Great Sound in: 'Happy-Go-Lucky'


Day 7: Film with Great Sound



“Happy Go-Lucky” or печки-лавочки (1972) is not as much great for its sound (compared to lightsabers and communicators) as it is for the way sound and moving image seem to overlap each other, one over and then under. The film sees country couple Ivan and Nyura travel from the Altai valleys to the Black Sea coast for their first holiday, encountering all kind of people en route. Vasily Shukshin is a great travel storyteller, and when he’s behind the camera there’s a lovingly curious detachment from the scenes, as the slow, clear-eyed lens takes us through the rooms of their log cabin home and the wide open meadows, clanking train corridors and breezy coastal steps, as layers of half-intelligible conversations fall in and out of music in different volumes, the chatter of children or sudden laughter of adults, the ruffling river water or an elderly lady taking a break from shopping in Moscow - such a quiet wander, everything patiently unfolding and revealing itself as naturally as if you were there yourself, watching and listening Xo

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