The Nose or the Conspiracy of Mavericks

The Nose or the Conspiracy of Mavericks (Russian: Нос, или Заговор нетаких, romanized: Nos, ili Zagovor Netakih, lit. 'The Nose or the Conspiracy not the Same') is a 2020 Russian opera traditional animation stop motion film. The film is created by the animation studio School-Studio "Shar". People's Artist of Russia animator, Andrey Khrzhanovsky directed the film. The film is based on the Russian classic, The Nose by Nikolai Gogol. The script writers Yuri Arabov and Andrey Khrzhanovsky adapted the 18th century prose of Gogol as well as the verses of the opera of the same name by Dmitri Shostakovich into an animated film featuring a mixture of drawings, cut-outs, live-action, and documentary style filming.

The Nose or the Conspiracy of Mavericks
Directed byAndrey Khrzhanovskiy
Screenplay byYuri Arabov
Andrey Khrzhanovsky
Based onThe Nose
by Nikolai Gogol
The Nose
by Dmitri Shostakovich
Music byDmitri Shostakovich
Edited byTaissia Krugovykh
Animation byMarina Azizyan
Alexandra Pavlova
Alexander Khramtsov
Varya Yakovleva
Production
company
School-Studio "Shar"
Release date
  • 27 January 2020 (2020-01-27) (Netherlands-IFFR)
  • 15 June 2020 (2020-06-15) (France-Annecy)
  • 11 September 2020 (2020-09-11) (Russia)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryRussia
LanguageRussian

The film has been in production stages since 1969, and took over half a century of work. The film used the soundtrack from the opera by Shostakovich. The Nose premiered in Russia at the Open Russian Film Festival Kinotavr on 11 September 2020. For the first time in Russian animation history, the film received the prestigious Jury Prize at the 2020 Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

Plot

At a airport tarmac, an Aeroflot named Gogol lifts off. Onboard are major proponents of Russian theater and cinema. Each individual watches a different classic at the in-flight entertainment TV. As the camera glides past each individual, different epochs are melded into a single meta narrative. Gogol arrives at St. Petersburg, circa 1828. He begins writing The Nose. Then in the 1920s, Dimitri Shostakovich is working on an adaptation of Gogol’s novella. He meets Vsevolod Meyerhold. The prospect of a collaboration begins to take shape.

Major Kovalev introduces himself. He is looking for the Nose that he lost. The Nose takes a life of its own. It is seen wearing glasses and travels in a luxury car. An opera at the Bolshoi theater playing a Bulgakov piece is attended by Stalinist accomplices. The entourage attended because of a letter sent by the playwright himself, complaining of a lack of the patronage of the arts. However, cacophony starts a day later as Muddle Instead of Music editorial is written in the Pravda newspaper that intends to target Meyerhold and Shostakovich. Part 3 starts with the story of the Vsevolod Meyerhold and in general the story of many writers, scientists, and artists under an authoritarian government.

Production

Development

The film is inspired by the short story The Nose by Nikolai Gogol and the opera The Nose by Dmitry Shostakovich. Their works presented avant-garde ideas that intrigued the public. However, the works especially the opera received meager publicity during the Stalinist government of the 1920s. By 1960s, Russia during the Krushchev Thaw, decided to adapt a cinematic rendition of the short story. Andrey Khrzhanovsky was noted as the ideal director for such an adaptation and even the composer Shostakovich himself sent a postcard of approval. The first time Khrzhanovsky heard of the opera The Nose was at a 1974 play rendered by the composer Gennady Rozhdestvensky.[1] Thereafter the director developed the concept of a film that is estimated as taking over half a century in production. Production was spent in bringing in different creative thoughts and ideas. The director denoted Gogol's works are like natural-made storyboards for animated films.[2]

The time at production was spent honing on the details of the script with collaboration by Russian screenwriter Yuri Arabov. The script describes the innovators and mavericks in arts and science from the twentieth and twenty-first century who came at the crossroads of authoritarian societies. Condensed into three parts, the script references an unprecedented meeting of such people as Sergei Eisenstein, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Bulgakov, Gogol and Stalin.[2] Developed as a farcical drama, allusions to other artists are made such as Surikov, Picasso, and Kazimir Malevich.[1] By the end of the third act, the script became a tribute to the Soviet artists.[3]

