It is good that the disclaimer that the film has already spread and accepted in the public space January not on the barricades. More precisely, it is not a historically detailed account of this pivotal point in the history of Latvia, it is rather a flight over the barricades, in the smoke of the bonfires and sometimes under the January sun. The man Viestura Kairis movie January most suggest what cinematic techniques can be used to show time and sensations in the most authentic way. It is significant and almost comical that such a sign of the era is the very first thing that greets the viewer when he “enters” the film – such a typical and deliberately modified nasal voice of a Russian-speaking man, which cannot be heard in any other era, only in the soundtrack of pirated VHS tapes, through which also In the late 80s, the first waves of the history of world cinema and also Draz began to flock to Latvia. January for the character Jazi, this entry tells a dialogue about love taken from a film by Ingmar Bergman, marking the breadth of the messy extremes in which the sequel will take place January history.
Like Tarkovsky, only in Latvia
I remember seeing Madara Dischler’s film before in the centenary program Paradise ’89 (2018), my mind was occupied with the problem of so-called historical films in one aspect: when films about the recent history of Latvia appear, which many of us have experienced ourselves, a clear distinction is formed in the audience between those who feel or they don’t hear specific signs from the past in the film, and those who do simply can’t hear them because they haven’t been born yet. It is interesting that there is one such sign in heaven Both of them In January is the legendary TV show of the Renaissance Have a good evening the musical motif that sounds in the background and immediately, at least unconsciously, means something to contemporaries (January in the context of the fact that it is Sunday evening and everyone is sitting in front of the TV), but for the younger generation it probably goes unnoticed because it is not emphasized at all. My unanswered question is, are the younger generation of moviegoers thus missing out on something of the film’s rich pattern of signs?
I would hope not. Perhaps it doesn’t matter whether you catch the individual marks or not, if the whole fabric of the film manages to be impressive and authentic. A few years late, I belong to the director’s generation and I can testify that the film has exactly that elusive layer – the mood, the whirlwind, the maximalism of youth, where everything is done at once and to the end. Well maybe it’s similar for young people all the time but in the 80’s/90’s. at the beginning of the year, he was somehow much more desperate and radical, because no one was clear what the social upheavals all around meant for his personal future. It seemed – maybe it’s not at all worth following conscientiously and ignorantly some ordinary life paths, maybe everything will change so much that nothing matters now? That’s why you “need” to drink something awful (green and from jars) just to get dizzy; you have to go to Vilnius to say a sentence to the girl; it is necessary to film immediately “like Tarkovsky”, not a kopeck more modestly.
No, not too much
January demonstrates that an important element in creating the atmosphere of the time is the work of the cinematographer, while the Polish professional Wojciech Staron demonstrates that it is not necessary to have experienced our barricades, perhaps it is enough to have been young at the time (the director of photography is two years younger than the director). Several episodes (shooting a video in the snow, punk revelry in a canteen, a fully chronomatic haircut in a fog of drunkenness before “going to the Russians”) with the cameraman’s skill move away from reality and acquire a conditional generalization , but predictably the riskiest technique – January the fusion of stagings with real archival footage of the barricade – feels surprisingly natural and impressive.
It must be admitted that along this rope above the abyss – an attempt to introduce documentary elements into the script of a feature film, elements which are so important for the history of Latvia – January the team walks respectably, although the image of Juras Podniekas still evokes a feeling of slight inaccuracy. It’s not about the similarity of the portrait, maybe only about the posture – it seems illogical to show the sportsman Podnieks with his past as a pentathlete and such a collected and cold vigorous interest in life in relations with new people; too great a contrast between the real interest of the real director, for example, when he meets the film Is it easy being young? (1986) and this long-haired artist nonchalantly suggesting “better smoke.”
However, Jazis (Karlis Arnolds Avots) is as real as can be with his awkward confusion, spontaneous reactions, pout on his upper lip and “a whale thrown into the sea”, as are his parents (Baiba Broka and Alex Kazanavičs ) with their heartwarming eternal ping pong of jokes about “Il Fronte del Popolo”/Interfronti” and genuine care for their son.
Yes, and music. Comparison perhaps funny and even risky, but Viesturs Kairišs in the film January does the same as another Latvian did in the past, Jānis Streičs, who filled and overflowed the space of some of his films with the musical spirit of the respective era, only that for Streič it was, obviously, Raymond Paul, while for Kairis – Jumprava, yellow postmen, Hardys Ledins, zig Zag, Aurora and all the others that resonated in the restless minds of the young people of the time. No, not too much.
Grow up and understand
“I film or I will die”, says Anna (Alice Dzene), and it is so precise in that youthful maximalism in which all the characters get lost. It’s also naive, like filming a beloved girl with a cigarette through the lace curtains, but we only know that now, many years later. Although Jazis realizes it soon enough, and in that sense January it’s truly a coming-of-age story – in the light of the barricade fires, he tells Anna: “I don’t date the Tarkovskys anymore…”
However, it is significant that this growth does not look gloomy and doomed. I think one day Yazis may even go back to “all those Bergmans and Tarkovskys”, he just realized that now is not the right time. The maelstrom of the barricades did not break him, but led him to a clearer understanding of life.
