Better Late Then Never

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

*** Some Spoilers ***I guess one thing you have to remember is when this movie was done. It was a weird time as the country was going through changes and this film was that: different. It's not that it's the best movie ever made, or even a finer one, but what is important is not what it was, but what it wasn't: and that is it was not like all other soviet movie to date. It was commenting on the reality in a different way and to some degree was far more open than movies of the past. Case and point, when bananan argues with a cop about his earing. It was an argument of "I want" vs the old and tried soviet "Not Allowed". The Victor Tsoy song, in the end, asking for change, was again commenting on the same theme, that status quo is just not possible any more. Even the two lovers: the old vs new somehow relate to the theme. The plot itself is very shakespearean: older man, younger woman... younger man... younger woman falls in love with younger man... older man kills younger man... younger woman kills older man. It's really simple but yet it doesn't truly explain why people like this film. Overall, I think it became popular because it came at the right time, rather than anything else. I think a person, even who is not from soviet union can easily enjoy the film. I give it a 6 out of 10.

"Assa" gained a cult following in Russia upon its initial release, and I suppose that it still can be considered so. The movie is not very easy to get into. It's long, very slow-paced, and quite dark in terms of actual colors as well as atmosphere. Artistically, it has some good things going for it including the soundtrack, the actors' performances and some arty injections. I still don't think that the movie is as great as some people paint it out to be, although, one could probably argue that it, in a way, strided to fill a gap, one way or the other, for the young, subculture-oriented Russian 80's generation. Using the Soloviev connection, I'll say that if "Chernaya roza - emblema pechali..." was an, inverted, absurdistic take on later-period Soviet life, then "Assa" portrays a tragic clash between idealistic innocence and harsh Soviet reality.

When I think of this now, 12 years after I saw this movie for the first time, I can probably compare it somehow with "Fargo". The same gloomy colors, the same snow everywhere, the same slow motion of people dozing in winter like bears. The same sad realism in all the scenes, including the car chases, the same end. And also -- and this is the most amazing of it all, in my opinion -- the same feeling of light you experience at the end, despite the end which can hardly be called happy.This film also has a winning mixture of criminal plot and love triangle. (Remember "Heat"?). A young girl is waiting for her lover in the snowy Yalta, and he comes one night too late because of the storm -- and in this one night she meets a young musician who offers her to spend the night in his apartment. (Mind you, this is a Soviet film -- there are no sex scenes at all in the movie, but the simplest gestures become erotic as they are real, as we all have been in those situations of late teens who just discover each other). Her lover is an underworld tycoon who manages to plan some more of his dark affairs, to mislead the KGB trail and to entertain the girl -- he saw for everything but the musician. Clever, rich, attractive, charming when needed (although extremely cruel when needed as well), brilliantly educated erudite -- he can do nothing against a young boy who has nothing but a pure heart and a love this heart can generate. And as usual in the love triangles, it does not end well for the involved sides -- for some lethally, for some with awful soul scars...The movie is slow and viscous -- but this is its charm. The music of Grebenschikov (and the XVII-century piece of "Gorod Zolotoi", of course) became a real Russian classic; the historical jumps to the times of Paul I look like an original move of Sergei Solovyov and not like a ridiculous trial to look educated. The guest appearance of Victor Tsoi seems well-timed as well. And finally, Sergei Bugayev (the musician) has a winning role in itself, a martyr against his will -- but to play the parts of Alika and Krymov, it took all the talent of Tatyana Drubich and Stanislav Govorukhin, and they deliver the performances which will never be forgotten.A good test of movies' quality is watching it again, 10-12 years after its release. I watched it recently, and it became worse -- the colors of the Soviet film faded, and the voices became muter. Technicalities. But as for the movie itself, I dreamt of it at night. This was an epochal movie for the 80-ies, but one that remains as a monument even in the XXI century.

"Assa" would have made a better vehicle for Stallone, but considering the taste of the average Soviet moviegoer........I guess my real objection to movies like this is that they waste the time and talent and money that could be spent making better movies or feeding the poor.