Come and See (The Criterion Collection)

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Elem Klimov (SD, 21 Mins.) This 2001 interview has Director Klimov discussing making Come and See, the difficulties and detail that went into it, as well as his own experiences during WWII. This is in Russian with English subtitles. Kirschenbaum, Lisa A. (2010). Biess, Frank; Moeller, Robert G. (eds.). Histories of the Aftermath. The Legacies of the Second World War in Europe. New York City: Berghahn Books. p. 67. ISBN 978-1-845-45732-7.

Barfield, Charles (18 December 2019). " 'Come And See' 2K Restoration Trailer: Elem Klimov Incredible War Gets Re-Released In 2020". theplaylist.net . Retrieved 18 February 2020.The 40th anniversary of the Great Victory was approaching. [6] [12] [13] The management had to be given something topical. I had been reading and rereading the book I Am from the Fiery Village, which consisted of the first-hand accounts of people who miraculously survived the horrors of the fascist genocide in Belorussia. Many of them were still alive then, and Belorussians managed to record some of their memories onto film. I will never forget the face and eyes of one peasant, and his quiet recollection about how his whole village had been herded into a church, and how just before they were about to be burned, an officer gave them the offer: "Whoever has no children can leave". And he couldn't take it, he left, and left behind his wife and little kids... or about how another village was burned: the adults were all herded into a barn, but the children were left behind. And later, the drunk men surrounded them with sheepdogs and let the dogs tear the children to pieces. The director’s brother, German Klimov, also records a new interview, running 27-minutes. He covers some of the same ground that his brother did in the other interview (including how the title Come and Seecame about, though it differs a bit here) but expands on many details, like the events that led up to the film finally being made, and then production specific things like filming the barn sequence, where they ended up using locals who were probably around when the actual events happened. He then closes off discussing his brother’s heading of the Soviet Filmmakers Union. The detail is quite vivid throughout, revealing all the nasty, horrors of bullet wounds, burnt flesh, and exploded bodies. The practical effects in the makeup look excellent with fantastic wrinkles, age marks, dirt, and bloody bits of human body parts strewn about. Wider shots of the trees in the forest and military uniforms all show the necessary textures in all lighting conditions. The closeups of the actor's faces are where the spotlight is though, showcasing every tiny detail in these terrified faces. Come and See was selected as the Soviet entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 58th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. [67] Award

Kumar, Arun (30 June 2019). "Come and See [1985]: A Chilling and Indelible Reminder of Nazi Carnage". highonfilms.com . Retrieved 18 February 2020. There have been a smattering of films over the past several decades that cover the atrocities of the Holocaust with everything from the Oscar-winning Schindler's List from Steven Spielberg to the just as important Hungarian indie film Son of Saul. Even Salo: 120 Days of Sodom covered the nazi regime in Italy and most recently, Taika Waititi took an impressive approach with Jojo Rabbit. These films have spanned multiple decades and genres that try and tell part of a massive story and war that happened not too long ago across the globe. Claude Lanzmann's 10-hour documentary Shoah captured perhaps the most visceral stories from all aspects of life from that time, but it's with Soviet film director Elm Klimov's 1985 film Come And See that some of the most disturbing visuals are shown that have capsulated the Holocaust in a strikingly visual way, similar to the recent film 1917, a vision that is not soon forgotten.Gault, Matthew (28 May 2016). " 'Come and See' Turns the Eastern Front Into a Hallucinatory Hellscape". warisboring.com . Retrieved 31 March 2018. It will come as a surprise to no one, at least those who pointed out how several shots from Come and See appeared as if they were lifted wholesale for 1917, to hear cinematographer Roger Deakins in a new interview included with this release discuss the influence of the film’s hyper-realistic look on his own work. In archival interviews from 2001, Elem Klimov, actor Alexei Kravchenko, and production designer Viktor Petrov discuss the grueling experience of making the film. A short Russian TV documentary from 1985 titled How Come and See Was Filmed confirms their impressions, while an interview with Klimov’s brother, German, focuses on the filmmaker’s broader career. Most notable is the inclusion of three of the five parts of Flaming Memory, a documentary series by Belarusian filmmaker Viktor Dashuk that covers the Nazi horrors inflicted upon Belarus during World War II. A booklet contains essays by film professor Mark le Fanu, who considers the film’s function as both a reflection and complication of Soviet war cinema, and poet Valzhyna Mort, who offers a more biographical overview of co-writer Ales Adamovich’s life and career. Overall Many of my most highly-esteemed movies in this genre are the ones that immerse us directly into the chaotic fog of war without context or explanatory hand-holding. Certain images, especially one where Glasha glimpses dead bodies and does not mention them to our protagonist, are all the more intensely disturbing because the camera does not linger on them long enough to provide an emotionally resonant catharsis. Things happen in this terrible war-torn atmosphere just because they happen. The best works of anti-war cinema do not place bloodshed on a pedestal, preferring instead to remind us that we too could simply become split-second losses in a maelstrom of senseless randomness. And then I thought: the world doesn't know about Khatyn! They know about Katyn, about the massacre of the Polish officers there. But they don't know about Belorussia. Even though more than 600 villages were burned there! In 2001 Daneet Steffens of Entertainment Weekly wrote that "Klimov alternates the horrors of war with occasional fairy tale-like images; together they imbue the film with an unapologetically disturbing quality that persists long after the credits roll." [49]

