"Serebrennikov's first English-language feature is perhaps his most complicated to date, studying the stranger-than-fiction life of Eduard Limonov, a Russian punk-poet and political dissident who initially fought for purchase-if not purpose-in the Soviet underground before absconding to Manhattan, where he loitered in poverty and became a multimillionaire's butler. Then, he traveled on to Paris, where he finally found fame in French literary circles"
"Portrayed by English actor Ben Whishaw as a whirling dervish of energy and ego, prone to eruptions of jealous rage and petty insecurity, the character is alternately a bohemian bon vivant, a born provocateur, and a psychosexual animal. And through his relationships with first wife Anna (Maria Mashkova), a fixture of the Soviet literary scene, and second wife Elena (Viktoria Miroshnichenko), a socialite and model, "Limonov" draws particular focus to the ways his descent into emotional violence hastened an embrace of fascism."
Kirill Serebrennikov’s first English-language feature chronicles Eduard Limonov’s volatile life from Soviet underground dissident to Manhattan exile, Parisian literary fame, and return to Russia as founder of the National Bolshevik Party. The film presents Limonov as driven by an unshakable conviction of his own greatness, portraying oscillations between bohemian charm, provocation, and emotional volatility. Ben Whishaw embodies Limonov’s magnetic ego and instability. The narrative emphasizes how personal jealousies, insecure relationships, and escalating emotional violence pushed Limonov toward violent, neo-fascist politics. The film is now streaming on the Criterion Channel as part of a Ben Whishaw retrospective.
Read at Roger Ebert
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]