The Night Watch

You know, it isn’t that often I watch a subtitled film.   Not that often, at all; I think the last one I saw was Luc Besson’s “Nikita”.   But the few times I do watch them, I pay attention.

After all, one has to, with subtitles.

And, as with “Nikita”, paying attention to the Russian made, Timur Bekmambetov directed, “Night Watch” pays; or that’s my thinking.

I also know that an ex-girlfriend of mine wouldn’t have wanted to see it, given her severe dyslexia.*

Even if — as she was — you’re not one for subtitles, I’m told there’s a dubbed version doing the rounds;  you may wish to track this down, as I believe Nightwatch worth at least one watching, dubbed or subtitled.

It would be a shame to lose out on those, though, as the films makers use them them in very interesting ways.   As one example, when one of the characters, Yegor, is having a nose bleed in a swimming pool, the subtitles are red, and swirl out of sight, as if they were blood dissolving into the pool; at other times, they appear from behind parts of the set, only to disappear behind characters as they walk across the screen.

It’s a very watchable way of turning a necessity into a minor work of art. 

That’s not only where Night Watch scores, I feel.

It has a very different emotional feel to it, I think.

I’m reminded, here, of William Gibson’s Neuromancer, as well as the film version of Trainspotting in that both have an world weary, streetwise feel to them, although, of the two, I feel Night Watch shares its tone more with the latter.   They both want to show that their subject is incredibly sleazy.

Saying that, Trainspotting — dealing, as it does, with with the lives of a group of Edinburgh heroin addicts — has its roots in the real world.

Night Watch, however, is more supernatural in the tale it has to tell

The prologue telling us how the truce between Good and Evil is formed by its leaders and policed by the Night Watch —the Light Others— and the Day Watch — the bad guys, if you don’t mind my putting it simply — and how they are expecting a prophesied Great Other to tip the balance in one or the others favour.

That’s the films basic premise, although it opens with its central character, Anton, going to see a very urban witch, to hire her to cast a spell for him.

It turns out the witch is being watched.

By the eponymous Night Watch.

In the process, Anton discovers he’s an Other, and has to make a choice.

Which is where the film gets going …

I think I’ll leave that there.   But I will point you to Night Watch entry on both IMDb, and on Wikipedia.

But that opening scene …

The witches insistence that Anton assume the sin of what he asks her to do — something I’m told is a feature of real-world paganism — is what caught me, and the feeling that it was telling you a sleaze ridden story of a supernatural vice squad is what kept me watching.

And seriously has me wanting to watch the follow-ups …

Cast
Konstantin Khabenskiy	Anton Gorodetsky
Vladimir Menshov	Gesser
Valeriy Zolotukhin	Kostya's Father
Mariya Poroshina	Svetlana
Galina Tyunina	Olga, the sorceress
Yuriy Kutsenko	Ignat
Aleksey Chadov	Kostya (Anton's young vampire neighbor)
Zhanna Friske	Alicia Donnikova
Ilya Lagutenko	Andrei
Viktor Verzhbitsky	Zavulon

* The lady in questions was a qualified chêf, and had an IQ somewhere in the upper 120s; I’m told that’s pretty good, and is certainly brighter than me.   Nasty temper she had, though, I seem to recall …