Closing up

Saw this on the way home, the underground closing up for the night.

Lovely evening today with old friends from uni, eating pizza and watching a wonderful film - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I think they did have a little laugh at me in the very early stages of the film, when during the titles I gasped and leaned forward sharply, not really believing my eyes. I had seen the trailer, but the trailer features only the top billed actors. It is so, so rare to find a Western film where, instead of picking a local actor with terrible Russian pronunciation, or someone from anywhere in Eastern Europe with only slightly better pronunciation, they actually go to the trouble of getting really, really good Russian actors to play the Russian roles (most of them, the voice of Karla was not a native Russian speaker).

Konstantin Khabensky (Polyakov) and Svetlana Khodchenkova (Irina) are actors I've watched over and over and have really enjoyed their performances. Khabensky is hugely famous in Russia, after spending several years on a hugely popular TV cop show, he starred in two of the most successful and profitable Russian films ever, Night Watch and Day Watch (both of which got big international releases as making that much money on such a small budget makes the studios sit up and take notice), and also played one of the leads in a big Russian film called The State Councillor, about a terrorist plot against the imperial structures in pre-revolution Russia. I love his performance in that film, though am not so keen on that of the guy playing the investigator, Fandorin (some of you may have read the Fandorin detective stories by Boris Akunin, they're translated and widely available here). You may also have seen Khabensky in Wanted, the film with James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie, which was directed by the same guy who made Night and Day Watch, Timur Bekmambetov.

Khodchenkova played the lead in a film I love, about a woman married to a soldier who loves him in spite of the difficult life he gives her. I don't think it ever got an international release, but she's been in a whole variety of things, and is very, very good.

If anyone is interested in Russian film, I can recommend some good things to start with, and if you like them, lots more.

That's it, I'm off to bed, will do some commenting tomorrow!