Scottish satirist and television director Armando Iannucci
is best known for BBC series The Thick of It and HBO series Veep – both a
foul-mouthed political farce, which highlights the heights of absurdity in the
upper echelons of 10 Downing Street and White House. Subsequently for his
second feature film, Mr. Armando has chosen a narcissistic and dangerous
political leader as his subject matter. Based on French graphic novel by Fabien
Bury and Thierry Robin, the master satirist’s movie makes a mockery out of the
rat-race between Soviet dictator Stalin’s cronies, immediately after his death
in March 1953. Naturally, many viewers could find an unmissable link between
the old political narrative and the contemporary ones in America and Russia
(both countries now led by wicked narcissists). The Death of Stalin could be
viewed as a cautionary tale; that we can easily commit the very mistake which
brutalized different countries in the past. In this era of Erdogan, Putin, and Trump,
the ruthless double dealings and battle of egos within Soviet power circle
doesn’t seem inconceivable or a thing of the past. However, the impressive
thing about ‘The Death of Stalin’ is how it delivers devastating blows upon the
political idiocy and Bolshevick inhumaness, while also expertly extracting great
laughs from the most solemn situations.
The Czech New Wave film-makers of the 1960s and the Romanian
New Wave directors of the 2000s knew how to exhibit the madness of a
dysfunctional totalitarian regime. Unlike traditional cinema which took pains to
portray the inhumanity of dictatorship, the prominent works from Czech and
Romania, mocked at their government’s absurdities. Fighting the sanitized image
of a tyrannical regime through ridicule always seems as effective as the collection
of all bitter facts in history books. Even when all is said and done about
Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Idi Amin, etc people are still haunted by the unfathomable
depth of their crimes. Then, the only better solution is to simply laugh at
them. Black humor is a better tool to approach these bizarre and scary leaders.
Accordingly, Armando’s pitch
black-comedy of Stalinist terrors sort of adds to the unease without diluting
the inherent tragedy. Furthermore, the fact that the current culture ministry
of Russia decided to ban the film shows how it feels towards people laughing at
Stalin.
The Death of Stalin opens with a terrific comic situation
that demonstrates the terror and rampant paranoia in Stalin’s regime. The beady
eyed dictator (Adrian McLoughlin) disposes off anybody who shows little
dissent. Lavantiy Beria (Simon Russell Beale), the grubby master-executioner (chief
of the Soviet Security) sees over the execution of people, detailed in a list
approved by Stalin himself. The other important members of the venal and malicious
Soviet high command include: Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor), the deputy named as
Stalin’s successor; nakedly ambitious Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi); Molotov
(Michael Palin) who clings to Stalinism so as to even declare his innocent wife a
traitor. As Iannucci sets up the nature of these sub-ordinates who operate
according to whims and moods of their leader, he also demonstrates the delicate
situation of Radio Moscow’s director (Paddy Considine). Stalin unexpectedly
phones in and demands a recording of the Mozart piano concerto. The director is
alarmed since the live broadcast isn’t recorded. He springs to action and
forces the audience to get back into their seats and bribes the pianist (Olga Kurylenko) to play the entire concert again. As the concert is played once
more, it is cut to shots of security forces rounding up the citizens in the
list; the smaller and bigger harassment of common people happens concurrently.
This prologue sequence perfectly evokes the era and sets the tone for consequent
farcical happenings.
Soon, Stalin gets defeated by death. He is discovered in a
puddle of his own piss and each of his savvy and cruel political operators
compete for the highest position inside the Kremlin. They all know that the
leader’s death will only escalate the atmosphere of treachery and political
backstabbing. For now, Malenkov takes the temporary position as the head of
state, although he is an ineffectual, image-obsessed clown. Beria hopes to
wield supreme power by exploiting Malenkov’s inefficiency, while Khrushchev is
eager to sway the military and other committee members to his side. Meanwhile,
Stalin’s alcoholic, mentally unstable son Vasily (Rupert Friend) and
grief-stricken daughter Svetlana (Andrea Riseborough) try to figure out their
fate in this crazily authoritarian climate. Riddled with hilarious verbal face-offs,
Iannucci depicts how power vacuum amps up the ridiculous and vicious nature of
politicians. Nevertheless, the relentless gags settle down at some point and
the narrative slowly reaches for a chilling conclusion. Eventually it delivers
a fierce gut punch, and this distinct perspective on the hypocrisy of political
leaders perfectly resonates across broader political spectrum.
Iannucci and his co-writers David Schneider, Ian Martin
marvelously builds up the silliness and horror-show of Stalinism, while also flawlessly
extracting the utter madness in each scenario. The real events after Stalin’s
death is a bit exaggerated and facts are slightly blemished. Nevertheless,
Iannucci instills fine emotional truth to the proceedings, something which even
the well-researched historical documents fail to deliver. There’s priceless
quality to the morbidly amusing, insult-laden dialogues and the actors
articulating those words makes it further great. Of course, the film’s biggest
treat is its glorious ensemble cast. The inclusion of Monty Python’s Michael
Palin to play Molotov and Jason Isaacs as the macho war hero Zhukov is the
masterstroke in casting process. Steve Buscemi is at his usual best, adding a
lot to the bleak image of the real historical figure. The ultimate success of
the movie lies in its balance between the comedy and horrific tragedy, and in
knowing which is which. It guides us into the depths of hell through the funny
scenario. And, when the laughs dry up the sense of terror slowly sinks in. We
contemplate on how these crazy things really happened and that we are always
just one bad leader or one vile administration away from embracing the same
historical mistake.
Trailer
The Death of Stalin (2017) -- IMDb
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