
The fact that the 3 guys who jump him have a mute with them is happenstance. I think it's meant to interlude into what happens to Georgy without directly having to tell what happened. The guys say that the boy saw his father killed when he was a child & was mute ever since because of the trauma...well THAT guy is actually the child who is left alone by the 2 army guys after they stay overnight at the pacifist's house. Remember the guy in the white & his son let the 2 army guys in & feed them? The guy says he's a teacher, and then makes comments about how he wouldn't care if the Germans took over, as long as they worshipped God or whatever...and the army guy gets a super-pissed off look on his face. The father & son are sleeping, the army guys clonk the dad on the head as he sleeps, drag him outside, & then you hear a gunshot. The boy who is left sitting on the bench in front of that house is "the mute" they are talking about. You see that scene end where the house looks well-kept, and it goes into present-day where the house looks like crap, the shutters are falling off, etc. If you watch carefully you can see it's the same house.
When Georgy gets whacked with the log & blacks out, the next time we see him is when he's laying facing the wall in that very same house. The truck is parked out front. The old lady walks in & says "some very nice people used to live here" and keep the house really neat & clean, something to that effect. Ironically, the home where the boy became mute is the exact same home where Georgy loses his memory and falls mute, too. He mindlessly tags after the young kid of the grouchy cooking lady into town, and stands at a table selling the FLOUR stolen off his own truck, at a market table.
Later on, the grouchy cooking woman sells him out by turning him over to (corrupt) authorities after the older woman says to "get rid of him." She gets a big wad of cash and Georgy & his truck are taken away.
***SPOILERS***
By the end of the movie, Georgy still doesn't know his name or who he is, but his memory is obviously jarred by seeing the stopping-station cops again. He probably doesn't remember everything, but he remembers enough to know they did something to him, and just goes nuts & kills everyone. And then he goes on his way...
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I can't understand your crazy moon language.
Yeah, I think people don't get that. The little interlude after he is knocked out is a flashback that shows how Mute became the way he is (remember the story from his friends of how his father was killed, and he just snapped). Then it continues on with what happens to Georgy after the incident.
At least that's how I saw it anyways. I guess some people don't see it that way.
It seemed obvious to me that xeo and zen are correct.
The movie "poster" shows this guy. If it weren't Georgy, why would he be on the "poster"?
Great movie. But several characters and story lines were somewhat confusing. It's obvious that Georgy, the driver of the first half of the movie, was the bearded mute of the second half. But for me, the most confusing characters were the two army (?) guys who were driving around, apparently looking for somebody, and one of whom saw a hanging man in the forest. What were these guys after and did they really kill the old man who had earlier picked Georgy up on the road?
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