In 2010, the third movie with the participation of Quartet I was released. Unlike the previous work of the team, this picture was not dedicated to the adventures of the âLike Radioâ employees, but focused on the male subject. This was evidenced by the eloquent title of the film - "What Men Talk About." Let's find out what this project is about, who starred in it and how well the audience accepted it.
A little about the Quartet And
The history of this wonderful comedy collective began in 1993. At that time, four graduates of GITIS (Leonid Barats, Alexander Demidov, Rostislav Khait and Kamil Larin) decided to write their own comedy and put it on the stage of their own university.
This bold experiment was a success, and the guys continued to work in the same spirit. In the following years, they wrote several more unusual plays, each production of which could not do without a full house.
The success of Quartet I's works was obvious. In order to consolidate it, in 2007 the first film was shot based on the performance "Election Day". His high box office showed that viewers are interested in film projects of this kind. Therefore, the next year, Radio Day appeared, and two years later, the comedy What Men Talk About.
Plot
In its genre, the tape is a story about road adventures (road movie). At the same time, there is relatively little action. The main focus is on conversations.
In the center of the plot of the film "What Men Talk About" is the trip of the inseparable four friends to a concert of the Bi-2 group in Odessa. On the way from Moscow, Camille, Sasha, Lesha and Slava talk about everything in the world: about their unfulfilled childhood dreams, about beloved women, about what is good and what is bad, about modern art, about old age and just about life.
Heroes of the movie "What Men Talk About"
As in most Quartet I projects, in this the actors play under their real names. With the exception of Leonid Baraz, who appears in all films as Alex. The characters are four types of men.
- Camille is a family man without children, who has both a wife and a lover.
- Sasha is a bachelor who has had a regular girlfriend for many years, but he is still not ready to tie the knot.
- Lesha is a faithful husband and caring father of two daughters. Secretly yearning for his ex-girlfriend.
- Rostislav is a ladies man. He likes to spend time in the company of beautiful women.
In numerous interviews, the actors of the movie "What Men Talk About" repeatedly emphasized that they are different from their heroes. The men shown in the picture, although they bear the names of the performers of these roles, are fictional images. For comparison, in the previous two films of the quartet ("Election Day" and "Radio Day"), the four heroes were called in the same way. At the same time, three of them had completely different characters (Lesha - gay, Sasha - a fool and a sneak, Camille - an alcoholic), and only Slava still remained a womanizer.
Other characters of the project
In addition to Quartet I, Zhanna Friske played herself in this tape. She appeared in an episode in a hotel in the village of Beldyazhka. After spending the night there, the heroes imagine what would happen if such a star as Jeanne came to this wilderness.
In addition to Friske, a cameo appeared Andrei Makarevich, Alexei Kortnev, Oleg Menshikov and, of course, the group "Bi-2".
Minor characters in the film were played by such famous artists:
- Maxim Vitorgan (Romeo from advertising).
- Nonna Grishaeva (the imaginary wife of Glory).
- Elena Podkaminskaya (Leshaâs working wife).
- Victor Dobronravov (the waiter who brought Camille "deflop with a cruton").
- Grigory Bagrov (a decent husband who resisted the charms of Jeanne).
- Elena Doronina (wife of an honest husband) and others.
In many reviews of the movie "What Men Talk About," viewers noted a well-chosen acting ensemble. Many people pay attention to the fact that even episodic characters look vivid and memorable, whether it be an aunt-administrator from the hotel (Nina Ruslanova) or Georgians with barbecue in a roadside stall (Anatoly Morozov).
Literary basis of the picture
The script of the film was based on the play "Middle-aged Men Talking about Women, Cinema, and Aluminum Forks" (Quartet I). It was written by Leonid Baraz and Rostislav Khait in 2008, and has since been constantly staged in their own theater. Even today, it continues to form the basis of the Quartet Iâs repertoire, so all fans of the project can indulge in contemplating live stories about friends. If, of course, they manage to buy tickets.
It is worth considering that theater and movie scripts are different. The revision of "Middle-aged men 's talk about women, movies and aluminum forks" was done by Sergey Petreikov. It was he who came up with how to revive the dialogs and add action to the picture. And I must say, he did it!
Criticism
The film has become a peculiar phenomenon of Russian cinema. According to the Criticism portal, all reviews and reviews about "What Men Talk About" written by professional critics are positive.
