Dau (Ilya Khrzhanovsky, 2019)

[dda1996a]

I'm down to watching at least 1 or 2 and if I like what I see I'll watch the rest

[spectre]

Part of me thinks this could be one of the most amazing audiovisual projects ever made. And then another part of me thinks that this is all just going to be a glorified Russian Big Brother Uncut in period dress.

[John Cope]

Tons of coverage at last.

[domino harvey]

These reactions tell a grosser story

[Big Ben]

I'm reminded of a guy I met who tried to convince me he had watched all ten hours of Warhol's Empire. As I began to disassociate from reality as he spoke I began to wonder if he really felt some sense of intellectual pride (If he had done it.) or was simply trying to appear intelligent because he thought he'd pull one over on all us dweebs who were baffled at his statements. This feels like a more extreme version of that (Reading those critics supposed statements.) except that you can get the impression Warhol wanted by projecting his film all day in a museum. This, this I don't know. Why would I want to watch random strangers bang for hours on end?

[DarkImbecile]

It appears that about nine hours of Dau is now available to stream online, with more to come

twbb, we expect a full review by noon EST today.

[therewillbeblus]

Perfect, I needed a valid excuse to cancel my treatment meetings today.

[MichaelB]

The revival of this thread reminds me that the much-ballyhooed London staging scheduled for April 2019 or thereabouts never actually happened. Or at least I can't believe it would have been totally blanked in the media.

[vicko_77]

Next Dau films release dates
Dau.Nora's Mother: April 26
Dau.Three Days: April 26
Dau.Brave People: May 3
Dau.Katya Tanya: May 3

[sir_luke]

So, I watched both of the available films, Natasha and Degeneration, and with the caveat that there are (as previously discussed) some heavy ethical implications to the project — and some degree to which the line between loosely scripted and spontaneous becomes troubling, specifically in scenes of violence — I would say that these are pretty stunning works overall.

Natasha plays out in what feels like real time, in an extremely immersive two-and-a-half hours. Obviously I wasn’t sure what to expect of these films, and I was surprised at how intimate this piece was — limited primarily to a single location, and everything hangs upon the naturalistic and volatile interplay between a few key players.

Spoiler

There is a sudden fourth-wall-shattering moment that does something to partially reveal the degree of psychological distress to which the participants in this “experiment” have been subjected, and it took the breath out of me like very little else I’ve seen in cinema.

I was also surprised at how “light” the film is, until a whiplash turn plunges things into a much darker space. The much-discussed interrogation scene is as harrowing as it has been portrayed in reviews, but to me it was perhaps most distressing in its silences and spaces in between the moments of violence — an electric uncertainty exists in these scenarios, and I really felt a moment-to-moment unease that gave the bursts of cruelty an even more indelible sting. The Institute is a place where words likely have an opposite meaning and where nothing should be trusted implicitly, and those are certainly the types burbling feelings these films generate.

Degeneration seemed somehow less substantial despite its much weightier runtime, but it’s still a pretty overwhelming achievement. It introduces many new elements — a new time period, new characters (including some played by actors featured in the previous installment), more political intrigue, more scattered and messy romance, and a more pointed commentary on creeping fascism — and is similarly oppressive in its overhanging menace. One of the new elements is also one of the most controversial: the casting of real-life Nazi mouthpiece Maksim Martsinkevich as, well, a member of an ultra-right-wing who insidiously overtakes the existing regime by increasingly aggressive means. It’s a pretty difficult “artistic decision” to defend, one that sounds interesting on a very theoretical level but should be unconscionable in practice, though it’s hard to deny that knowledge of his IRL ideology contributes to the terror as his and his group’s intentions become increasingly apparent. In the talked-about sequence featuring extreme animal cruelty, which is contextually significant but very, very hard to watch, the other participants are palpably shaken in a way that seems far removed from any conscious character choice.

I’m very interested in seeing more pieces of the project, as I really think it has a deep and genuine value both as film and as performance art, but I won’t deny that I’m conflicted about continuing to support it.

[Mr Sausage]

In the talked-about sequence featuring extreme animal cruelty

There goes my interest in seeing this one. What happens?

[sir_luke]

In the talked-about sequence featuring extreme animal cruelty

There goes my interest in seeing this one. What happens?

Spoiler

At the end of a night of drinking and tense discussion, the right-wing group brings a pig into the house with the students and others and slaughters it in front of them. I could be wrong, but I’m fairly certain it was real.

[Dr Amicus]

The BBFC certainly believed it to be real - that sequence (or about 55 secs) has been cut in the UK.

[sir_luke]

For some reason, it appears Natasha is no longer available, at least in the US.

[MichaelB]

Or the UK.

[ando]

Watched this recent virtual critical intro/discussion to the project just now. Fairly essential, imo.

[TMDaines]

and let's be real, no one wants to watch 13 films and multiple series of this.

Not so fast! Isn’t that exactly what they’ve successfully done with the Marvel Comics Universe?

(Tongue only half in cheek here.)

I had read about DAU. Natasha a few times, but had failed to appreciate the wider body of work surrounding it and the circumstances of its development. I'm now utterly fascinated by it and will almost certainly watch everything released over an extended period. Plan is to watch DAU. Natasha this weekend with the missus and either to carry on watching films together or go alone if she has no interest.

