The Stone Flower

The story could have been more exciting, but they really captured the atmosphere of this Russian/Soviet fairytale. Brilliantly shot! That cozy and adventurous feel had me deeply absorbed! And that's typical of Aleksandr Ptushko's movies. He was a master at capturing the imagination, and here that eye makes the most of its source material.

On the site of a factory in the Urals, an old man narrates a tale about a young man who is dissatisfied with just being a master craftsman, wanting to access the plane of the extraordinary as a true artist, this becoming an obsession that almost causes him to lose all interest in women, which is to say that his sexuality undergoes sublimation but in a direction antithetical to life. Stiff acting, but beautiful images, and a very interesting depiction of the struggle to compose Eros and Thanatos.