From the Cheap Seats

Given that relations between Britain and Russia hover somewhere distantly below freezing point at the moment, I wonder how the Russians received Eastern Promises. It’s fair to say that this (ostensibly British) thriller doesn’t show its Russian villains in an entirely positive light. I wouldn’t want to be the projectionist who shows it to Vladimir Putin. No doubt the Foreign Office is praying he prefers to unwind from a hard day imposing his iron will on the people with a nice musical.

But while the diplomats might be appalled, the more humble filmgoer will be thrilled. Eastern Promises – newly arrived on DVD – is an authentically great film. The plot is simple: a young girl dies during childbirth. Her midwife, Anna, (Naomi Watts) finds her diary, written in Russian, and wants to know more. The trail takes Anna to the Trans-Siberia restaurant which, although she doesn’t realise it yet, is a front for an odious Russian gangster Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), his odious son Kirrill (Vincent Cassel) and their factotum Nikolai (Viggo Mortenson). Peril ensues.

What makes the film so interesting is that it represents a confrontation between two different aesthetics of filmmaking. It was written by Steve Knight; he’s a social-realist. He wrote the estimable Dirty Pretty Things, a concerned film that sought to illuminate the lives of illegal immigrants in London. Eastern Promises could be said to spring from similar motives, to understand the stories behind the headlines, to look at who the ‘new Britons’ are.

But the film was directed by David Cronenberg. He’s a surrealist and the good, honest virtues of social realism aren’t what get him going. He’s interested in the hermetic world of the Russian gangster, in codes of behaviour, in tattoos. He’s not terribly interested in plot – indeed that seems to disappear altogether in the second half – so much as what it enables him to explore.

The tension between these two visions drives the film. I consider myself lucky that I don’t know how accurate a depiction of Russian gangsterdom Eastern Promises but I’m guessing Knight did his research and the film touches on pertinent issues such as sex trafficking (see also: Lilya 4-Ever). Only, Cronenberg is less interested in the victims of this crime than he is in the sexuality of the animals that enslave them.

The results are arguably better than if either side had been allowed to go it alone. Knight’s vision stimulates Cronenberg’s imagination; Cronenberg’s oblique approach brings a texture to the material a more straightforward reading might have missed. This isn’t a London we’re used to seeing on screen and yet to me, it was a more truthful portrait because of that.

Of course, foreign directors are often the best placed to show the natives what Britain is really like. What Eastern Promises reminded me of most was the work of Jerzy Skolimowski, especially his film Deep End which showed the flip-side of Swinging London. Upon checking the cast list at the end of the film, I got a happy surprise – Skolimowski is credited as actor. He plays Anna’s Russian uncle and it would be nice to think the casting was an act of homage.

The film also benefits immeasurably from Viggo Mortenson. It’s a tremendously brave performance and not simply because of the memorable steam bath scene, where he fights two killers in the buff. He’s sufficiently confident in the script, his director and his own abilities to play a very shadowy, ambiguous character whose motives are resolved late in the day and who leaves the film on an oblique note.

Of course, we mustn’t overlook the memorable steam bath scene, where he fights two killers in the buff. It’s the finest fight in many a year and looks authentically painful: staged on a hard, slippery floor with no padding for the lead actor. Unplanned guest appearances by ‘little Viggo’ were surely the least of his worries.

What with this and A History of Violence, Cronenberg and Mortenson are shaping up to be the most interesting director-star team in contemporary cinema. I confess I wasn’t keen on A History of Violence. It had its merits but it was schematic and perhaps too academic. Eastern Promises is a looser film, less interested in testing a thesis than in lifting up some rocks and studying the discoveries, no matter how vile. The Kremlin might not like it but the results are compelling