The inspiration for converging the time periods of the two centuries that the film presented, came when the director was on a flight. Many bright screens of the airplane played different movies of different eras and countries despite the cabin room being closed off from light. The director was inspired by this event to create a multi-screen collage approach to edit and combine different fragments and stories with stylistic switching.[1] Media compared the film to the 2001 film Russian Ark.[1][4]

Themes

The Nose developed the concept of Russian pictorial realism. As Khrzhanovsky himself stated Gogol is one of the founders of realism and surrealism.[2] Therefore, the creators of the film tried to evoke the Russian avant-garde semblance to the original work in the animated film.[5] The film tried to re-order the discordant chronological events in the same way a museum orders the culture and heritage "into a coherent, intelligible whole." Without limited to the space and time of historical discontinuity, the film uses the cinematic space to join creative forces of history into a single frame.[4]

The director states the film is a can be categorized as an auteur artistic exposition film.[2] The film is intended for an educated audience who understands the relations of the government and culture over the decades.[6] The director also states the film has can't be limited to one genre.[2] The film has the elements of drama, musical, and biographical film.[7]

The film explores politics and history through animation. The events described are based on real life events. The character Nose depicted as a living monument, is developed as a totalitarian symbol.[8] The film's conflict explores the Nose and in general the oppression of the arts during the initial years of the Soviet Union by the reference to the editorial Muddle Instead of Music written by the leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin himself in the Soviet newspaper Pravda.[9][10]

Animation

The animation team drew the film using cut-outs, drawings, and live-action collages to bring to life the phantasmagoria sequences of the script.[5] They used stop motion to move the cut-out designs.[11] A review found that animation was the only technique that can put to life The Nose.[5] Collage animation is the main technique used for the film as it juxtaposes anecdotes with a document or a newsreel with a painting.[1] Character outlines are glued with daguerreotype faces.[3]

Soundtrack

As news of a possible Andrey Khrzhanovsky adaptation of The Nose reached the public media in 1969, composer Dmitry Shostakovich personally sent a postcard to the director stating authorization to use the opera as the soundtrack for the film. Compiled in 1920s, the opera was put on the shelves after censure from the Stalin authorities. However, in the year 1969, the opera at the Bolshoi theater as well as the literary novel by Gogol received critical acclaim again. The film that has been on the works for over half a century, finally saw the cinema halls in 2020 at Rotterdam. The soundtrack of the film is rendered under the operatic sopranos of Dmitry Shostakovich.[2] A review found the musical aspect of the film became so convincing that it could be seen as a separate part of the film.[6]

Release

Theatrical

In 2020, the film debuted at the International Film Festival in Rotterdam. After a circuit of film festival expositions, the film was released in Russia on 11 September 2020 as the opener for the 31st the Open Russian Film Festival Kinotavr.[12][13] The film received the Jury Prize, the second highest distinction of the 2020 Annecy International Animation Film Festival.[14][15] The award became Russia's first such award in the history of Russian animation.[6] On 12 December 2020, a jury of over three thousand members of the European Film Academy will decide on whether the film will be Europe's best animated film of 2020. The film is competing alongside only three other animated films.[16]

Reception

Stas Tyrkin states the film is a "symbiosis of cinematic genres." The review stated, "allowing the improbable to take place - creative alliances and human encounters-for example, Gogol, Meyerhold and Shostakovich. Khrzhanovsky boldly mixes formats, painting genres and techniques - he comes out with a radical and cool collage that combines the seemingly incongruous - the aesthetics of Russian pictorial realism and revolutionary futurism." [5]

