“The House of the Dragon” has become an exemplary reproach to Russian fantasy
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The show of the series “House of the Dragon” has already started, “The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power” is on its way. The battle of two richly staged fantasy will probably become one of the intrigues of the serial season. True, Russian producers are unlikely to be able to offer projects in this genre around which the same excitement would arise.
In terms of hype, both “House of the Dragon” and “Rings of Power” can give a head start to a lot of things, but optimism about both the serial prequel to the film hit “The Lord of the Rings” and the prequel to one of the most successful television projects of recent years, “Game of Thrones”, is still very careful.
The first series of “House of the Dragon” garnered polarizing reviews ranging from “energetic and exciting” to “boring and formulaic”. Moreover, both critics and ordinary viewers who came up with such verdicts had their own very good reasons for this.
Perhaps the plot was successful, but will it be possible to keep the audience’s attention to characters that are completely unfamiliar to them? Are massive battle scenes and impressive CGI a guarantee of success? Even the most successful producers never know exactly what will eventually work and what will turn out to be a resounding failure.
However, the first episode of House of the Dragon has enough promise for the series to become a model fantasy for at least one season. And there is a suspicion that local fans of the genre will not have a single worthy Russian alternative.
For our serial industry, fantasy is, frankly, not the most obvious choice. Some, of course, are removed. For example, the sensational at the time “Eterna”, threatening to become almost a movie franchise. She was conceived as a manifesto on the field of “Game of Thrones”, and the creators of the picture did a lot. Perhaps it was sometimes difficult to wade through the worlds of the writer Vera Kamshi, the author of the “Reflections of Eterna” cycle, but the rich props and very dynamic battle scenes certainly kept the audience’s attention.
The project has another advantage. “Eterna” is more of a fantasy in the Western sense of the genre. On the screen, a world, albeit fictional, but still filled with passions understandable to modern man, is recreated. There are behind-the-scenes intrigues, politics, religious overtones, in general, everything with which it is customary to present fairy tales for adults and the non-nervous.
But this approach is very rare for local projects. Much more we like to use the background of real historical events. So it was in “Karamor”, where an alternative history of pre-revolutionary Russia was developed, so it was in the almost exemplary from the point of view of not so much fabulousness of the plot as swords, horses and chain mail the film “Viking”, dedicated to Prince Vladimir. The riot of the latest film technologies and clear inspiration from the best international films of a similar genre invariably fit into the local classic story called “here is Russia, and there are enemies.”
Given the current historical moment, there is probably not much chance that this approach will be canceled. Movies and serials are now more than ever required to retell historical facts, and this retelling should have the most patriotic intonations. And fantasy (silly comedies based on local folklore don’t count) doesn’t do well in these settings.
Still, we are talking about an absolutely cosmopolitan genre. And the best fantasy stories are more about the present than about some abstract Middle Ages. In the same Game of Thrones, the idea of the transparency of the border between good and evil, of power as a system of compromises built on intrigues and cruel persecution, of a world where religion is not a deterrent for people and is actually sacrificed to different interests .
All this, with the exception of the cult of technology, of course, resembles the model of the modern world, where there is less good news than bad. At the same time, behind the intrigues of the “throne” villains who are trying to seize or retain power, one can still guess the confrontation between denseness and progress, dictatorship and a free spirit. Although the chances of everything good is not so much.
This kind of conflict was also characteristic of the best Soviet fantasy like “Kill the Dragon” or “Tales of Wanderings”. There is a lot of allegory in the plot of these films, which is quite typical for films shot under strict censorship. In the painting by Mark Zakharov, the Dragon is a symbol of slavery, so to kill it does not mean to defeat some abstract creature, but to change oneself. In Alexander Mitta’s film, hints at the fragile oil paradise of the USSR era and the threat of ecological catastrophe, as well as the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in scenes with the coming of the Plague, hide in a plot reminiscent of a children’s fairy tale.
Sometimes it seems that the era of the Aesopian language, taking into account all the modern realities of life in the country, can again return to Russian cinema. However, this is still an overly optimistic scenario. Now is clearly not the time for romantics who dream of the victory of humanism and reason. Directors and producers who know how to master budgets and fit into sovereign trends with an absolutely cold head are in the price. Therefore, local fantasy will most likely turn out to be not globally oriented, but narrowly patriotic.
Newspaper headline:
All can kings
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