A Russian blood to the head
Night Watch
dir. Timur Bekmambetov; starring Konstantin Khabensky, Galina Tyunina, Dmitry Martynov
Mention Russian cinema to most people and images of grainy black and white revolutionaries being gunned down by the police are brought to mind. For years Eisenstein’s ‘Battleship Potemkin’ has been held as not just Russia’s finest film but one of the finest films full stop. However, whilst Potemkin may have groundbreaking techniques and a place in cinematic history, what it doesn’t have is a man wielding a sword made out of his own spine. Welcome to Night Watch.
In the heart of Moscow a delicate truce has been forged between the forces of good and evil. The truce is policed by the Night Watch, if one of the evildoers commits a crime then the Night Watch appear, bringing their monster killing flashlights with them. Odd just doesn’t do it justice.
Night Watch is a game of Russian roulette, except every trigger pull is guaranteed to send a bullet of pure heady excitement and retina-burning visuals straight into your brain where it will lodge long after the film has finished. Millions of crows swoop upon Moscow and epic battles flash into existence upon rooftops across the city. After a long hot summer of innovation drought Night Watch delivers a much needed adrenaline boost to the swooning industry.
Director Bekmambetov has a great eye for filmmaking. There are more innovative shots and ideas in one minute of Night Watch then there are in most Hollywood films. In a style akin to David Fincher (Fight Club, Panic Room) his camera pushes through cracks in the wall, flies through car engines and in one truly standout shot follows a loose bolt as it falls from a plane and into an apartment block.
Even the subtitles are ingenious; shrieks visually pour from the mouths of characters and at one point the lettering forms from the nosebleed of a swimming child. Night Watch does for gothic fantasy horror what The Matrix did for cyberpunk sci-fi. In its two hour running time it creates not just a new world but a whole mythology to go with that world. References are made to unseen incidents and rituals are practised but never explained.
Gaps are left for the audience to fill, making this a truly engaging experience. Some may find it all a bit baffling. Occasional scenes left this critic impressed, but without knowing what the hell had actually happened. Based on the first of a trilogy of novels maybe something was lost in translation, but this is a minor issue, and you’ll be enjoying yourself too much to care.
So forget the Russian revolutionaries of old and embrace this new cast of invisible vampire hairdressers and shape shifting owl women.
5th Oct 2005