Taxi Blues

Taxi Blues was the first film I didn't really like all that much. I can't really explain why but it felt uncomfortable. Everything was grimy, depressing and - for lack of a better descriptor - very "90's". Which I'm sure was the point. But I just really didn't like the aesthetic. One of the things I did like in the film was the collage on Ivan's window. It seemed to immediately tell the viewer a story about Ivan's interests and values through the images of women, cars, etc. We can decipher through this crude artwork that Ivan is not an aesthete or intellectual in the way that Alexi is. The imagery is so overtly masculine yet is done in an almost decoupage style, which is often seen as a more feminine form of decoration. I also thought of the probably unintentional reference to the montage work of early Russian filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein. The other aspect of the film that I enjoyed was the scenes of the men going about their daily activities in the apartment, as it was like a sneak peek into the life of a "real" Russian. The outdated apartment and dinner parties where mainly vodka was consumed are similar to my romanticized notion of what life in Moscow would potentially entail.

+ RusFilm review
+ Rolling Stone review
+ Clip of music in film