Sokurov I think was despondent at humanity's attempts at progress in the twentieth century. Molokh takes place in a surreal dream of the Berghof, and features Hitler, Eva Braun, and his coterie or should I say grotesquerie of sycophants. Progress is what Sokurov has been concerned by, so no need to pay too much attention to whether the film is accurate or not, it's probably beside the point.
Sokurov had made rather a similar film a decade before, Skorbnoye beschuvstviye (Mournful Unconcern), his adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House. It again is about a group of pathetic individuals who inhabit a mist-bound palace whilst the world crumbles around them. The black swamp and masked man of the prior film here is replaced by black soup and black puppies. I think that perhaps both films show the huge might of German ingenuity being harnessed by cretins. The inhabitants of the house in Mournful Unconcern represented the English upper class, who rowed their boats merrily down the stream instead of participating in the reform of an outdated Europe, gearing for war. Inaction is again the point in Molokh, how did a great nation allow itself to be ruled by a bore, a man who failed to recognise the rights of others, failed to understand the feelings of others, a fantasist, a sadist, and a self-lover? The movie portrays them as nothing less than big kids, Bormann hasn't even learnt how to sit on a chair. Braun and Hitler chase one another around a table and hold doors closed on one another, all of which is very reminiscent of my life circa aged twelve. I ended up feeling rather sorry for them in their airy castle, blown by draughts and tortured by psychological complexes. I was also wondering why on earth people feel such a need to be controlled. Sokurov seemed to have got even darker here than with Mournful Unconcern, providing hardly any contrast against what is progressive.
Sokurov had made rather a similar film a decade before, Skorbnoye beschuvstviye (Mournful Unconcern), his adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House. It again is about a group of pathetic individuals who inhabit a mist-bound palace whilst the world crumbles around them. The black swamp and masked man of the prior film here is replaced by black soup and black puppies. I think that perhaps both films show the huge might of German ingenuity being harnessed by cretins. The inhabitants of the house in Mournful Unconcern represented the English upper class, who rowed their boats merrily down the stream instead of participating in the reform of an outdated Europe, gearing for war. Inaction is again the point in Molokh, how did a great nation allow itself to be ruled by a bore, a man who failed to recognise the rights of others, failed to understand the feelings of others, a fantasist, a sadist, and a self-lover? The movie portrays them as nothing less than big kids, Bormann hasn't even learnt how to sit on a chair. Braun and Hitler chase one another around a table and hold doors closed on one another, all of which is very reminiscent of my life circa aged twelve. I ended up feeling rather sorry for them in their airy castle, blown by draughts and tortured by psychological complexes. I was also wondering why on earth people feel such a need to be controlled. Sokurov seemed to have got even darker here than with Mournful Unconcern, providing hardly any contrast against what is progressive.