Issue 82 (2023) |
Viktor Ginzburg: Empire V (2023) reviewed by Anthony Anemone © 2023 |
On March 25, 2022, a week before it was scheduled to be released on hundreds of screens in Russia, Empire V, Victor Ginzburg’s long-awaited follow-up to his 2011 Generation P, was suddenly and without explanation banned by the Russian Ministry of Culture (see Jordan Center report). In limbo for a year, Empire V, Ginzburg’s adaptation of Pelevin’s 2006 novel of the same name, on which he and his team had worked for almost 10 years, finally had its world premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal in late July. Although it has since been released in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, its release in the West has not yet been announced. Without a doubt the best-made Russian blockbuster since Timur Bekmambetov’s 2004 Night Watch, Ginzburg’s second feature film is an impressive piece of filmmaking, beautifully shot, well-acted, and convincing in its visual recreation of Pelevin’s fantastic world.
Empire V builds on Generation P’s satiric image of Post-Soviet Russia as a world in which a secretive elite uses advertising and the media to exercise control over the general population. The plot of both novels is basically the same: an unremarkable young man is plucked from the streets and introduced into the secret world of a previously unimaged power elite: as the hero gradually rises to the top of this elite, we, hero and readers, learn that “reality” is not at all what it seems; and that our beliefs about politics, history, society, media, culture, and science are all completely wrong.[1] In both cases, we find ourselves in the world of the Wachowskis’ Matrix, following heroes who have chosen red pills. In Generation P, Vavilen Tatarsky joins the Chaldeans, a secret society of devotees of the ancient Mesopotamian cult of Ishtar whose control of digital advertising allows them to manufacture simulacra of politicians through whom they control the political process. While preserving the same narrative structure, conspiratorial theory, and overall satirical tone, Empire V ups the ante by adding an element of the Gothic: as its hero and narrator Roma/Rama II is initiated into the real elite, he learns that the Chaldeans are only intermediaries between ordinary humans and the real “masters of the universe,” who are, in fact, vampires. Rather than blood, these vampires feed on the energy produced by humans’ obsession with making money, not unlike the way humans extract milk from cows. Both novel and movie spend considerable time explaining how vampires exercise power over humans: the “Arts of Combat and Love” allow vampires to dominate their interactions with men and women, while the techniques of “Discourse and Glamour,” that is, the manipulation of text and image, give them effective control over human culture. Combining conspiracy theory, pseudo-science, and gothic horror into his own post-modern mythology, Pelevin turns human exceptionalism upside down: in this world human beings have been bred by vampires as a source of food (bablos), while the real purpose of human culture is to shield humans from these truths. The satire on the oligarchy that rules Putin-era Russia is unmistakable.
Ginzburg, who both directed and wrote the screenplay, succeeds in conveying the central elements of the story—the “education” of a vampire (Roma/Rama II, Pavel Tabakov) and a subplot that combines a love triangle with a conspiracy to replace the aging vampire goddess with a younger incarnation—while cutting the tedious bits from Pelevin’s overlong and occasionally tedious novel.[2] With striking visuals, fascinating locations, impressive art and stage decoration, an effective musical score, brilliantly engineered sound, and remarkable special effects, Empire V is a feast for the eyes and ears and a tribute to Ginzburg’s ability to harness the talents of brilliant collaborators. Yet another feather in the cap of the legendary cinematographer Aleksei Rodionov, Empire V sparkles due to his trademark ability to create a heightened reality in which the beautiful, the horrible, the real, and the fantastic coexist. Rodionov frames interior shots as beautifully as the paintings on the walls that provide a symbolic commentary on the characters and action and brings out the physical beauty and individual presence of very different actors. The impressive special effects were an international effort, led by the Producer/Concept Designer Aleksei Tylevich, and brought to life by the artists and technicians of the LA-based Logan Studio and the