The disc then closes with a trailertouting the new restoration, along with a 10-minute production featurette from 1985 called The Story of the Film “Come and See,”featuring interviews with Elem Klimov, a young Kravchenko, and writer Ales Adamovich. The interviews are pretty brief but some behind-the-scene footage of Klimov rehearsing a scene makes this a worthwhile addition. The Criterion Collection presents Elem Klimov’s Come and Seeon Blu-ray in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1 on a dual-layer disc. The 1080p/24hz high-definition encode is sourced from a new 2K restoration performed by Mosfilm and scanned from the 35mm original negative. The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema". Empire. 2010. Archived from the original on 2 December 2011 . Retrieved 19 February 2020. Salys, Rimgaila (2009). The Musical Comedy Films of Grigorii Aleksandrov. Laughing Matters. Bristol: Intellect Books. p. 151. ISBN 978-1-841-50282-3.The human race can be inhumane in devastating ways. Anyone with any shred of empathy will be deeply affected by Come and See. It's a harrowing film that should be required viewing not just all over the world, but especially here in America, where nationalism and exceptionalism has steadily fanned the flames of anti-science rhetoric alongside the frightening rise of white supremacy and neo-Nazis. I dare hope that we are not about to repeat history...again. Klimov was a WWII survivor. In one of the archival footage/Blu-ray supplements, Klimov describes watching the Volga River and its banks burn after the Nazi bombing of a petrol station. Klimov escaped with his mother and baby brother (who also worked on the film and is interviewed for this Criterion release).

a b Ramsey, Nancy (28 January 2001). "FILM; They Prized Social, Not Socialist, Reality". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 23 November 2018 . Retrieved 17 July 2020. I am hard-pressed to choose a favorite sequence from Come and See. A scene where gunfire opens up on Flyora as he is struggling to lead a cow across a meadow comes close. I also love one shot where a stork wanders into a crude militia shelter to observe its inhabitants. The film's plot focuses on the Nazi German occupation of Belarus, and the events as witnessed by a young Belarusian partisan teenager named Flyora, who—against his mother's wishes—joins the Belarusian resistance movement, and thereafter depicts the Nazi atrocities and human suffering inflicted upon the Eastern European region's populace. The film mixes hyper-realism with an underlying surrealism, and philosophical existentialism with poetical, psychological, political and apocalyptic themes. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, "Come and see!" And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. Release [ edit ] Original release [ edit ]Come And See takes its title from The Apocalypse of John, where Johnny Cash used the words in his song "The Man Comes Around", stating, "And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, "Come and see!" And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him." Those are truly terrifying words, and they certainly ring true throughout this tragic, yet poetic movie that's full of unimaginable chaos and beautiful magic realism. Klimov’s aim is to make the audience feel the full terror of war. We’re told that the director worried that the stress Kravchenko would have to absorb might be psychologically damaging. Would these physical and psychological torments drive the 13-year-old boy going mad? He had an idea of hypnotizing the actor as some kind of protection (the name of the mysterious psychic Wolf Messing comes up in discussion). But Alexei turned out to be mentally resilient. Flyora was beaten, abused, screamed at and threatened in every scene for nine solid months, out in the elements. More danger was involved than usual — real explosives are used for the bombing scenes and live tracer ammunition turns a night fighting scene into something terrifyingly real. The 58th Academy Awards (1986) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 24 March 1986 . Retrieved 5 March 2020. a b c d e f Chapman, James (2008). "Chapter 2 war as tragedy (pp. 103ff.)". War and Film. Islington: Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1-86189347-5. Starring: Aleksei Kravchenko, Olga Mironova, Liubomiras Laucevicius, Vladas Bagdonas, Evgeniy Tilicheev, Viktors Lorencs, J¨ri Lumiste.