Perhaps this success is due to the fact that everyone found himself in one of the four heroes of the tape. In any case, such incorruptible unanimity among professional observers has not been seen for a long time.
The opinion of ordinary viewers
Unlike critics, ordinary movie fans were not so unambiguous in his assessment, as evidenced by the reviews left by the audience.
"What men are talking about" was liked mainly by those who, by age and social status, are close to the main characters - the "25+" category. Such spectators characterized the film as âintellectual humorâ, âall life in one bottleâ, âimpossible to come offâ and similar flattering phrases.
It is noteworthy that among the fans of the project not only men, but also many women. For what in reviews the tape is sometimes called "family".
Despite the people's love for the picture, among ordinary viewers there were those who did not like it. Moreover, it was women who made up the bulk of those who criticized the project in their reviews. Although men did not all positively evaluate the project. The main claims were made to such "features":
- monotonous plot, lack of full action;
- propaganda of betrayal;
- infantility of the main characters;
- the image of men from the bad side;
- isolation from life.
You can argue a lot about the presence or absence of these details in the picture. It will be fairer to say that everyone found in the tape what he wanted to see there.
By the way, both those who praise and those who reproach sometimes refer to the project as the male version of "Sex and the City."
In fairness, it is worth noting that most negative reviews are based on a too literal understanding of the characters of the main characters. Meanwhile, they are a concentration of shortcomings and thoughts of average men. This, incidentally, is ridiculed in the picture, and quite subtly. For example, many criticize the admiration of the heroes of Jeanne Friske, not understanding that it is not the singer and actress who is meant, but the generally accepted ideal of sexuality.
Statistics
In order not to be unfounded, we consider the statistics on the assessment of the movie by the audience. To date, the rating of the picture (according to estimates on "Kinopoisk") - 7.741 out of 10. As for 353 reviews on the same resource, then of them:
- positive - 262;
- neutral - 38;
- negative - 53.
On the All Feedbacks portal, the average viewer rating is 4.9 out of 5.
Visitors to the site "Ayrekomend" left 102 reviews about the picture with an average rating of 4.2 out of 5.
A similar situation is typical for most resources where you can discuss and evaluate this film. This is confirmed by the fact that the majority of the audience liked this project, even if not for absolutely everyone.
Quotes from the movie
The Quartet I painting was so loved by the audience that it was stolen into quotes, and the clippings from it became memes. What is Slavino âCause!â Often used by the famous Russian blogger Evgeny Bazhenov (BadComedian) and others in his reviews.
Among other witty remarks, the following are most popular:
- "I wonder how I could understand that this is high art if you had not warned me about this?" or "Iâm spiritually not very hungry, but physically - itâs just scary."
- âThe crouton in our restaurant is calledâ crouton. âIt's exactly the same toasted piece of bread. Only crouton can not cost eight dollars, but crouton can.â
- "Tell the truth to everyone except the fascists and aged classmates."
- "Dreams do not come true at all. At best, you just achieve the goal."
Sequels
During its rental in cinemas, the movie raised twelve million dollars against the two spent. This, as well as numerous laudatory reviews of âWhat Men Talk About,â led to the emergence of two sequels:
- "What else are men talking about" (2012).
- "What Men Talk About. Continuation" (2018).
Unlike the first picture, the scripts of both sequels were original. Perhaps thatâs why the audienceâs reviews of âWhat Men Talk About. Continuation ofâ and âWhat Men Still Talk Aboutâ were less enthusiastic. Despite the fact that the second tape collected seventeen million at the box office, and the third - only seven.
Critics explain the current situation by the fact that the play "Talking Middle-aged Men About Women, Films and Aluminum Forks", before becoming a movie script, passed the test by the "audience". The Quartet I had the opportunity to watch and draw live conclusions about how the audience reacts to certain jokes. Based on these observations, they managed to put into the script those dialogues and thoughts that were able to interest. Compared to this, the sequel scripts were raw, and therefore received less positive reviews.
âWhat men are talking about. Continuation,â like âElection Day 2,â was sad confirmation that the continuation of even very successful projects is rarely worthy of the original. However, even in this form, the film was (according to individual viewers) a cut above many other Russian films. Therefore, despite the modest gatherings of the third part, fans of the Quartet I agree that they would like to see the continuation of the history of the restless four.