French company BUF: virtuosic drone shots convey the elegance, power, and frenetic energy of Moscow while brilliantly conceived and edited animated sequences represent vampire flight and summarize vampire physiology (“the Tongue”) and mythology with surreal imagery and surprising humor. An extremely talented cast of veteran and novice actors bring Pelevin’s thinly described but exceedingly loquacious characters brilliantly to life. The lead actors—Pavel Tabakov (Rama) and Taya Rodchenko (Gera) as vampires in training, Miron Fedorov (the rapper Oxxxymiron) as the cynical and manipulative Mithra, and Vladimir Dolinsky (Enlil Maratovich) as vampire “middle manager”—all turn in exceptional performances. But what gives the movie its real kick are the riveting performances by actors in supporting roles: for example, Igor Zhizhikin, Maksim Drozd, and Bronislav Vinogorodskii are hilarious as Rama’s instructors in Glamour, Discourse, Combat, and Love; Andrei Smirnov is absolutely convincing as a vampire who maintains the living memory of the race; and Vera Alentova brings humor, depth, and emotion to her portrayal of the doomed vampire goddess Ishtar Borisovna. Ginzburg’s nimble and very contemporary adaptation and direction improve on the novel in numerous ways: combining minor characters, substituting a “poetry slam” for the poetic duel between “vampire sonnets” written in reverse Mayakovsky “step-ladder” (lesenka) style, inventing a stage performance by Jehovah, Baldur, and Loki during Rama’s coming-out party, adding a few lines of dialogue that associate the vampire hierarchy with Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, and more.[3]
More than simply a new myth of the vampire, Ginzburg’s Empire V is a fantastic post-modern Bildungsroman, the story of a young man who abandons his romantic illusions as he ascends the social ladder. Rama’s “Sentimental Education” consists in learning to put aside his naïve obsession with ultimate (prokliatye) questions about free will, the nature of good and evil, and the meaning of life. His re-education is complete when he accepts that power in the-here-and-now is the only value in this world, and sucking bablos the only possible transcendence. This cynical belief is briefly questioned by a member of Osiris’ entourage of card-players and drinkers, a Professor of Theology from Donetsk[4] (Igor Gordin). Having overheard the elder vampire’s patient explanation of the vampire worldview and value system to Rama, the Professor offers an alternate narrative in which individuals exercise free will by choosing between good and evil and God is everywhere present, even if unseen. In the end, Rama rejects this when he becomes the new Goddess’ consort to share in her power (bablos nash). Ascending to the top rung of the ruling elite, Rama accepts that, in Dostoevsky’s formulation, “all is permitted.” But by winning, Rama has lost everything. Both novel and movie end with a paradox: by appearing to satirize the moral seriousness of the 19th century Russian novel, Empire V actually, if implicitly, approves its ethical maximalism. This is an important movie that transcends its origins in genre cinema to address fundamental philosophical, ethical, and political issues. It deserves a wide international audience.
Notes
1] Pelevin applied the exact same structure to his first and, perhaps, most successful novel, Omon Ra (1992), in which an ordinary young man chosen to join the elite gradually discovers the truth of Soviet reality.
2] By comparison, Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire (1976), from which Pelevin obviously borrowed the theme of the “education” of a vampire, is a model of concise storytelling and brisk narration.
3] “Посрал Украину, но ничего, бог даст, мы ее назад восрем.”
4] In Pelevin’s novel, this character comes from Kishinev.
Anthony Anemone
The New School
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Empire V, Russia 2023
155 minutes, color
Director: Viktor Ginzburg
Script: Viktor Ginzburg
Cinematography: Aleksei Rodionov
Special Effects: Aleksei Tylevich
Score: Alexander Hacke, Vladimir Martynov
Producers: Maria Kapralova, Andrei Trubitsyn, Ivan Zassoursky, Aleksei Tylevich
Cast: Pavel Tabakov (Roma/Rama 2), Vladimir Dolinskii (Enil Maratovich), Oxxxymiron/Miron Fedorov (Mithra), Taya Radchenko (Gera), Igor Zhizhikin (Jehovah), Maksim Drozd (Baldur), Andrei Smirnov (Osiris), Viktor Verzhbitskii (Baal Petrovich), Igor Gordin (Professor of Theology), Vera Alentova (Ishtar Borisovna).
Viktor Ginzburg: Empire V (2023) reviewed by Anthony Anemone © 2023 |