Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Khrustalyov, My Car! Blu-ray Movie Review

Hopefully it's not a Yugo.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 3, 2019

Maybe you’ve heard or seen a few news reports lately about Russia’s interference in our elections (yes, that’s a joke). Maybe one reason the Russians seem so interested in our elections is that their “elections” may not have always had the best outcomes for the assembled citizenry, especially during the Soviet Era, and they may be indulging in a bit of "misery loves company" (yes, that's another joke). Case in point: Khrustalyov, My Car!, a blistering if somewhat fragmented accounting of the end of Stalin’s reign of terror circa 1953, in what is a rather barbed indictment of various excesses of that period of time in Russian (and/or Soviet) history. As is discussed in an equally fragmented commentary track (more about that below in the Supplements section of the review), Khrustalyov, My Car! isn’t always easy to follow from a purely narrative standpoint (something that led the French distributor to add a text prologue supposedly “explaining” context, something that’s included on this release), but from a baseline emotional standpoint, the film is devastatingly clear about the horrors of a sociopolitical system that treats humans like so many cogs in so many wheels.

While that aforementioned text crawl alerts the viewer to the Stalin led pogrom more than a bit euphemistically called “the doctors’ plot”, a wholescale arrest and/or murder of scores of Jewish physicians Stalin insisted were involved in a massive conspiracy against him, at least some of Khrustalyov, My Car! plays out in vignettes that seem only tangentially related to this long ago incident. Instead the film is bookended with kind of patently odd, if also undeniably Kafkaesque, scenes involving Fedya Aramyshev (Aleksandr Bashirov), a kind of hapless schmoe who is seen in early going first battling a badly sparking electrical device of some kind, and soon thereafter battling what appear to be KGB-ish agents, after they alight from a car Fedya has the unfortunate bad luck to try to steal the hood ornament from. Already due to the high contrast black and white cinematography and a bleak, wintry scene, the entire film feels like it’s a direct transmission from director Alexsei German’s Id ravaged dreams.

The agents at least do have a connection to the so-called “doctors’ plot”, one that involves the putative focal character of the film, a former Soviet General who is now a renowned brain surgeon named Yuri Klensky (Yuri Tsurilo). There are hints of a rampant depression running through the story, including elements of mental illness, but one of the main “cures” offered for all sorts of ills here is good old fashioned hooch, and Klensky is firmly in what commentator Daniel Bird seems to suggest is the firm Russian tradition of a hard drinker. What German seems to be suggesting, albeit in an at times incredibly discursive way, is that there’s another “through line” in the Russian soul, or at least the Russian male soul, namely a tendency toward despotism, as evidenced by some of Klensky’s own behaviors. In what is an obviously intentional irony, Klensky’s own “Stalinesque” tendencies get buried (in a manner of speaking) when he’s caught up in the “doctors’ plot” and becomes, yes, a cog in the wheel of what often feels like a Russian version of Kafka’s The Trial, not just in terms of the labyrinthine bureaucracies being depicted, but perhaps more saliently in terms of no one (including the arrested and the arresters) seeming to know exactly what’s going on or what “laws” may have been violated. Even that irony becomes more ironic when Klensky is called upon to aid a most unexpected patient.

As odd as it may seem, parts of Khrustalyov, My Car! reminded me, at least in passing, of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, albeit arguably filtered through a perhaps Fellini-esque prism. This similarity struck me not just in its depiction of a somewhat florid mustachioed and bald military type, but also in its vignette driven approach toward documenting “history”. Despite the almost neurotic moroseness of events unfolding in the film, there’s also a rather cheeky sense of humor at play, which also reminded me (again, at least in passing) of the old Archers production. Some of this humor may in fact flit right by American eyes, and indeed would have to mine, had it not been for commentator Bird. who points out a few passing items of interest, as in the “deluxe” self-opening umbrella one character carries early in the film that quickly identifies him as a poseur. The umbrella later opens more or less by itself during a moment of calamity, in just one example of what is at times an almost slapstick approach to otherwise deadly serious events.

