Two complex, elusive and demanding films by the late Moldovan-born, Ukrainian-based director Kira Muratova have now been digitally remastered and rereleased: Brief Encounters (1967) (★★★★★) and The Long Farewell (1971) (★★★★★). The latter was not initially released until much later, owing at least partly to the continuous suspicion Muratova’s distinctive, prose-poetic film language faced from the Soviet authorities.
The question of the director’s neglect in film history has been much discussed, and maybe it is also marginally unfortunate that the titles of these films are easily confused with two very well-known English-language movies. Both contain a single striking narrative hook, what might in Hollywood terms almost be called a “high concept”. In Brief Encounters, an elegant single woman employed in the government’s housing department takes in a live-in housekeeper, unaware that the same man has broken both their hearts: he is a roguish, commitment-phobe geologist who travels like a nomad and doesn’t want to settle down. In The Long Farewell, a teenage boy who has quit school and has become very close to his flirty, divorced mother breaks her heart by announcing his intention to go live with his father.
