“In general,” notes the narrator (Jeffrey Wright) in the captivating political drama of Olivier Assayas, “things in Russia are doing well. But when they are bad, they go Really bad. “Although it is almost entirely in realpolitik of the beginning of 21st Century Moscow, The Kremlin assistant Offers a warning to the West on how this state of affairs has become. From 2019 and flashes in both directions, he tells a story that dates back to the ascent of Adolf Hitler, as facilitated by the German Chancellor Franz Von Paper in 1932, but also plans what is happening in the United States, as the administration of Donald Trump is attached to the realization of the project 25, once struck off as a dream of authoritarian pipe, a reality.
Fascism is an easy to fold word, and The Kremlin assistant is not on this subject; This is the modern concept of false democracy, which is something much more toxic and worrying. And it is normal that our guide on this troubled territory is an academic, a man more inclined to see Russia by Vladimir Putin as an extraordinary artistic project, because, unlike the West, the poets and artists of Russia have more often flirted with the right than the left. A good example would be Eduard Limonov, subject of the biopic in 2024 of Kirill Serebrennikov Lemons: Ballad; Assayas’ co-scriptwriter, Emmanuel Carrère, wrote the book on which the film was based, and his subject made a very important cameo, at a crucial moment, here.
Limonov, being dead, is one of the few characters who appear under his own name, and a credit before the film assures us that The Kremlin assistant is a fictional work. It is obviously a complete coincidence, then, that his objective, and the man that our narrator has traveled so far to meet, strangely resembles Vladislav Surkov, an avant-garde playwright that has risen without trace to become the key strategist of Putin. His name is Vadim Baranov, and Paul Dano plays him as a charming screen of human smoke, speaking with an almost entirely not influenced accent, giving nothing with his scrambled and childish poker face.
Baranov is retired now, he tells the narrator, and he continues to come back to his extraordinary life story. Unusually, it seems that he is a very reliable narrator, and the strange thing about him is that, for a doctor spin, he is entirely initial. But that’s partly what The Kremlin assistant Is everything: when the truth is abandoned, what does honesty mean-and are the facts even important? These ideas already percolate in Beranov’s head as it flirts with punk under the progressive regime of Gorbachev, inspired by Mayakovsky and Russian futurists to play really terrible pieces.
But Baranov is bored to try to reflect his time, he wants to be part of it, this is how he gets involved with reality TV and the powerful television producer Boris Berezovski (Will Keen). Like many other Russians who enter the Baranov orbit, Berezovski appreciates the fruits of perestroikablurring the limits of affairs and politics that will later lead to several assassination attempts and to his sudden and unexpected death at 67 years. It is through Berezovski that Baranov meets Vladimir Putin (Jude Law), a former KGB agent who, initially, remanished by Berezovski originally, of the recovery and the very good doing it, to many Boris Yelts, Portray, to get closer to Boris, Boris Yelts, Portray, Cross, Cross, Yelts, of Portray, Portray, very good for Boris, Boris, Boris, Boris Yelts, drunk.
Well, we know how it happened, but also entertaining as to rationalize the back negotiations that followed, The Kremlin assistant is a very thoughtful attempt to unpack the current moment. It is impossible not to see how vital television has been in this regard, and, as Donald Trump does it now, Putin quickly campaigned against his detractors, even forcing a satirical program Hood (Dolls) From the air after offending himself to his Dopey puppet resemblance. More importantly, the film shows how extreme ideologies create strange bed companions, which Baranov uses to his advantage, funding underground biker militias and esoteric religious cords like the ballast to support the hard rule of Putin.
Unusually, although he goes to a heavy 156 minutes, he rarely hangs out, and it is almost disappointing that the Assayas, who have done such a good job with Carlos (2010) did not take the road to the mini-series here too. On the performance side, Jude Law is a surprisingly effective Putin, putting the president’s pout to perfection and giving him a slightly abrasive English accent. Dano, meanwhile, is up to something much more mysterious and handled, speaking in a sweet song that takes a little time to get used to it. Physically, it is also a good choice for the role, putting a benign face on a character who borders sociopath.
Remember, the head of worship at the head of money, Charles Manson, had the ear of many influential people (including Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys, who baptized him the sorcerer), just like Grigori Rasutin, mystical to the Tsars, to whom Baranov is often compared. But as this clear and perceptive story shows, the most dangerous influencers wear a tie and clean the shaving.
Title: The Kremlin assistant
Festival: Venice (competition)
Director: Olivier Assayas
Scriptwriters: Olive.
Casting: Jeffrey Wright, Paul Dano, Jude Law, Alicia Vikander, Tom Sturridge, Will Keen
Sales agent: Gaumont
Operating time: 2 hours 36 minutes
