Thursday, December 25, 2014

"Я люблю тебя" и "Hana a jei bratia"

I just watched "Hana a jej bratia" ("Hannah and Her  Brothers") and "Я люблю тебя" ("I Love you" -a better translation than "You I Love" as it is called in English in most places). '"Hana a jej bratia" is the only Slovak film that I have seen. It is about an eighteen-year-old guy, Martin, who is trying to decide whether he likes boys or girls more as he deals with his family. The movie switches between scenes of him and/or his family members and scenes of Hana, a male, performing songs in a club. Martin places a personal ad looking for someone. At times images that are in the imaginations of the characters are seen. It is a humorous movie. The family is really not very different from an American family. Hema, Martin's cousin, is referred to as a slut throughout the film, but we learn before the end of the film that she is actually a virgin. Martin had stopped going to classes at a school that he had been attending. We see one of his teachers from the school, and it is obvious that he has a crush on Martin. I would not have said no to him, but I guess Martin may think he is too old or for some other reason he is not interested in the teacher. Martin comes close to having a threesome with Hema and a male pharmacist. Under his bed Martin keeps a porn collection, men and women. In a drawer he keeps a cucumber. At one point he takes groceries to a neighbor who has broken her arm. He develops a friendship with her. She is a photographer, and he eventually asks her to take photographs of him for responses to the letters he has gotten in response to the ad he had placed. She has a telescope in her apartment. He comments that spyglasses and solitude go together. She responds that cucumbers and vaseline also go together. I won't go into more detail about the plot. Martin does find love. "Я люблю тебя" is a Russian film. Timofei meets and falls in love with Vera. Then he meets and falls in love with Uloomji, a young guy. Uloomji's family are upset that he is gay. The film also satirizes advertising of American products, especially Coca-Cola, in Russia. It a hilarious movie. There are unexpected twists. It has a happy ending too. Both of these films deal with finding one's own path in life.

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