Autumn Marathon

Starring:Oleg Basilashvili, Natalya Gundareva, Yevgeni Leonov, Marina Neyolova, Nikolai Kryuchkov, Vadim Medvedev, Lyudmila Ivanova, Vladimir Pozhidayev, Georgi Semyonov, Nikita Podgornyj, Vladimir Grammatikov, Vladimir Firsov, R. Khobua, Norbert Kuchinke, Dmitri Matveyev, Borislav Brondukov, Galina Volchek, Olga Bogdanova
Director: Georgi Daneliya
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Description

The main character in "Autumn Marathon," Buzykin, is a kind, gentle person, helping others without a concern for himself, rejecting no one. However, making choices is always a problem, and while he has the best of intentions, his decisions are now coming home to roost unless he can change the course of events already set in motion.

Customer Reviews:

Autumn Marathon.......2006-08-28

Russian with English subtitles. The translator called it "a sad comedy." Works for me. A humorous look at adultery with a serious undertone about how indecisiveness might be more painful than just breaking somebody's heart outright. Hey, it's Russian. You know they can't do anything, not even slapstick, without literary undertones. That's why we love them. Great writing plus an extremely talented cast equals another keeper.

Pleasantly humorous.......2005-07-23

Could have been titled "The Salmon", as the main character is a master of maneuvering through the eddies and currents of a demanding circle of people in his life. He lies almost unceasingly and in a skillfully benign manner to make everything go smoothly. He also has a great capacity for calmness, and when he finally can tell the truth, albeit briefly, the result is the same, sparing the recipient just enough to keep things acceptably tranquil. I found it amusing and really quite even in all aspects of the filmmakers craft.

Good (but not in Spanish audio track).......2004-10-27

It is funny indeed. However, the Spanish audio track is no good, as they put the Spanish audio directly on top of the Russian audio, so you hear both, and it isn't dubbed -- one guy reads all the Spanish translation (so there is never any female voices in Spanish).

Great comedy!.......2004-07-08

Definitely, one of the best movies (yeah, you can read the previous review - I've no idea what the fellow is talking about; you should to see the movie instead). Of course, it must be seen in Russian, subtitles NEVER give you a clue what's going on. Actually, I read a lot of books translated from Russian into English - so pathetic... The same for movies.
This is a comedy (THE comedy) about our life. Don't expect "sights of Leningrad".

Yawn marathon.......2003-07-10

I would have thought a good reason to see AUTUMN MARATHON (1979) is to get a glimpse of Leningrad (present day St. Petersburg) before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. St. Petersburg was then, and is, a lovely, pastel-colored city of canals and grand buildings.

Andrei Buzykin (Oleg Bassilashvili) is a university English professor, translator, and author with women problems. After twenty-some years of marriage, he no longer dotes on his wife, Nina. He does adore his young mistress, Alla, but she wants a permanent relationship and is driven crazy by the alarm on Andrei's watch which spurs him off to other commitments. Buzykin also loves his daughter, Lena, but she's becoming more distant as her own marriage evolves. And if all this isn't enough, Andrei's publisher wants his next book sooner than later, and Andrei spends too much of his free time helping a visiting Danish scholar translate Dostoevsky and advising a translator colleague on the writing of her own book. Buzykin, at 45, is steering towards male menopause. Perhaps he should emulate another acquaintance, who chills out by drinking vodka and gathering wild mushrooms in the forest.

The reputed excellence of AUTUMN MARATHON is that it depicts the ordinariness and subtle absurdities of everyday life. However, if Buzykin's existence sounds mundane, believe me, it visually is; I don't need a bigger dose of ordinary than what is provided by my own daily regimen, starting with looking in the mirror after I get up in the morning.

My wife, who tossed in the proverbial towel two-thirds into the film's run time, quipped that it lacked "pizzazz" and "took too long to get anywhere". However, I'm made of sterner stuff. But, while Buzykin gained my sympathy in a distant sort of way, I couldn't help but think that the film might have been improved with a tweaked script, tighter editing, and Jack Lemmon in the lead.

And Leningrad? The director and Mosfilm made almost no effort to showcase the city. There was no obligation to do so, of course, and I concede that my criticism on this point is unfair. But if you're filming in the Cold War era and plan on releasing the finished product to Western audiences (where it proved award-winning, for reasons that escape me), then why not give the city a PR boost? Even a quick jog past the fountains in the rear of Peterhof or across the facade of the Hermitage would have helped immeasurably.

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