In 2010, a curious film was released in the domestic rental, in which the famous artist Yevgeny Grishkovets, having turned into an oligarch, challenges his wife’s lover to an “alcoholic” duel. Grishkovec's conversation-table drama Satisfaction participated in the competitive screening of the 21st Kinotavr, has an IMDb rating of 6.20.
Creative duet
This film project was the debut for the 27-year-old Irkutsk director Anna Matison. The director met Grishkovets when, as a television producer, she took part in creating a short film based on his opus “The mood improved.” Since Evgeny Valerievich appeared in films in several roles at once: a co-author of the script, producer and leading actor, the majority of filmmakers consider the creation of Satisfaction to be his merit. The Russian playwright is inclined to position his creation as a sophisticated film composition, which is based on a complex lyrical plot, favorably distinguished by a deep elaboration of images.
Short storyline
"Satisfaction" Grishkovets begins with an acquaintance with the main character - the Irkutsk oligarch Alexander Verkhozin, who, having inspected the construction site, taught the negligent contractor, trying to save the dog on the highway, together with his assistant goes to a rented restaurant. The fact is that his friend and assistant Dmitry also became the lover of the businessman’s wife. Alexander prefers to find out relations in an unconventional form, having called the adviser to a “drunk duel”. One of the two men whose body is more resilient will receive a windy beauty and a million dollars. The role of Dmitry was played by Denis Burgazliev, and Evgeny Grishkovets reincarnated as Verkhozin.
The reviews of Satisfaction emphasize that keeping the viewer's attention for 97 minutes by dialogue of two characters in one location is a very difficult task. But, according to most reviewers, the authors dealt with it. A successful find of the director is to divide the conversation into themes, which splits the entire film into conditional episodes. Heroes talk about one thing, after they move on to another, the mood of the story changes as a result, the atmosphere is heating up, tension is growing.
Performance film
Critics, evaluating the picture, reproached the creators for artsy theatricality. Indeed, the film-performance "Satisfaction" of Grishkovets is difficult to consider as a full-fledged movie. Dialogues of central characters and monotonous interruptions – inserts with a demonstration of what is happening in the kitchen bore many.
But in fairness it is worth noting that the form of Satisfaction of Grishkovets is not very innovative. From foreign analogues it is worth recalling the “Game through” (1972), in which a wealthy writer plays psychological games with his wife’s less well-off lover. The manner of shooting is very reminiscent of Jim Jarmusch's masterpiece “Coffee and Cigarettes”, in which over the course of 11 short stories different characters talk about everything over a cup of coffee. Satisfaction operator Andrei Zakablukovsky repeatedly almost exactly repeats individual shots from the aforementioned picture, the camera shoots a round table on top with coffee cups on it.
Grishkovets’s film Satisfaction is also similar to Nikita Mikhalkov’s domestic powerful drama No Witnesses, in which Mikhail Ulyanov and Irina Kupchenko’s stunning acting duet shines. The above examples serve as proof that the form of the movie is a winning one, especially with good drama, well-established dialogues and the finest acting.
Undoubted advantages
Many film experts and viewers often compared Grishkovets' Satisfaction with the comedy "What Men Talk About" by Dmitry Dyachenko. But the author’s monologues of Yevgeny Valerievich are superior to the jokes of the Quartet I, and the absence of unnecessary events that could distract the public from a self-contained text is only useful for Anna Matison. At the same time, give credit to the actors. It is difficult to recall such convincingly “truly” drunk heroes appearing on the screen. Russian and German film and theater actor Denis Burgazliev is a very talented performer. Known for the TV series “Volkova’s Hour” and the films “April” and “The Bourne Supremacy”. In Satisfaction, he managed to look no worse than Grishkovets, he squeezed out maximum of drama from his hero.
An interesting directorial decision in the film should be considered screensavers with a kaleidoscope, which show the viewer throughout the picture. The watchers immediately have associations with a kaleidoscope of human destinies, which suggests the existence of a philosophical background to the film.