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Come and See

Idi i smotri

Soviet Union

1985

146 Min
Color, Black and White
1.37:1
German, Russian
  • Currently 4.6/5 Stars.
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DIR Elem Klimov

SCR Ales Adamovich, Elem Klimov

DP Aleksei Rodionov

CAST Aleksei Kravchenko, Olga Mironova, Liubomiras Lauciavicius, Vladas Bagdonas, Juris Lumiste

ED Valeriya Belova

MUSIC Oleg Yanchenko

SOUND Viktor Mors

Synopsis

A crowning achievement of 1980’s Soviet cinema, Elem Klimov’s Come And See is perhaps the ultimate WW II film. This savage and lyrical fever dream of death, rage and terror experienced through young eyes is a virtual primer for the subsequent, similarly psychedelic intensity of Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line and Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. Klimov’s elegant, harrowing union of unflinching ferocity and dreamlike clarity moved Empire Of The Sun author J. G. Ballard to declare Come And See the greatest war film ever made. Time Out New York agreed, saying “Come And See’s nimble balance of the sordid with the elegiac makes Peckinpah’s Cross Of Iron seem like Newsies.”

When young Florya willingly joins a group of Partisans fighting the Nazis in Byelorussia, U.S.S.R., he little suspects that he is plunging through the looking glass. Separated from his comrades during a paratroop attack and struck deaf by German artillery, Florya – in the company of Glascha, a beguiling peasant girl – wanders a battle-scorched Russian purgatory of prehistoric forests and man-made slaughter. Florya’s journey takes him and us through a gallery of exquisitely poetic imagery and brutal human atrocity.

Unlike traditional war films, Come And See never stoops to convenient heroic catharsis or genre movie narrative symmetry. Images of a beautiful girl’s impromptu dance in the rain and an SS unit’s spontaneous, self-congratulatory applause at their own butchery haunt with equal power. More than any other war film, Come And See unites the powerful truths and inescapable dilemmas that lurk behind both the raptures of youth and the horrors of war. —KINO

Director

Original

Elem Klimov

Former first secretary of the Soviet Filmmakers’ Union Elem Klimov was a graduate of the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography, where he studied under Efim Dzigan. Over the course of his long career he made just five films, the most famous being the classic World War II film Come and See. Come and See was in many ways informed by Klimov’s childhood experiences; during the battle of Stalingrad Klimov’s family was evacuated by raft on the Volga. At the 1985 Moscow Film Festival, Come and See won Klimov both the FIPRESCI Prize and the Golden Prize. In his personal life, Klimov was married to the film director Larissa Shepitko, who tragically died in a car crash in 1979. At the time of the crash, Shepitko was working on her film Farewell, which Klimov subsequently completed. Klimov’s films ranged from black comedies to historical epics. Later on in life, Klimov had plans to adapt Dostoevsky’s Demons, Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita and to make a film on Stalin. However, none of… read more

Wall

Displaying 4 of 97 wall posts.
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laverite

19May13

I rewatched this today and is the most effecting war film I’ve seen, and is maybe the best. Solidified itself as my favourite war-based film ever.

Picture of marta d

marta d

15May13

beautiful cinematic propaganda. or propagated cinematography. one track minded, but still very beautiful visual communication.

Picture of Erich Kuersten

Erich Kuersten

11Apr13

This film blew my mind - it's harrowing without being preachy, poetic without being flowery, pummeling without relying on cheap shock tactics. Can't recommend highly enough

Picture of Wayne Holloway

Wayne Holloway

11Mar13

Everybody has stolen images, scenes and framing from this movie, the most unmediated of films 'about' War, Nazism and childhood.

stoyanov likes this

Related Films

Fans

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Articles

Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
Blank

The Forgotten: The Apocalypse of St. Andrzej

By David Cairns on January 14, 2009

The First Part Andrzej Zulawski swings his camera like a steel fist. Indeed, right at the start of his first feature, The Third Part of the

read article

ETRANGE 2011: COME AND SEE (1985) review

By Twitchfilm.com on December 16, 2011
(Since this astonishing film is part of the 17th L’Estrange Film Festival’s retro screenings, I’m using that as an excuse to write a review.)“And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the fourth
read on Twitchfilm.com

Lists

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Reviews

Displaying 4 of 7

Terrible film

By Edna Sweetlo​ve on December 20, 2011

When I finally got round to watching this film, was it worth the wait? YES! YES! YES! I could happily (in retrospect) have waited another few years before seeing it. I stayed awake to operate the fast…  read review

Come and check it out!

By sodr2 on June 27, 2011

I think Elem Klimov reached the full climax of cinematic revolution in making this film. Come and See stands with authority with the ability in hypnotizing me with its magical pendulum, it’s really…  read review

COME AND SEE

By Marcus WP on June 27, 2011

http://travissaves.blogspot.com/2011/06/come-and-see-probably-one-of-most.html?spref=fb

I’ve never done drugs before in my life (outside of the legal drugs that keep my uncle’s kidney from rejecting…  read review

Come and see, if you dare

By Braden Vallenè​res on July 5, 2010

Stunning.

One of those “war movies” that’s not really a war movie so much as a punch to the gut. No scenes of the tough sarge gathering his troops for one last heroic assault here. Instead…  read review

Forum

Displaying 2 discussion topics.

Called the greatest World War II movie ever....

80 posts by 38 people 16 days ago

Looking for dramatic russian war films

26 posts by 18 people about 3 years ago