It's weird how with American TV, the general public embraces the bloat and glosses over the fact that 80% of most series is just sheer filler, but when it comes to doing the same with cinema or other forms of media, people baulk at the runtime.

[Soothsayer]

It's weird how with American TV, the general public embraces the bloat and glosses over the fact that 80% of most series is just sheer filler, but when it comes to doing the same with cinema or other forms of media, people baulk at the runtime.

I agree with this. I'd also note it's more than tv. Things like comic book/graphic novel-based film franchises also get this kind of embrace.

[knives]

Chapter breaks seems like a reason. In binging tv you have little breaks built in. A four hour movie has a cultural expectation for one sitting.

[lastrade]

Having now watched all of the available films on the UK version of the website, I have to say that there is a lot more to this project than the sensationalist elements mentioned above. The closest comparison that I can come up with would be Fassbinder, although there are some aspects that make me think of Bergman (and even Ibsen) too. Jürgen Jürges (previously a cameraman for Fassbinder) may be responsible for some of that, but there is also the pessimistic worldview and the communicative breakdowns that lead me in that direction.
If you want to give this film a try on that basis, I strongly recommend Nikita Tanya, Three Days and Nora Mother. I really hope that they continue to put films online or put these onto DVD at some point.

[domino harvey]

Three more entries allegedly coming next year

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

I checked the project's website a week or two ago and it consisted entirely of "Not Found" error messages, but it's since been with an "under maintenance" notification, so I imagine something is coming soon. It previously listed several upcoming entries, including one called Nora Son that I'm guessing is the one referred to in the article as Mother: https://web.archive.org/web/20220520164 ... dau.com/en

Whoever wrote the article seems unaware of the installments that went directly to the website instead of getting festival premieres first. So far nine films have been released, so if there's 14 altogether that leaves five, which might correspond to the five projects formerly listed on the website as "upcoming." One of those projects (Empire) was itself in four parts; from what I can gather the first part (The Return of the Prodigal Son) was released at some point, but IIRC it didn't have subtitles.

[yoshimori]

Thanks for the updates. Exciting news. Surprised to see I haven't contributed to this thread yet, especially since the Dau project entries were, for me, the only great films of the 150 or so I saw in 2020.

Question. Wikipedia lists 15 films so far, 15 not including the three "new" ones mentioned in the article dh linked. I'd thought the films I'd seen, these ten, were all to be had: Brave people; Nora. Mama; Empire. Return of the Prodigal Son; Katya. Tanya; Three days; Nikita. Tanya; String theory; New man; Natasha; and Degeneration. Do the other five that wikipedia mentions - Dau; Conformists; Sasha. Valera; Nora. Son; and Regeneration - in fact already exist? Mubi lists them with runtimes, but, unlike all the other films in the series, I can't find a single clip from any of them online. I suspect, then, they're the ones FN mentions as having been marked "upcoming" on the currently inaccessible Dau website, huh?

Two other notes while I'm typing. First, though all the films are mesmerizing, the chronologically last (of the ones I've seen, at least), the six-hour Degeneration, is also utterly terrifying in its depiction of the totalitarian state operating on a local level. Should be required viewing for all academics, scientists, intellectuals who work in similar institutes. Another personal favorite is String Theory, essentially a three-hour seminar in theoretical physics ... made, apparently, specifically for those of us who miss their PhD days at MIT!

Second, I was stunned, back in 2020, to see one of the world's greatest living conductors, Greek-born Russian-trained Teodor Currentzis, playing Dau as a middle-aged man in three or four of the series' films. I'm not sure whether I was puzzled more by the fact that his acting was completely convincing or that he'd taken the time (several months, surely) from concertizing to make the films.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Question. Wikipedia lists 15 films so far, 15 not including the three "new" ones mentioned in the article dh linked. I'd thought the films I'd seen, these ten, were all to be had: Brave people; Nora. Mama; Empire. Return of the Prodigal Son; Katya. Tanya; Three days; Nikita. Tanya; String theory; New man; Natasha; and Degeneration. Do the other five that wikipedia mentions - Dau; Conformists; Sasha. Valera; Nora. Son; and Regeneration - in fact already exist? Mubi lists them with runtimes, but, unlike all the other films in the series, I can't find a single clip from any of them online. I suspect, then, they're the ones FN mentions as having been marked "upcoming" on the currently inaccessible Dau website, huh?

If you follow the archive.org link and scroll to the bottom you'll see those four listed as "upcoming," along with The Empire (only the first part of which was released). As I mentioned, I'm pretty certain the released section of The Empire had no subtitles, but from the synopsis on the official site and the reviews on Letterboxd it sounds like it's largely made up of an academic/intellectual discussion between two characters, so if you dug String Theory that might appeal to you if and when it's made available again.

[yoshimori]

Thanks. I saw Empire. "Novel One: Return of the Prodigal Son" on a blu-ray, no doubt of dubious provenance, but with English subs. Used to be available on eBay, but I don't see it there now. The movie was one of the lesser entries in the series: a long conversation between physicists Krupitsa and Dau (Currentzis), but not about physics, and surely the least visually interesting of the ten Dau films so far.