On March the 20th, the director Irina Izmestieva, presented in London her first short film with John Carson, Tina Gray and Dina Korzun in the leading roles.
When during one week, two different films with a plot about paintings are issued in London, it suggests that the idea to make films on art is in the ascendency. Art may be interpreted in different ways. In one person’s hands it can destroy whilst in others it can heal.
Thus, the plot of the other film, “Trance”, released on the 27th of March, revolves round the painting of Francisco Goya’s “Witches in the Air”. The whole intensity and symbolism of art in this Danny Boyle’s film are directed to the destruction of the world of his characters.
At the same time, quite irrespective of the British Oscar holder, the Russian born director Irina Izmestieva released her short film “Picture Perfect”. In her film, a painting turns out to be not evil or inciting envy and greed, but a cure that eases a very old pain. This contrary approach can demonstrate a fundamental difference in male and female views in general, including in particular art.
The film is set in a village. The main characters are: a sour pensioner (John Carson), who turns away with loathing from his young joyful neighbours and his up-beat elderly sister (Tina Gray), who is busy hanging curtains and feeding up her brother by bringing to him dinners wrapped in foil, and who never tries to understand the cause of her brother’s unsociability.
The question of an elderly generation in general is quite topical. Lately filmmakers have started to tackle this aspect of human life and it turns out that love here is also placed in a central role.
At the beginning there is an impression that Carson’s character admires the girl behind the bar at the pub (Dina Korzun) and that her Slavonic beauty can soften his hardened British heart. But as often happens in films, the old man’s heart is touched, not by the “fair-haired angel” played by Korzun, but by a cracked old painting which he finds in a car boot sale.
Irina Izmestieva’s film premiere was held in the Soho Hotel in London. After the film screening many of the audience had been so involved with such an unconditional interpretation of love, that many of them requested Irina to make a follow up film. In a quite feminine way Irina answered: “The shorter, the better. People should think through the ending themselves and never forget that in paradise those we have lost are awaiting for us”.
Kristina Moskalenko