Nochnoi dozor film release in U.S.

[Russell Valentino]

I can think of a few reasons. For someone who can make out the Cyrillic,
the combination suggests a lack of coherence or breakdown in order, which
seems to be part of the film's theme. The random combination of Latin and
Cyrillic also recalls the Cold War inspired art of James Sanborn -- again
this might echo the film's central theme of a confrontation between two
monumental sides. Finally, there may be a comment on adaptation in the
subtitle, suggesting that this isn't an adaptation of a Russian film (is
it?) but a film "after" another, as in "a poem after Catullus," so inspired
by or suggested by or something still looser. I'm comparing to two other
cases: the recent Hollywood adaptation of the Japanese film "Ring" and the
most recent "Anna Karenina" (the one with Sophie Marceau in the title
role). The Ring doesn't make any claims at all to being an adaptation of a
Japanese film -- you have to search for it, and there's no reference in the
title info. Anna K. is announced as an adaptation from the start. Why the
section captions in that film should give very specific dates for the
depicted action that are all in the 1880s (not the 1870s) has always seemed
completely inexplicable to me.

The trailer is intense.


At 04:03 PM 6/8/2005, you wrote:
>The NY Times online has an ad the release of "Nochnoi dozor" in the U.S.
>The trailer is up on the web at the following address:
>
>http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/night_watch/
>
>The official website has a small set of photos, some bios of the
>director and actors, a forum, and so on.
>
>The site says the film will be showing in select cities in the U.S.
>starting July 29th, though it does not specify which cities.
>
>Just to complain a bit, can anyone tell me why the film studio would use
>a botched mix of Latin and Cyrillic characters to give the feel of an
>authentic Russian title instead of simply using the real title in
>Cyrillic? I can't see that what they have would make any more sense to
>someone who doesn't read Russian than the real Russian.
>
>
>Jeanette Owen
>Assistant Professor of Russian
>Department of Languages and Literatures
>Arizona State University
>
>(480) 965-4599
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Russell Valentino
Associate Professor
Program in Russian
Department of Cinema and Comparative Literature
University of Iowa
Tel. (319) 353-2193
Fax (319) 353-2524

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