Kino Teatr stated, "The musical side of the film becomes so winning that at some point it literally separates from the visual series and hovers over a slightly chaotic plot that mixes Imperial Petersburg and limousines, Naum Kleiman and Bratkov from the nineties, Stalin and his inner circle with Nabokov and Aeroflot planes, Anton Dolin and Volga boatmen in one cauldron."[6] Veronika Khlebnikova reviewed, "In Khrzhanovsky's film, iconic figures of the Russian cultural code are placed in an eccentric collage. The latter, in turn, becomes an element of avant-garde theater and the principle of theatrical constructivism embodied by Meyerhold. In his play The Earth Stands on End (1923)."[3]

Anton Dolin believes the film isn't movie but is instead an exposition of music and literature: "Khrzhanovsky's utopian plane, in which his friends and like-minded people gathered, where everyone has their own movie and their own freedom on the screen, soars in the air like a bird or an impossible machine with a perpetual motion machine. And it's not going to land."[8] French Annecy review by Mathieu Le Bihan remarked the film is a unique form of animation: "It deviates from the beaten path and plays with eras to better develop them on the screen."[17] Film.ru review thought although the film has "ideological heaviness" that is possibly probably due to its lengthy production, the film is "full of anachronisms and references meta-narrative." One such anachronism that the review pointed out was when a 19th-century bureaucrat "runs an old pen on a graphic tablet, displaying words in Microsoft Word."[18]

PM Cicchetti of Filmexplorer states the film is a postmodern collage/catalogue of "smattering of images, styles, media, from across the centuries." The film is "layer upon layer, mixed-in rather than overlaid, its animation burbles with allusions: each frame a nod, a wink, as tides of images wash over the viewer."[4] Film-rezensionen.de review believed the animation studio School-Studio "Shar" "had fun with the design: "Optics is one of the great strengths anyway: The Nose or Conspiracy of Mavericks uses a variety of techniques, but especially those of Cutout Animation. This special form of the Stop-Motion process uses cut-out paper figures that are moved."[11] Little Big Animation review stated why the nose is given such importance, "Art is to politics what the nose is to the face. Essential, essential and revealing meaning." The film is like a "pop-up book, proving to be a history of Russian art."[19] Sule Durmazkeser of Out Now from Germany gave the film 4.5/5 stars stating, "The Nose or the Conspiracy of Mavericks is an elaborately staged animated film, whereby much emphasis has been placed on details. The film is cleverly constructed and offers a huge variety of information with countless quotations from art, culture, history and politics."[10]

Accolades
Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) and nominee(s) Result
International Film Festival Rotterdam[20] 1 February 2020 Perspectives The Nose or Conspiracy of Mavericks Nominated
Annecy International Animation Film Festival[21][22] 15 June 2020 Jury Prize The Nose or Conspiracy of Mavericks Won
Open Russian Film Festival Kinotavr[23] 11 September 2020 Outstanding Contribution to Cinema Andrey Khrzhanovsky Honored
Ottawa International Animation Festival[24] 23 September 2020 Feature Film The Nose or Conspiracy of Mavericks Nominated
Haifa Film Festival[25] 3 October 2020 East of the West The Nose or Conspiracy of Mavericks Nominated
Big Cartoon Film Festival (Большой фестиваль мультфильмов)[26] 29 October 2020 Feature Film The Nose or Conspiracy of Mavericks Nominated
Cinanima[27] 9 November 2020 Best Feature Film The Nose or Conspiracy of Mavericks Won
European Film Awards[28][29] 12 December 2020 Best Animated Film The Nose or Conspiracy of Mavericks Nominated


Potential Sequel

Director Khrzhanovsky states The Nose could be part of a future trilogy with the film being the sequel to A Room and a Half. A third installment is being planned with the script recently finished.[1] In December 1, the council of Cinema Foundation was eager to finance the trilogy film titled Through the Magic Crystal. The film is a continuation of The Nose or Conspiracy of Mavericks in terms of creativity and research. The film depicts an archetypal hero interleaving the XX, XXI, and earlier centuries.[30]

