Yekaterina Golubeva Movies

Eight years after Les Amants du Pont Neuf (1991), which failed at the box office, Léos Carax returned with Pola X, a French/German/Swiss co-production with Catherine Deneuve and the young Guillaume Dépardieu in a story of love, incest, and descent into hell. Pierre (Dépardieu) lives with his mother in Normandy, not far from the banks of the Seine River where Victor Hugo's daughter drowned with her lover. The good-looking mother and son are happy, healthy, and wealthy, and they love each other deeply. Pierre is romantically attached to the beautiful and delicate Lucie (Delphine Chuillot) and visits her every morning with the motorcycle he has inherited from his father. One summer night, his mother tells him that she has chosen a date for his wedding. Overexcited, Pierre rushes through the night to break the news to Lucie. As he is speeding down the road, a strange creature with a familiar face suddenly leaps from the dark. She tells him in broken French that she is his sister. Pierre is shocked, but he decides to believe her and make up for the mistake of his father.

The film took its inspiration from Herman Melville's Pierre, or, the Ambiguities, which Carax read when he was 18, the same age as the hero of the story. The first part of the film sets an idyllic tone with a fairy tale atmosphere of life among the rich and beautiful. This is in sharp contrast to the world Pierre plunges into when he meets Isabelle (Katerina Golubeva), who claims to be his half-sister. Carax, who has been against nudity in his films, shows the two literally engaging in mutual oral sex onscreen, although this was not included in the original script. (One may insert here that Golubeva, who is known from Sarunas Bartas and Claire Denis films, was the girlfriend of Depardieu in real life.) The fusion of the two leads to the creation of Pierre's book. This is a highly stylized film that is at times reminiscent of German expressionism. It is constructed in opposites: black and white, high and low, good and bad. Elements of fantasy are mixed with reality. Carax tries to introduce a new film language, often at the expense of the emotional quality of the film. Despite its weak points, it is still a work that exhibits the exceptional talent of its director. Golubeva exudes a certain magic in depicting the half-real, half-imaginary character of a vulnerable and somewhat lost Madonna. The title is an acronym of the French title of Melville's book, Pierre, ou, les Ambiguites. The film screened in competition at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi

This beautifully wrought art film from Lithuanian filmmaker Sharunas Bartas will offer a challenge to the most experienced arthouse patrons. With a primary focus on the setting, a ramshackle Tofolar village deep within Russia's Sayan mountains, the film contains minimal dialogue, and very little obvious narrative, preferring instead to focus on natural sounds to draw the audience completely into a seldom seen world where nature is so beautifully ruthless that hope for the people can be found not through conversation, but through the humblest physical pleasures. The impoverished village is so remote and so high up that the only transportation comes from horses, domesticated elk and a single tank. A helicopter suddenly appears and delivers a young woman. Her reasons for visiting the snow-covered town are never explained. An old man invites her to his home and she sits within it broodingly smoking a cigarette. He does the same. Neither moves much. Little is said, and neither looks particularly happy about life. The rest of the villagers seem much the same. They day slowly progresses and as the vodka comes out, a grim fiesta begins. The guests get increasingly drunk while an accordion player performs melancholy songs. Two very inebriated, nearly unconscious young men provide the film's only real action when they suddenly attempt to rape the woman. She quickly pulls out a knife. A dead body is seen in the next shot, but it is never clear who killed him. Before the story ends, another killing will occur, but only after a chase. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This experimental Lithuanian-German production offers a challenge for those not familiar with the culture. It is told without a clear narrative and contains no dialog. Set in the country's capital, Vilnius, in a run-down apartment. Mostly the film is a highly-symbolic chronicle of daily life there. At one point someone holds a party featuring music, dancing, plenty of cigarette puffing, and a smidgen of sex. According to filmmaker/writer/star Sarunas Bartas, he deliberately utilized off-beat narrative structures to symbolize the links between Lithuania's past and present, links, like the long hallways of an apartment block, that offer many possibilities behind each door. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This French drama uses two plots that occasionally come together. The stories are set within the multiethnic neighborhoods of Paris. In the first, Daiga (Yekaterina Golubeva), a spunky Lithuanian actress, drives into to town to collect on the promise of a director she slept with. He lied to her and now she, who speaks no French, must accept help from friends and relatives who set her up in a small hotel. She gets a job as a chambermaid. The second examines the lives of a large expatriate Caribbean family. Theo ( Alex Descas), a musician, takes small carpentry jobs for wealthy Parisians to support his young daughter. He really wants to go home to Martinique, but his daughter's mother doesn't want to. Theo's brother Camille (Richard Courcet) has real problems. He is the wild one. Dressed in his fishnet stockings and garish makeup, Camille sings at the local gay club. He sleeps with his lover (also his doctor) in the same hotel as Daiga. Camille seems nice enough until it is discovered that he is not only a drug addict and HIV-positive, he also strangles old women to death while a partner robs their homes. Camille seems oddly distant from his actions, which he calmly describes. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi