Deaf Crocodile

[therewillbeblus]

This is certainly a case of bizarro world perspectives, as all I was looking/waiting for was more stimuli to respond to. The film was dry but also sparse, one of the most reflexive ‘desert planet’ films I’ve ever seen. For me, it’s the opposite of Playtime - they’re both presented in a subdued manner, but one is full of life and gags overlapping, and the other seems to meditate for too long on explaining one foreign cultural idiosyncrasy after another, sequentially and monolithic within a segment, and not even funny (or arguably played for laughs in the first place)

[TechnicolorAcid]

This is certainly a case of bizarro world perspectives, as all I was looking/waiting for was more stimuli to respond to. The film was dry but also sparse, one of the most reflexive ‘desert planet’ films I’ve ever seen. For me, it’s the opposite of Playtime - they’re both presented in a subdued manner, but one is full of life and gags overlapping, and the other seems to meditate for too long on explaining one foreign cultural idiosyncrasy after another, sequentially and monolithic within a segment, and not even funny (or arguably played for laughs in the first place)

I was more so mentioning the comparison in more of a sense of similar setups but differing executions, where one is more joyful and happy than the other more cynical and purposefully empty film but I guess it was a pretty bizarre comparison. Though I will say this, even if I find Kin-Dza-Dza as a whole, really interesting (which I will discuss in another day), this is a worst version of Gentlemen of Fortune which is another tale of a normal Russian thrown into a world he’s unfamiliar with but despite it’s aimless search and nearly episodic nature, plays up a good chemistry between our 4 leads and provides a much more empathetic look at humanity alongside a lot more emotion & humor (that New Years scene with Vitsin reading that note brings me to tears each time) and should be anyone’s introduction with Daneilya’s writing (he wrote the script) to see if they should get acquainted with his work and then lead up to Kin-Dza-Dza if they do.

[therewillbeblus]

That's helpful to know, thanks for the context!

I'm finding myself enjoying most of these films to varying degrees, but only very rarely motivated to see them again. Kin-Dza-Dza has a lot to like about it, I just wish I liked those things enough to dig in again.

[TechnicolorAcid]

Oh yeah that's completely understandable, everyone has a differing taste in cinema and that's arguably the beauty of it, plus at least you gave it a try even if it won't be something you'll probably not revisit.