This is a difficult movie to evaluate for its complexity. It's not that interesting or particularly good, even though it has its moments. This Russian film has no apparent plot. It appears to focus on a strange mix of contemporary scenes with childhood memories, newsreel footage and poetry. It also switches between 3 different generations of war.
Just like films such as Disney's "Fantasia" and Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" seem to have images transforming into music, this movie's images seem to transform themselves into poetry.
'The Mirror' (or, in Russian, 'Zerkalo') even makes use of scenes in black and white colored in a sepia tone, like in 'The Wizard of Oz' and the later 'Bröderna Lejonhjärta'. The scenes where that technique is used are uniquely filmed and very well made.
Overall, a very difficult film to judge and rate, although it's far from being great. That and the fact that there is a scene with a rooster being slaughtered (even if not directly shown) prevented me from ever watching this again. I am very sensitive to animal cruelty, I can't stand it.
Just like films such as Disney's "Fantasia" and Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" seem to have images transforming into music, this movie's images seem to transform themselves into poetry.
'The Mirror' (or, in Russian, 'Zerkalo') even makes use of scenes in black and white colored in a sepia tone, like in 'The Wizard of Oz' and the later 'Bröderna Lejonhjärta'. The scenes where that technique is used are uniquely filmed and very well made.
Overall, a very difficult film to judge and rate, although it's far from being great. That and the fact that there is a scene with a rooster being slaughtered (even if not directly shown) prevented me from ever watching this again. I am very sensitive to animal cruelty, I can't stand it.