References
  1. ""Если бы речь шла только об отрицании, пароход современности далеко бы не уплыл"". Коммерсантъ. Retrieved 2020-11-21.
  2. ""Нос, или Заговор "не таких"" — новый фильм Андрея Хржановского". tvkultura.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2020-11-21.
  3. "Авангарда смерть, Сталина танец: "Нос, или заговор «не таких" — (уже) один из лучших фильмов года". Искусство кино (in Russian). Retrieved 2020-11-21.
  4. "The Nose or the Conspiracy of Mavericks". filmexplorer.ch. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  5. правды», Стас ТЫРКИН | Сайт «Комсомольской (2020-09-11). "Самым актуальным жанром в России является фантасмагория". kp.ru - Сайт «Комсомольской правды». Retrieved 2020-11-22.
  6. "Анси-2020: Российская анимация во Франции осталась с «Носом»". Кино-Театр.РУ. 2020-07-07. Retrieved 2020-11-21.
  7. "Будет кино: "Нос, или Заговор "не таких"" Андрея Хржановского". ФильмПРО (in Russian). Retrieved 2020-11-22.
  8. ""Нос, или Заговор "не таких""". meduza.io. Retrieved 2020-11-21.
  9. "Annecy International Animated Film Festival 2020 in Review". Art House Street. Retrieved 2020-12-25.
  10. "Filmkritik – The Nose or Conspiracy of Mavericks - Nos ili zagovor netakikh (2020) – Movies". OutNow (in German). Retrieved 2020-12-25.
  11. Armknecht, Oliver (2020-06-27). "The Nose or Conspiracy of Mavericks". Film-Rezensionen.de (in German). Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  12. правды», Галина КОПЫЛОВА | Сайт «Комсомольской (2020-09-11). "В Сочи открывается «Кинотавр» 2020". kuban.kp.ru - Сайт «Комсомольской правды». Retrieved 2020-11-21.
  13. ""Кинотавр" откроется мультфильмом "Нос, или Заговор "не таких""". Радио Sputnik (in Russian). 2020-08-05. Retrieved 2020-11-21.
  14. "Андрей Хржановский и Кирилл Хачатуров стали лауреатами анимационного фестиваля в Анси". Кино-Театр.РУ. 2020-06-21. Retrieved 2020-11-21.
  15. "Festival d'Annecy 2020 : Jour 2, "The Nose", "Ginger's Tale", des courts et un sympathique "Jungle Beat"". Abus de Ciné (in French). 2020-06-17. Retrieved 2020-11-22.
  16. Pensec, Erwann (2020-10-22). "Une œuvre russe parmi les quatre nominées au titre de Meilleur film d'animation européen de 2020". fr.rbth.com (in French). Retrieved 2020-11-22.
  17. "THE NOSE OR THE CONSPIRACY OF MAVERICKS | Critique du film d'Andrey Khrzhanovsky". LE BLEU DU MIROIR | Critiques cinématographiques (in French). 2020-06-21. Retrieved 2020-11-22.
  18. "Кинотавр 2020: рецензия на фильм «Нос, или заговор „не таких"»". www.film.ru. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  19. "Critique - The Nose or the Conspiracy of Mavericks". Little Big Animation (in French). 2020-06-20. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  20. "The Nose or Conspiracy of Mavericks | IFFR". iffr.com. Retrieved 2020-11-22.
  21. "Фильм Андрея Хржановского получил приз жюри на фестивале в Анси". Российская газета (in Russian). Retrieved 2020-11-22.
  22. CITIA, ©. "Annecy > Programme > Index". www.annecy.org. Retrieved 2020-11-22.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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  24. "Feature Competitions". OIAF 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-22.
  25. "East of The West". Haifa 36th International Film Festival. Retrieved 2020-11-22.
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  27. ""The Nose or the Conspiracy of Mavericks" won the prize on CINANIMA – School-studio "SHAR"". sharstudio.com. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
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  29. "European Film Awards". https. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
  30. "A new film by Andrey Khrzhanovsky will be financed by cinema foundation – School-studio "SHAR"". sharstudio.com. Retrieved 2020-12-12.

Official website

The Nose or the Conspiracy of Mavericks at IMDb

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