gpadillo What an absolutely magnificent, overwhelming and ultimately satisfying film this is.Sokurov stated he had never written his own screenplay before, but felt it his duty to write a film for Vishnevskaya, partly to honor her as a great actress, but also to hopefully expiate his sins as a young man who said nothing, did nothing while people like Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich openly decried the soviet regime and their belief in democracy and human freedom generally.Few people make more beautiful looking films than Sokurov, and "Alexandra" is no exception, despite its location and subject matter. Shot in the barren wastelands of war ravaged Chechnyan border, Sokurov's ever changing palette moves from brilliantly captured colors (a tree's leaves rustling in the breeze against a dusty background) to dreamlike darkness, black and white and sepia tone - the visual equivalent of a symphony or sonata. I always forget how frustrated I become at the beginning of one of his films because his soundscapes always begin almost inaudibly, the ear straining to catch bits of dialogue that seem almost not there. It's an effect which ultimately works drawing the viewer into the world he's creating, not unlike one's initial inability to figure out what's going on when entering a party or event.There is not much to the story: an old woman, going to visit her long absent grandson, Denis, an army captain, at his base camp on the Chechnyan border. After an arduous journey she arrives to the camp, a makeshift military tent village and settles in as images of her journey pass through her mind (this happens frequently throughout). She awakens to find Denis asleep and a truly touching reunion ensues, as he parades her through the camp watching the soldiers going about their mundane duties. Denis is often gone, but the base soldiers stare at and interact with this independent, feisty, rule-breaking old lady and we sense the soldiers' longing for home and love. A day long journey to a Chechen village to buy cigarettes and cookies for the soldiers, finds her in a pitiful marketplace and at the point of exhaustion, where she is befriended by another old woman, the rest of the villagers fascinated by this "foreigner." Vishnevskaya's performance is nothing short of astonishing as is her physical appearance: stripped of elegant costumes, hair color, and make up, her crusty, tired old Russian grandmother still radiates an undeniable beauty, and Sokurov's camera frequently lingers on it. That face, at once world weary, angry, frightened somehow almost always registers a kind of hope that infuses the entire film. Alexandra mumbles - constantly, even when no one's around, or her grandson has left their quarters, an almost endless monologue. Scenes of her wandering the camp, the roads, shuffling along in her old lady shoes, complaining of her bad legs is precisely the type of thing that would bore one to tears in most films, but here, oh there is something underneath all of that.Sokurov's uses his usual casting tricks and lights his actors with a radiance that everyone - even angry young men - look beatific, with a belief that everyone really IS beautiful. There is a bit of naiveté in such thinking and that (for me) is what makes all of the films I've seen of his, seem "more than a movie," but never preachy. The actor portraying Denis really could be Alexandra's grandson as when they sit together on his cot, their faces are so similar it's uncanny."Alexandra" is a war movie that never shows a single fight scene but rather the "real" price of war and in so doing, is a powerful, sometimes heartbreaking statement.The movie is almost overloaded with moments of extreme tenderness and poignancy - which against the ravaged, brutal and stark background, makes them all the more moving. Alexandra's new Chechen friend asks a teenage neighbor boy to accompany her on the walk back to the base and their brief conversation is one of the film's most powerful moments, when he asks "why won't you let us be free?" "If only it were that simple, my boy," telling him the first thing we should ask God for is intelligence . . . strength does not lie in weapons or in our hands." The movie is filled with these little pearls that could almost be cliché, but not when uttered by this remarkable old woman.The scene of her last night with Denis almost undid me completely . . . never mind "almost" it did just that. Only 90 minutes, the movie felt even shorter and I can't recall a recent film that had me smiling and near tears so many times with so seemingly "little" to it. A truly remarkable achievement by a wonderful filmmaker and an 81 year old actress in her first non-singing film. I hope others will take the time to see what may be Sokurov's most human film to date.

Aristides-2 Much of the shorter dialogue read in subtitles to me as almost being non-sequiturs. "You're pulling my arm out!" This being said when the visual action showed nothing of the kind? This repeated sort of response had a deadly effect on me since it caused me to remain a great distance from most of the characters. If the translation was right on the money then Is this how they speak to one another? Mamet-speak? From the visual performance of Alexandra I found a largely cold and unsympathetic person, seemingly caring only for herself and occasionally for her grandson. I also found something strange about how many of the young soldiers looked at her. On a couple of occasions, even though I instinctively knew the story wasn't going to go there, I thought some minor indiscretion was about to take place. I found A.'s wandering into a war-brutalized Chechnian town unbelievable; she would have been waylaid and robbed. All in all I found situation after situation of the interactions of the soldiers with each other as well as with her strange and hard to fathom. Is the director saying this is what war does to soldiers? Having been in service during a war, though not in a combatant role, any time a female civilian dropped into our midst away from the shooting, at a base or facility, we were solicitous to the point of high sentiment: these were our mothers, sisters, girlfriends, grandmothers. Are we to believe that the unemotional looks the young Russian soldiers were aiming at Alexandra meant they are a species so far, far removed from their young American counterparts? Strange and remote movie, this 'Alexandra'.

lastliberal I don't know many grandmothers that would take a troop train across Russia, then get on top a troop transport to visit their grandson (Vasily Shevtsov), an Army Captain in Chechnya. But this grandmother (Galina Vishnevskaya) did. It was certainly an arduous journey for the elderly woman.The films color is appropriate for the hot and dirty climate where here grandson is stationed. The soldiers are all shirtless and just sit around waiting. The other soldiers watch her with fascination, probably thinking of home and their own grandmothers.She makes her way to the market where cigarettes are priced depending upon you rank. The locals look at the Russians with disgust. She manages to connect with a local, Malika (Raisa Gichaeva), who treats her like a sister.It is not a place for a grandmother, but she manages to connect again with her grandson before he goes off on a five-days mission, and she boards the troop train home.It was only anti-war in a subtle sense. The futility of it all was visible, but not exaggerated. Maybe the futility was finally recognized as the Russians are to leave Chechnya soon.A very good story.

tony-540 I do hope that people with some link to the Russian-Chechnian conflict get something out of this movie. Because as an outsider, I thought this movie was a horrendous creature, possibly one of the worst I have ever seen. The script seems to be non-existent, the dialogues are one big mumble, the supposedly 'meaningful' parts are so forced that they make one gag, but most importantly, the main actress, Galina Vishnevskaya, renders an awful performance, most of the times she just scared the hell out of me. I suggest - with all due respect, she has lived many years already - that she either sticks to opera, or offers her services as a soon to be cult horror character.Here and there, the director threw in some close-up shots (the braided hair, the Chechnian boy's face) and one time also the ominously outlined clouds in a Bergman-style; they made things only worse, because they gave me the awkward feeling that the director WAS actually trying to deliver something.I will not remember a powerful older lady putting her stamp on the young ignorant soldiers and the civilians living in a difficult conflict. All I will remember is an old woman, shuffling through an army camp, obviously lost, in every possible sense.