The Very Same Munchhausen (1979)
A philosophical and poetic portrait of the famous (or maybe infamous?) Baron Munchhausen. His crazy, yet very merriment, stories, views and behavior is what sets him apart from others. He becomes alienated from the society that failed to grasp his brilliance. In fact, his brilliance is what underlines the faults with the society itself. It's a beautiful yet tragic story that is filled with dense and intellectual dialogue.
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A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."
The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.
Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
The film is based on a brilliant screenplay by G. Gorin.It uses an all-star cast of some of the best Soviet theater actors, so it borrows a lot (in a good way) from a theatrical performance, while still remaining a "movie".The film succeeded in creatng a witty, powerful, sentimental yet funny story of a very uneven battle between color and dullness, between personal freedom, especially freedom of mind, and constricting pressure of conformist society that tries to destroy anybody who refuses to be just like everybody else.I gave it 9 points.
This movie was one of the most hilarious satires of human foibles I've seen. Munchausen is an incredulous character, performing great feats and claiming to perform even greater ones. Time and again, something absurd rolls of his tongue and everyone (in the movie and audience alike) want to laugh at him.. yet somehow he pulls it off; until nobody believes in him. There is an excellent point made that miracles require faith, and faith is dead.Despite the great philosophical value, this movie is just downright entertaining. Witty, gregarious, and full of joie-de-vivre, the movie cannot help but uplift your spirits and leave you with a smile.
Most of the time it would be difficult for one to describe one's favourite piece of anything: favourite movie, book, composer or even dish. It is normally the same for me, however, when it comes to movies I always answer "Tot samiy Munchgausen" is my all time favourite. You could hardly find another movie full of such an amazing combination of perfectly matched ingredients, ie. humour, romantics, superb screenplay, incredible cast with the best Russian actors involved and, of course, the best (in my opinion) Russian director Mark Zakharov who brought these all to be a masterpiece. The movie makes you laugh and think all at the same time. Every word, phrase and scene are full of such deep meaning that makes you watch this movie over and over again. I don't know if the movie was ever translated into English, or French, but I would so much like all people could see this. This one just gets 10 of 10.
The script for the movie (available as a book, BTW) is absolutely superb - all punch lines without a filler. The movie thus is liable to become a vehicle for just delivering the brilliant text with minimum of acting and that it essentially became. Still utterly enjoyable this movie does not have much in a way of acting despite a star-N-stud cast and M. Zakharov as a director.