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ACTOR
Egons DombrovskisNikolay KorobovVigo RogaAija Dzerve
DIRECTOR
Fred Kelemen
SYNOPSICS
Krisana (2005) is a Latvian,Russian movie. Fred Kelemen has directed this movie. Egons Dombrovskis,Nikolay Korobov,Vigo Roga,Aija Dzerve are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2005. Krisana (2005) is considered one of the best Drama movie in India and around the world.
Matiss Zelcs is trying to find woman which he did ignore and who was about to jump off the bridge last night. Police don't want to continue investigation as no body was found, however Matiss is on his way to start his own investigation.
Krisana (2005) Trailers
Krisana (2005) Reviews
...and I can't get up
This is a lovely tale of guilt-driven obsession. Matiss, on a lonely night stroll in Riga (?) passes by a woman on the wrong side of a bridge railing. He passes by without a word. Only the splash in the water followed by a cry for help causes him to act. And then only too little and too late. The film chronicles his efforts at finding out more about the woman. On a troll of local bars, he finds her pocketbook. He pieces more and more of her life together. His "look" changes as his obsession grows. He has to make things right. In a marvelously filmed dialog with the "bastard ex-boyfriend" he forces Alexej to face up to the guilt that both feel. Haunting long takes, a gritty soundtrack to accentuate the guilt, barking dogs. Footsteps. Lovely film noir with a lovely twist. A good Indie ending.
One man's guilt-ridden, Antonioni-esquire journey
I am normally not compelled to write a review for a film, but the only commentary for this film thus far on is rather unfair, so I feel it necessary to share my point of view. "Krisana" (or as it was titled at the theater I saw it, "Fallen") follows Matiss, a lonely Latvian archivist, as he tries to learn about a woman whom he didn't try to stop from jumping off a bridge, as well as her reasons for doing so. That's the plot in a nutshell, but this film is not concerned with story as much it is in depicting the guilt of a man who failed to act. As a detective who investigates the incident tells him, we usually don't bother to care about the anonymous faces we pass every day until after they die. Comparisons to Michaelango Antonioni and his "Blowup" will most likely abound in any review you read about "Krisana." The influence of Antonioni's philosophical and austere style and the story of "Blowup" are clear and, in fact, writer/director Fred Kelemen makes an obvious reference to that film in scenes in which Matiss attempts to come to know the woman who jumped off the bridge, or at least who he thinks did. The only other person to share his or her views on the film detracts the "college film class" look and sound of the film. He or she neglects to consider the budgetary constraints that an existentialist Latvian film most likely faces, but the atmospheric black and white cinematography and ambient sound succeeds at an artistic level to depict the solitude of Matiss. The background sound of wind and street noises lend an ominous aura and reminds one of a Fellini film, whether or not that was Kelemen's intention. The filmmakers undoubtedly had little money, but this constraint is used to the film's advantage. "Krisana" succeeds as a character study with enough humor thrown in to keep it from being too self-serious. It could have easily fell into the trappings of a mystery story, but it avoids that and becomes an intelligent film about loneliness and guilt. If you are more concerned with plot, this film and its ending may frustrate you. Otherwise, take the time to be engaged by it. It is well-worth seeking out.
This feels a lot like an early Jim Jarmusch movie.
Matiss Zelcs (Dombrovskis) is trying to find a woman which he ignored when he passed her and who was about to jump off the bridge last night. He heard her splash followed by cries for help, but never saw her or her body. The police don't want to continue investigation as no body was found. However Matiss starts his own investigation, finding that the woman had been drinking at a café earlier in the night he saw her, and had left her handbag behind along with some crumpled half finished notes to a certain Alexej (Korobov). After pretending he was her lover to get the articles, Matiss sorts through them carefully and takes a receipt in the name of Alina into the photo developers to get some slides she had left to be developed. He sees that she appears to have been a mother with a young son and a husband that she did not seem close to. Matiss further sees that Alina (Dzerve) was very interested in another man of whom the husband seems jealous. He also finds an envelope addressed to Alexej Mesetzkis and visits his flat. There he learns that Alina had been living for several months with Alexej who indeed is the man of the photo, but she has recently disappeared after several days of fighting. Without letting on that he has the slides or the half finished notes, he asks Alexej to consider if he has driven Alina to desperate measures. This is a very slow movie with little conversation, much of it in Russian rather than Latvian. Long slow black and white shots mirror the depressed mood of the main character in a movie that feels a lot like Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise. But as with Stranger Than Paradise, I had a hard time staying awake through the first half of Krisana.
Really great film
The combination of the superb black and white photography and the 'Eugene Onegin with a twist' plot made this a real knock out for me. The atmosphere created by the mostly very dark shots contrasted with occasional very bright overexposed white was gripping. There was a superb moment where where transparencies - apparently conventional holiday snaps but where the faces of the actors revealed character and situation subtly but instantly - were shown accompanied by Lensky's heart-wrenching aria from the Tschaikowsky opera Eugene Onegin. For me the mark of a good film is that it should take advantage of the opportunities presented by that medium, which means that often the story is less important than imagery and atmosphere - Last Year in Marienbad is a good example of such a film. Krisana is in the same mould.
Review
Fred Kelemen, cinematographer, film and theatre director, is the man behind some of the finest works of Béla Tarr (The Man from London, The Turin Horse). Even it was made over decade ago, Krisana is his last film. Matiss Zelcs, working as archivist, becomes preoccupied finding the woman (Alina) he didn't help when she attempted suicide. Because police officers didn't find her body, he starts his own investigation just to stumble upon many mysterious and interesting facts about Alina and her life. With the advance of his investigation, Matiss find himself lost in his intentions and it becomes uncertain what are his true motives. It is obvious that Kelemen's inspiration is rich, his work foremost resembles aesthetics, or to be even more accurate, atmosphere of both Tarr and Tarkovsky. Tarr, as his long, dark, monochromatic shots are dominant throughout the film, and Tarkovsky in a way Krisana's narrative is almost oneiric, poetic, just there is no depth like in Tarkovsky's work. Kelemen's portrayal of protagonist is rather shallow and weak comparing to those two authors (achieving characterization similar to Tarr, and especially Tarkovsky, is almost impossible task), but nevertheless, Krisana is definitely film worth watching.