Tonight I watched a, to me, very interesting film by Alexander Sokurov, titled Russian Ark.
Being a rather odd human being, I have taken to burning some frankincense while watching some of these movies (Kronos and Samsara being other similar movies I’ve watched recently), which creates an odd mood. I like odd moods. They are different than even moods. (there is an inside joke here that I won’t bring outside).
The process is a bit interesting, too, and I think quite old: you light a charcoal briquet, put it on a special purpose burner, and put bits of frankincense resin on it, which creates a lot of smoke. Actually, as I think about the Greek Orthodox background of Russia–since whoever it was visited Constantinople–incense in a brazier is quite appropriate.
With regard to the movie, there are some truly marvelous dance sequences towards the end. Throughout, you get glimpses into how people lived hundreds of years ago. During the dance sequence, I was thinking of a home I visited in Colonial Williamsburg, which is more or less an open air museum dedicated to preserving a half dozen or so very old buildings. In that home, George Washington and others had been entertained, and the dancing frequently went on all night, and if memory serves, sometimes several days–with breaks of course.
You see Anastasia, and Nicholas the Second, and you think of the very deep evil that focused on destroying joy, destroying innocent pleasure, rather than seeking to democratize and generalize it.
Communism is not about elevating human souls. It is not about happiness. It is not about utopia. It is about punishment. It is about rage. It is about bullying and creating fear.
Can you see Vladimir Ulyanov dancing serenely, smiling, in such a setting? No: he had death in his eyes.
One can certainly feel pity for the peasants, for the poor, for the undertrodden, while watching the elite in their pleasures. But you cannot build through destruction. Hate cannot forge love. Violence cannot forge an honest peace, not if fear is sustained.
Some time ago I listened to a series on Russian history, and the first Tsar to create a Duma, an assembly, which had any relevance at all was assassinated. Certainly, it was a Parliament roughly equal to the British Parliament in, say, 1500, as I recall, but it was progress. That progress halted and went into hard reverse when the Tsar was killed.
Nihilist is a Russian word, and was quite appropriate then. They damaged their own cause, stupidly, uselessly. They hurt–as Leftists ALWAYS do–the very people they claimed falsely to care about.
Anyway, something to add to your queue, if you want something different. I thought it very well done.