The 20th century is likely unique in laying claim to three sociopathic dictators whose complete disregard for humanity in either the individual or the collective has justifiably earned them the label “monsters.” Hitler, Mao and Stalin shredded utopian notions of moral progress, their crimes exposing the inadequacy of language to convey the scale of their atrocities while sending psychologists tripping over themselves in an attempt to explain the nature of evil.
True to form, Sergei Loznitsa doesn’t attempt to explain the unfathomable, and he makes language subservient to the image because he knows that words lie. Of course, images lie too — Stalin was an expert on that subject — but when edited to reveal rather than disguise, they have a devastating power. Such is “State Funeral,” an awe-inspiring montage of Stalin’s orchestrated lying-in-state and obsequies, whose impact moves from merely impressive to staggering depending upon the viewer’s knowledge...
True to form, Sergei Loznitsa doesn’t attempt to explain the unfathomable, and he makes language subservient to the image because he knows that words lie. Of course, images lie too — Stalin was an expert on that subject — but when edited to reveal rather than disguise, they have a devastating power. Such is “State Funeral,” an awe-inspiring montage of Stalin’s orchestrated lying-in-state and obsequies, whose impact moves from merely impressive to staggering depending upon the viewer’s knowledge...
- 5/29/2021
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
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