Khrustalyov, My Car! Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Khrustalyov, My Car! is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Academy with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. This is the very rare Arrow release where there's something of a discrepancy in descriptions of the provenance of the transfer on the back cover and the insert booklet. The back cover states that this is a "new 2K restoration from the original camera negative", while the insert booklet contains the following information on the restoration:

Khrustalyov, My Car! has been exclusively resotred by Arrow Films and is presented in its original aspect ration of 1.37:1 with stereo sound.

The original 35mm fine grain positive was scanned in 2K resolution on an Arriscan at Eclair, Paris. The film was graded and restored at Dragon DI, Wales. Picture grading was completed on a Pablo Rio system and restoration was completed using a combination of PFClean and Revival software.

My personal hunch is that the booklet is correct, though (as usual) if anyone can point me to authoritative data to the contrary, I'll happily post an update here. The bottom line is this is an often ravishing presentation, but there are a few variances at play. Contrast is generally superb, but as can be easily gleaned from many of the screenshots accompanying this review, German and cinematographer Vladimir Ilin frequently push things to the point that whites can bloom slightly, something which in turn can offer kind of effulgent glows around objects (and people), and at least occasionally mask fine detail levels. There are some pretty noticeable fluctuations in clarity along with variances in overall contrast, though the fact that this was evidently shot over the course of several years may come into play with regard to these differences (it almost looks like different stocks were used for different sequences). The film offers a glut of midrange and close-up shots, and those often offer very impressive detail levels. The restoration gauntlet has removed any major signs of age related wear and tear. Grain can also be slightly variable, but resolves naturally throughout the presentation.

Update: I received a very nice email from disc producer and commentator Daniel Bird confirming my hunch that this was sourced from the IP.

Khrustalyov, My Car! Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Khrustalyov, My Car! features an LPCM 2.0 track in the original Russian which didn't strike my ears as providing a ton of really wide stereo imaging, but which offers excellent fidelity which supports both voice over and dialogue, as well as a lot of ambient environmental effects. The sound design here is occasionally intentionally chaotic, including some almost Hawksian overlapping dialogue.

Khrustalyov, My Car! Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by Daniel Bird features one of the producers of this release, but this sounds like it may have been cobbled together from at least a couple of different recording sessions. I almost thought two different people were speaking at times due to the difference in tone and amplitude, and some of the segues didn't make a whale of a lot of sense to me, as if things had been edited or assembled improperly. If you can get past some of these issues (which may not strike others as being as odd as they struck me), there's some good background information given here, as well as some literary antecedents and historical background on various issues.


• Between Realism and Nightmare (1080p; 25:40) is a new video essay on the film and Aleksei German by historian and film critic Eugenie Zvonkine.


• Diagnosis Murder (1080p; 43:46) is an interesting piece by academic Jonathan Brent going into some of the history of Stalin's anti- Semitic tendencies and the "doctors' plot".


• Aleksei German (1080p; 47:18) is an interview of the director conducted by Ron Holloway.


• German. . .At Last (1080p; 51:48) is listed as both a documentary and an interview in various places on this package, and both attributions are actually correct. This was done by producer Guy Seligmann.


• Re-release Trailer (1080p; 1:44)

Additionally, this comes in some very nice packaging which includes a sturdy chipboard slipbox with some interesting cover art, as well as a 56 page booklet with essays and contemporary reviews. A folded poster is also included.

Khrustalyov, My Car! Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Khrustalyov, My Car! is one of the more visceral viewing experiences I've had lately, though I would be the first to admit there are whole swaths of this film which are left unexplained, or at least undeveloped. As such, it's probably best to approach this as a "mood piece", and to let the really ravishing (if at times disturbing) visuals take control. It's always interesting to see someone from any given culture and/or nation take on some of the peculiarities of the culture and/or nation's history, and German offers a rather scathing assessment of Soviet era abuses (both macro and micro). Technical merits are excellent, and as usual Arrow has assembled some really interesting supplements (I'd almost advise that interested viewers start with some of the supplements rather than the film itself). Highly recommended.