On the day-to-day level of the civil registry office in Russia, major life events resemble a comedy of errors. From the disgruntled couple who change their mind about a divorce right before signing the divorce papers, to a wedding ceremony of a beaming bride and a saliva queasy groom. Alina Rudnitskaya’s Civil Status looks at the spontaneous and blundered legal decisions though quiet observations of the people at the office.
Knowing that sugar coated weddings and white fuzzy bonnets are the stuff of fairy tales, Rudnitskaya focuses on the fallibility and regular haphazardness of major decisions. Like all things in nature, life decisions and status changes are fluid. They are mostly ruled by accidents, capricious outbreaks and coincidences– and the only thing you can do is wonder how long each phase will last. One of the best scenes in the film is a quiet intimate moment with a woman trying to persuade her husband that she didn’t cheat on him with the doctor. There is also a scene with a weeping older woman who arrives at the office only hours after her husband died so she can buy a cheaper coffin. Everything happens in the unassuming space of the civil registry office in front of witnesses who double as administrators, counselors and masters of ceremony.
I’m a huge fan of being able to watch this documentary online with the link that you sent.
Posted by here is a fantasy | May 11, 2011, 16:43Thank you for the link to this wonderful doc. The editing captured the office workers bizarre routine of the humdrum, the tragic, the joyous, and the incorrigible sleaze. (I loved the closeup of the man’s eyes following the lady around the office.)
The intersection of the frustratingly bureaucratic with, as you said, the “fallibility and regular haphazardness of major decisions” reminds me of the Kieslowski documentary “Pierwsza milosc”
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Unfortunately without subtitles, but I gather you don’t need them.
Posted by Biobebop | May 15, 2011, 00:10Thank you for posting. It’s a great documentary! I like the character development and the expounding moral dilemma at the heart of the couple’s relationship.
A lot of Rudnitskaya’s work reminds me of Frederick Wiseman’s films. His technique. The investigative and journalistic approach with minimal manipulation. And Wiseman too set out to do these ambitious projects that examined social relationships in institutions though poverty, public housing and domestic violence.
Have you seen this one?
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58EF0Ic77l8&w=425&h=349
Posted by Beatrice Smigasiewicz | May 18, 2011, 16:48No, I haven’t seen any of Wiseman’s documentaries, but after that brief clip, I most certainly need to. The gynecologist’s adolescent glee is priceless and disturbing (“…and I get paid to do it”).
Quite difficult to find his work, but Odd Obsession seems to have most of them, so I’ll definitely make the treck to rent Highschool sometime. Thanks
Posted by Biobebop | May 20, 2011, 21:31