Stroll***half

Stroll***half Russian film, 2003

Interesting Russian movie, the whole film is shot on a rolling moving camera. Almost like a one shot deal. The dialogue is a sparkling imaginative bolt of silk, running non stop. Images are in motion all the time that we cant really see the face of the two main male characters. And the girl Olga, we only see her face up close quickly here and there, and her silhouette - big bosom girl. So we only see her up to her waist until we meet the best friend of the first male lead. Olga was accosted on the street by one poetic young man Alexei, he falls in love w her and introduces his best friend Petya to her. Meanwhile they are walking non stop through out the street, on the bridge under the rain. Olga receives non stop here and there phonecalls, she tells the caller to stop calling her. All the time, the quickly running conversation has to do with imaginative scenarios of who and what she does, Alexei invites her to Moscou, she agrees but insisted on paying for her ticket. She lets him see her passport so that he knows shes ten years older than him. But she really like Petya more, because Petya is the more mature one. Throughout the two hours, by the time we meet Petya, we noticed that Olga doesnt have to talk in the peppy way to Petya unlike to Alexei. She talks abouts how she sees the two, how she loves them both. Finally the secret is revealed, she was on a bet w her husband to be that she could walk for hours on high heel shoes and that she could go on a honeymoon in Tibet and Himalaya. Both Alexei and Petya felt cheated and left in a state of pissed off. Olga runs out to chase after them both to reassure them that she didnt do it on purpose she didnt want to cheat them. We see her running out the door to catch them both. The film ends with a woman kissing a man, but we dont know who she is kissing. In the dialogue, Alexei says to Petya that, the finace had no idea what he just lost... even though the two guys were sort of felt let down due to being "deceived" by this imaginative adventurous woman. When pickpocketed by a band of gypsy women, Olga doesnt get angry, she thinks its a wonderful adventure, a piece of theatre! Olga is someone who has exceptional visions of how life is lived, what time is, what people honesty, and being in the moment etc etc. Olga is a gypsy soul hereself. We see that this one day walk has changed something in her life, maybe even though she truly loves her fiancé, but she loves more these two guys whom she has just met, just like that. She runs after them out the door.

The film opens and ends with Nina Simone's wispy voice singing about love.
Very good smart story building, but after the revelation of the premise, its a little "just smart" but still believable.

Its a poetic fairy tales of a sort, and I do believe you could love many people all at once.

Here is a story that tells of the three types of love through Olga, that she was not "cheating" any one of them. However, its only credible in the framework of the film, because of clever scripting.

The film has very beautiful camera work too, and justifiable camera work, we are strickened by the a beauty of a cold blue sky of St. Petersberg through the reflexion of a car window showing all the buildings upside down and flowing in movement, (because its travelling in a marvellous curvy wave like scrolling motion on the screen); then we see its somebody in a car stepping out. In retrospect, we see the couple are not really seeing eye to eye. They are not such a made for each other couple. But there is reason why its a car reflexion that we see, because it was bet made for a day. Olga was in a car dropped off by her fiancé,where she began her walk.

When she meets Petya, we begin to see far away long shots, where we see her strutting walk on high heels, but the camera moves very quickly so we still couldnt see up close the faces of Alexei nor Petya.

Finally when the walk is over, in the bowling ally, we see Olga's fiance - a very ordinary good guy w common sense of fun, too common for a "wild horse" with run away spontaneous imagination like Olga - Olga is an exceptional woman. Olga came from a small country side - this also accounts for why she would be stuck with a man like this - everything fits in the movie.

Beautiful and refreshing story. Camera work flowing - reminds me of the one shot film also staged in St.Petersberg, the "Russian Ark".

Am very happy to have seen this movie.