 |
| Images courtesy of Gaumont |
In April 2022, Italian-Swiss political analyst Giuliano da
Empoli, made his literary debut The Wizard of the Kremlin which won the
Roman Grand Prix and chronicled the fictional composite character Vadim Baranov’s
ascension from artist and reality TV creator all the way up into the highest
ranks of the Kremlin as none other than Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Loosely based on the life of Russian
politician Vladislav Surkov who was a theater director who eventually assumed
the unlikely role of becoming a new Rasputin as Putin’s closest confidante, the
novel aired mere months after Putin announced his ongoing invasion of
Ukraine. While being something of loose
biographical account watching the rise of Putinism from afar, the novel was a
sizable hit and soon attracted the attention of legendary French filmmaker
Olivier Assayas of Irma Vep, Clouds of Sils Maria and Personal
Shopper. The result is one of the
year’s most sobering and quietly chilling political dramas with one of the first
real attempts at dramatizing the Russian president onscreen.
Contrary to the Polish deepfaked AI movie Putin which
felt eerily similar to an infamous Kremlin sponsored deepfake of Putin dressed
as Santa Claus, The Wizard of the Kremlin is a subtle and nuanced if not
academic biographical drama tracking the rise of Vadim Baranov (an
unrecognizable and curiously death-like Paul Dano) told with the stylistic elliptical
and hip flair director Assayas is known for.
Co-starring Jeffrey Wright, Alicia Vikander and Tom Sturridge, the
ensemble piece watches Baranov navigating the dissolution of the Soviet Union
before climbing his way up the ladder of the then-formulating Russian
Federation.
Between working theater and
television and becoming a political advisor, he is introduced to a young but
stern and mercurial Vladimir Putin (Jude Law in plainly one of his career-best
performances). In a way, the film’s real
energies begin emanating here as Jude Law’s electric, commanding performance
captures in studied detail each and every curious eyebrow movement, facial expression
and hand gestures with acute observation.
It truly is an extraordinary performance from an actor I honestly didn’t
think had this kind of depth. Jude Law
doesn’t imitate Putin, he becomes him.
While Jude Law’s take on Putin is the primary draw for this
project, again the real star of this sordid saga is the director himself
Olivier Assayas who portrays the drama with unblinking nonjudgmental regard while
peppering the story beats with chapter divisions including the Euromaidan Revolution
of 2014 at the start of the Russo-Ukrainian War. In the hands of anyone else, this would’ve
been a straight-laced good vs. evil political drama but in Assayas’
uncompromised hands it achieves a distancing effect that keeps you trained on
the story while standing outside of the plight of the characters.
Between French cinematographer Yorick Le Saux’s
scalpel cut 2.35:1 scope panoramas capturing the glitziness of the oligarchs
who don’t know Putin is about to turn on them to the ethereal and hip needle
drops throughout the film’s soundscape, from a purely technical end, The
Wizard of the Kremlin is often really beautiful to look at even as it
wallows in a Russia one of its characters calls ‘worse than the Soviet Union’.
Released in theaters a year after airing at the Venice Film
Festival where it competed for the Golden Lion, The Wizard of the Kremlin will
attract both history buffs, political buffs and fans of the French director’s
expansive oeuvre in one of the year’s most underrated and least talked about or
promoted films. While indeed perhaps a
bit on the longer side with interactions between Baranov and his wife Ksenia
that slow the film down, Jude Law’s cold blooded performance of the Russian
President and how both Baranov and the film try to warm up to the man
nevertheless paint a compelling picture from one of modern French cinema’s most
celebrated auteurs. Given his rapport
with Janus Films and the amount of Criterion releases he has had, stay tuned
for a deluxe edition of this film from the celebrated and respected film
preservation label.
--Andrew Kotwicki
