Katya Tylevich

New Film To Combine "Sex And The City," Gross Russian Guys

Russia already has its share of Sex and the City corollaries. First there was the dubbed U.S. original (translated as "Sex in the Big City"). Then came The Balzac Age [Бальзаковский Возраст], a show about four women who dissect each other's love lives at Moscow's banyas and cafes. And now they're bending the genre with Love in the Big City [Любовь в большом городе], a film about a trio of horny Russian guys living in New York. The trailer kicks off with doppelgängers of Carrie Bradshaw and Co. strolling through Central Park as the three protagonists jog by in silly windbreakers. Cue the pervy voice-over.

Sex in the city? That’s no problem.” No, the problem for these oversexed bachelors, it turns out, is the sudden onset of erectile dysfunction. “My Winnie The Pooh refuses to reach for the tree hole. Honey doesn’t interest him anymore," one character laments. Then we get a blast of an emotional pop song about a "dying battery." Yes, this is the real plot. It seems St. Valentine, played by aging pop singer Filipp Kirkorov (his shirt says “If You’re Not With Us You Can Kirkor-Off”), has placed a flaccidity curse on our three amigos. The antidote? Duh. “Find love!” Not surprisingly, all three friends do find much better-looking better halves.

Director Marius Weisberg is also the brains behind Hitler Kaput, the Mel Brooks-style World War II spoof that got a lot of confused buzz in fall of last year. This latest wisely leaves the war veterans alone, but that's not to say it isn't puzzling in its own right.

Surely all of this will make sense when we see the movie (which will probably be never), but how is it that all the characters in this New York-based movie are Russian? Sure, the men could be expats, but every woman they meet appears to be Russian, too. And these guys all own swanky Manhattan apartments. If they're such lovable losers, why are they living like exiled oligarchs? Then again, how did Carrie Bradshaw afford all those Jimmy Choos on a sex columnist's salary? We could make ourselves crazy this way...

Любовь в большом городе [Rutube.ru]


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Marina Galperina
March 2, 12:47 PM
Is that a khohloma dress? Nice touch.
March 2, 1:07 PM
@Marina: I bet it's Simachev! You know, everyone in New York wears him.
Kostya Berger
March 3, 4:54 AM
Wow! Sounds like a real devotee of Russian cinema and other fine Russian arts. Great article, really.
You seem to love the stuff?
As a matter of fact, the unique circumstances of my birth made me resident to this (yeah, to me it is "this") country, thus exposed, not only to the movies, but even much more so to the realities thereof, and that on the daily basis. That is to say, I'm a RUSSIAN myself.
As such, how do I feel about those fine arts in question?
Well, the only difference those movies make against the real life is this. In them dumb stupid movies they kinda show it all grotesque, kinda "fancy"(in their opinion), kinda "cool" and "kinda" makin' fun of it.
In real life it is all more or less the same, but this time nobody's kiddin'.
Hence, the result of my study of this social phenomenon: them stupid movies are meant to help one accept the absurd reality one's living in... I guess, the makers of those masterpieces deem it their social duty and a citizen's obligation to make such movies. But I don't think it differs much from what they do in the West.
Though in the West, I must admit it, every once in a while, they somehow make a decent movie showing normal people looking at things from a normal angle... Such movies are usually meant for children of 3-6 years old, though. How do you explain this tendency to yourself?
imad deera
March 22, 3:19 AM
love

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