first, i want to say just how beautiful Elena Lyadova is.
and also what's your point of view of Katerina, as a person?
i thought if the father had made the testament and died of natural causes, for example, most of the money would go to her. and to me that sounds really unfair. she seemed too much spoiled.
Coming late to your post, having just seen the film for the first time. You ask an interesting question and I'm sure it's one the director would have wanted his audience to ask after watching the film.
I think the film is about ambivalence. We are meant to view Elena not simply as a cold-hearted murderess but as a woman desperate to protect her family and to do what is necessary.
As the wife, she deserved more than a monthly annuity as if it was a pension.
And as you point out, Katerina's hedonist lifestyle suggests she was a spendthrift and her father, if I remember rightly, had cut her allowance (or threatened to do so).
I think it was a well-written film with scenes and narrative information informing others and making us constantly revise our judgements. Without her family, Elena would have simply been a cold-hearted murderer. She kills for a reason. Katerina is indifferent, an existentialist as revealed in the hospital scene, where, ironically, she grows closer to the father she says she doesn't care for. Does she need the money? No, clearly not except for more partying & drugs.
Vladimir was selfish in a sense as he refused to help Elena's family. Some might argue that it wasn't his responsibility, but another angle is that if he had helped his wife's family, Elena's sense of devotion to him would have been more genuine than the glorified drudge she was. And in the end, Elena acts in a selfish way but, ironically, to help others rather than herself.
That's quite a good post, nqure and I must agree with most of the stuff you said.
To the thread starter, I do agree as well. It seems that I must fall in love everytime I watch a Russian movie, they do have a lot of beautiful women. Elena Lyadova is gorgeous and it seems to be a good actress as well!
I think you're 180 degree wrong. Yes she might be spoiled, but in the end she was his daughter, and she had the right to receive the money. On the other hand, Elena is constantly putting her down , and looking down on her, like she's a different caste, but in the end of the day, the girl turns out much more sincere than Elena, who stabs the man in his back and takes his money to help a family that indeed needed some change, and not a way to escape problems (through money). In the end her lazy family moves in into the house that did not belong to them. That is how wealth is achieved.. through robbery and murder. I like the movie, cause it is critical more of lower class than riches. That's a rare thing to see in a movie
shareI think the film is not just about the characters, but a wider comment on modern Russia itself, and specifically Putin's Russia. I've not seen Zvyagintsev's most recent film which is about corruption and expropriation of another man's land by a mayor.
You say Elena 'stabs the man in his back?' How does this man treat Elena? As a glorified housemaid who sleeps with him. Is this an equal relationship? Who is exploiting who?
The film is a wry, cynical comment on how to get ahead in modern Russia. I don't think the film is critical of the lower classes, in fact, it provides a depressing commentary, pointing out that the only way for the lower classes to progress in an unequal society is to become as ruthless as those above them in the social order.
When you mention that Katerina has more right to inherit (as a blood relative), you could argue over who has the moral right to inherit. It ought to be Elena, the paid drudge, who cares for Vladimir. Katerina prefers a hedonist lifestyle.
Some reviewers mention how Elena is corrupted by the selfishness of the society around her. The film almost has a Brechtian tone: how can a person remain good in an imperfect world?
If she felt like a glorified maid, she could simply leave. I agree with the poster above that the film is not on her side either. Very complex characters as always form this director.
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