Las Meninas (film)

Las Meninas
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ihor Podolchak Dean Karr
Produced by	Ihor Podolchak Liliya Mlynarych Ihor Dyurych Tamara Podolchak
Written by	Ihor Podolchak
Starring	Mykola Veresen Lyubov Tymoshevska Hanna Yarovenko
Music by	Alexander Shchetynsky
Cinematography	Serhiy Mykhalchuk
Edited by	Ihor Podolchak
Distributed by	Ihor Podolchak, Ukraine Insomnia World Sales
Release dates	January 25, 2008 (2008-01-25) (Rotterdam Int. Film Festival) October 5, 2009 (2009-10-05) (Ukraine)
Running time	99 minutes
Country	Ukraine
Language	Ukrainian
Budget	850 000 $

Las Meninas (Spanish for The Maids of Honour) is a 2008 Ukrainian film directed by Ihor Podolchak. Its title alludes to the painting of Diego Velázquez Las Meninas. Ihor Podolchak was the producer, screenwriter and director of this film. Las Meninas was produced by MF Films (a subdivision of Masoch Fund). It was the first Ukrainian film^[1] to participate in the Tiger Awards Competition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam. As of beginning of 2011, the film has participated in 27 international film festivals, including 10 competition programs. In 2011, it was included in Top 15 Best Ukrainian films of the 20 years’ Independence period.^[2]

Plot

Still from Las Meninas

The film is about what the routine of everyday life can do to the human mind and psyche. It also reflects on the importance of the choices we make and how limited these choices are in the first place. The plot evolves around a family of four. They live in the suburbs, in a strange villa that appears, through a complex game of mirrors, to be more like a piece of installation art than a real house. The main character, who hardly appears on screen, is the son, a man in his thirties. Suffering from asthma and eczema since childhood, he uses his condition to manipulate his parents and his sister. Thus the existence of the terrorized family turns into an endless ritual of attempting to satisfy his whims, and always on the alert for yet another one of his “health crises”.

Las Meninas resembles the scattered pieces of a puzzle. It is up to the viewer to assemble them in order to form his very own picture – something that makes the film itself personal and unique.

Ihor Podolchak and Serhiy Mykhalchuk. Movie set. 2006

Cast

• Mykola Veresen as Father, Second Father, Young Father
• Lyubov Tymoshevska as Mother
• Hanna Yarovenko as Daughter
• Dmytro Chernyavsky as Son
• Ilona Arsentyeva as Daughter (girl)
• Stas Arsentyev as Son (boy)
• Viktoriya Ulyanchenko as Young Mother
• Valeriya Ulyanchenko as Young Mother

Production

Idea for the script appeared in 2004, inspired by Doctor Janos Sanocky’s account of a case from his medical practice. The dialogue was co-written by the Lithuanian-Russian writer Andrey Levkin. Shooting of the film took place between September 15 and October 24, 2006 in Kyiv. Most of the film was shot through the mirrors,^[3] which caused serious difficulties for the director of photography, since there was a permanent challenge for the crew to avoid getting into the shot. Editing, effects, color correction and rendering of the film took 14 months. All post-production work except for rendering was done by Ihor Podolchak himself. Las Meninas was the first feature film in Ukraine created entirely with the Digital intermediate process.^[4] Most of the music in the film was written for cello and piano by composer Alexander Shchetynsky. Director and composer paid attention to the central role of music as a semantic counterpoint to the dialogue and visual imagery, so the sound level of the film can be viewed as an integral sound installation. American video clip director Dean Karr co-directed the music part of the film.

Releases and Reception

Las Meninas had a world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam^[5] on January 25, 2008. During 2008–2011, the film participated in competition programs of the international film festivals in Brazil,^[6] Croatia,^[7] Russia, Poland,^[8] Slovakia,^[9] Spain, Romania, Italy, and Hungary;^[10] in non-competition programs in Germany,^[11] South Korea,^[12] France,^[13] Australia, Greece,^[14] UK,^[15] Colombia,^[16] Estonia,^[17] USA,^[18] Sweden, and South Africa.^[19] It was also included in the official selections of the Moscow International Film Festival^[20] and the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.^[21]

The critics noted the film’s “beautiful imagery” and praised the camerawork of Serhiy Mykhalchuk.^[22] Ukrainian premiere of the film took place on June 9, 2009 at the Festival of the European Cinema in Kyiv.^[23] Theatrical release in Ukraine was on October 5, 2009.^[24] The film received mixed reviews in Ukraine. The critical opinions were polarized – from aversion and accusations of being “artificial” to apologetics and high appreciation of the film’s art quality^[25][26][27] and its break with the tradition of the so-called “Ukrainian Soviet cinema”.

External links

• Best Ukrainian movies at Internet Movie Database
• Most Popular Ukrainian-Language Feature Films at Internet Movie Database
• Las Meninas at the Internet Movie Database
• Las Meninas at Columbia University

Bibliography

• International Film Guide 2009: the definitive annual review of world cinema, edited by Haydn Smith. 45th Edition. London & New York: Wallflower Press 2009, pp. ISBN 978-1-905674-99-2

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Las Meninas (film).

External video

Episode#2 (Ukrainian)(English)

Episode#1 (Ukrainian)(English)

External images

Screenplay and Documentattion 2006

Photos from the movie set by Dmytro Stoykov, 2006

Photos from the movie set by Dean Karr, 2006