In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Centered on a well-meaning Professor, Autumn Marathon shows the chaos that ensues when one cannot learn to say no to himself, and therefore to others around him. Professor Andrey Pavlovich Buzykin is manipulated by everyone around him, especially the women in his life. His mistress Alla is constantly pestering him about having children with her and leaving his wife, Nina. Nina is clearly well-aware that her husband is lying to her and most likely cheating, so she manipulates Andrey into feeling sorry for her by moping around the house and saying that no one needs her. His fellow writer Varvara uses him and adds to his web of lies as he helps her translate, which will cause her to take his place with the publishers. Basically, the whole film is sometimes painful to watch because Andrey's lies to his wife and mistress become more complicated with each scene. At the end, he seems to be peaceful when both women finally leave him, but at practically the same moment, his mistress calls and his wife comes back home. In the final scene of this dizzying chaos, Andrey hasn't learned his lesson and lies to his mistress that his wife has left and lies to his wife that he left his mistress. In my Russian Film class, we discussed how Andrey really isn't that bad of a guy and just wants to please everyone, but as a grown man, he should know better. Throughout the film, it is clear that his lies hurt everyone around him and make his current life almost impossible to keep up with. I wish the film would have ended with him starting anew, but alas, this ending is much more in line with the reality that the older we get, the less likely we are to change.

This film was a great watch. It was comical while still proving a point. It is a classic film about a man who is simply unhappy with his life who uses women to try to fill the void in his life. Throughout the course of the film, Andrey encounters many comical situations while trying to keep his double life a secret, and keep everyone involved in his web of lies happy. In the end however, he is still unhappy as is his wife and his lover. His unhappiness with his life and general confusion about what exactly he's looking for leads him unable to determine who he really wants to be with, and All parties are left unhappy with no real solution to the problem at hand. Overall, this film was a great watch. It kept my attention the entire time and I enjoyed watching it waiting to see what antics were going to occur next, or how the problem was going to be resolved.

Andrei is an irresponsible man, who cannot be counted on. He is constantly late, and doesn't inform others. He is not focused on his work nor his personal life. I don't judge him for cheating on his 4-5 women (if you can get away with it, it's not a crime), but he ends up hurting them. For not keeping promises nor knowing when to say "No" to boring next- door neighbors, he deserves everything that's coming to him. Technically well made movie. Very good performances, the mood, music, cinematography are all there.However, the plot is slow and tiresome. By 50 minutes I couldn't bring myself to continue watching, hence the 1 star rating.

Niffiwan from Toronto is not right (Interesting to note is that the director was female). The director is male and strong Caucasian macho with mustaches, born in Georgia. By the way Georgi is the name, like George. There is a rumor that heroes of his movies have latency homosexual complex but it is just a joke. But who knows? The film is pure genius. This is the story about soviet intellectual (not an average soviet man from Brezhnev's era), English to Russian interpreter, who read some lectures in some university. He live in a big apartment with many rooms - it is very unusual situation in Soviet Union for family with one child (the hero have one daughter). This is the symbol of privileged position for brain workers in Sovet Union society. But his work is silly and insignificant. He is in trouble with his slinky mistress (genius actress Marina Neelova), smart and understanding wife (also genius Natalya Gundareva, RIP), colleagues and so on. The problems are snowball running and his life is start to decline. This is not a comedy - this is a sad story that may be associated with brothers' Cohen movie "Fargo" or something like that. The quality of actors play is brilliant and absolutely realistic. I strongly recommended another Danelia astonishing film called "Kin-Dza-Dza" (strange adventures of mid-aged soviet foreman and his accidental fellow young Moscow student on another planet, kinda postapocaliptic totalitaristic Mad Max style world - the strong satire on all human civilization)