Buddha's Little Finger (film)

Buddha's Little Finger
Directed byTony Pemberton
Screenplay by
Based on"Chapayev and Void"
by Victor Pelevin
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyStéphanie Anne Weber Biron
Music byDelphine Measroch
Release date
  • September 1, 2015 (2015-09-01)
Running time
84 minutes[5]
Countries
LanguageEnglish
Budget€2.2 million[1]

Buddha's Little Finger is an English-language feature film directed by Tony Pemberton and starring Toby Kebbell. The screenplay is based on Victor Pelevin's 1996 novel Chapayev and Void, which is known in the US as Buddha's Little Finger and in the UK as Clay Machine Gun. The genre of the film has been called drama,[6] psychological romance,[7] arthouse,[8] and thriller.[9] It was released in Germany on September 1, 2015.[6]

Synopsis

Unemployed Russian poet Pyotr Voyd arrested by KGB during the 1991 Soviet August Coup, by tortures he loses consciousness and appears in 1919 post-revolutionary Russia, where he fights on the same side with the legendary Red cavalry commander Chapaev and his machine-gunner Anka. The strange memory lapses all the time throw him to the bandits' Moscow of nineties, then to the Russian Civil War back and forth, again and again.

Cast

Crew

Production

Funding

In 2006 film was officially selected for the third Berlinale Co-Production Market.[10] As Mikheil Kalatozishvili early produced the film[11] notes in 2008—2009, the filming start is delayed because of financial difficulties on the side of Western partners.[12][13] In 2012 Tony Pemberton tells, that when Kalatozishvili died they were to get a million dollars from the Russian film funds but finally he wouldn't get grants because he is not Russian[clarify].[14]

Title

Main article: Chapayev and Void

The translation of Pelevin's novel by Andrew Bromfield for UK has name "The Clay Machine Gun",[15] and for US — "Budda's Little Finger".[16][17] According to the translator Andreas Tretner [de] he had invented the German name of the book — "Buddhas kleiner Finger"(in German),[18] and as "The Clay Machine Gun" was less successful name, Americans had chosen their one.[19] Pemberton's film has the same name.

Screenplay

External image
image icon Screenplay of "Buddha's Little Finger" at Karine Vanasse's Instagram

As reported in 2011 by "Правда.Ру" screenplay was replenished with dungeons of Lubyanka and cannons firing at White House, though earlier was "planned" style of "incredible cocaine trip" with the respect to the original text.[20] According to the film producer Karsten Stöter scenario was seriously adapted and interprets text of the original novel quite freely.[8]

Viktor Pelevin, according to the director, have read the script and responded positively, he said that he likes "115 pages out of 120, and with these 5 pages you have managed to almost destroy the whole story", so he wrote a number of his comments how to fix.[21]

Shooting

External image
image icon Photos of Filming Location at Flickr

Filming had planned to produce in Leipzig[8] and Berlin.[22] According to the director, he had to reduce the number of filming to 30 days, although earlier there were planned a 40-days filming, finally, because of the budget deficit - 21.[14]

In accordance to the data of "filmportal.de" shooting have been conducted August 28, 2012—September 25, 2012.[23]

Cast

Western actors play the starring roles of the film, so as planned initially, the French actor Jean-Marc Barr[24] should play the role of Volodin,[25] British actor Rupert Friend will play the role of Pyotr Voyd,[26] and Sophia Myles as Anna.[25] According to Mikheil Kalatozishvili, to make the film truthful — the Russian actors must be at least in the crew of the film, and western stars is a kind of "duck call" for the public from overseas.[12]

Release

The dates of release and filming were repeatedly postponed, so according to the IMDb release was scheduled for 2009.[27] In August 2012, one of the film producers, Martin Paul-Hus, pointed out that the film will be ready by September 2013,[22] same time in December 2012 the director hoped to release film in the spring of 2013.[14]

As tells film director Tony Pemberton, he spent 10 years to make this film.[28][14]

Premiere

The premiere of "Buddha's Little Finger" took place on August 6, 2015[29][30][31][32] in Leipzig.[33]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Buddha's Little Finger" at Rohfilm Archived 2015-08-25 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Official website (in German)
  3. ^ Karadzhev 2013, 58:30: Pemberton: "And we followed a few of the ideas"
  4. ^ as story editor (IMDb); photo of Karine Vanasse's copy of the screenplay
  5. ^ Patrick Wellinski (2015-08-06). "Merkliche Müh" (in German). www.kino-zeit.de. Archived from the original on 2015-08-23. Retrieved 2015-08-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  6. ^ a b "Buddha's Little Finger" at IMDb
  7. ^ Buddha's Little Finger on Facebook
  8. ^ a b c Татьяна Фирсова (2012-08-28). Съёмки фильма по книге Пелевина "Чапаев и Пустота" начнутся в Германии (in Russian). РИА Новости. Archived from the original on 2012-08-30. Retrieved 2015-08-26.
  9. ^ Regina Singer (2015-08-07). "Description of "Buddha's Little Finger"" (in German). www.kritiken.de. Archived from the original on 2015-09-25. Retrieved 2015-08-29.
  10. ^ Press Office (2006-01-13). "European Film Market & Co-Production Market (Jan 13, 2006: Berlinale Co-Production Market presents its new projects)". Berlinale. Archived from the original on 2015-09-14. Retrieved 2015-08-26. Official Selection of Projects for the Berlinale Co-Production Market 2006{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  11. ^ "Friend and Barr cast for Russian gangster movie". Film magazine "Screen International". 2007-02-11. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2015-08-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  12. ^ a b "Кинотавр" — враждебный фестиваль (in Russian). Daily business newspaper "РБК". 2008-07-09. Retrieved 2015-08-26.
  13. ^ Вита Рамм (2009-01-20). Кинорежиссер Михаил Калатозишвили: "Мой дед не был советским разведчиком в Америке" (in Russian). Daily business newspaper "Известия". Archived from the original on 2013-09-26. Retrieved 2015-08-26.
  14. ^ a b c d Alix Lambert (2012-12-12). "Director Tony Pemberton Talks Russia, Film and Devo". Magazine "Filmmaker". Archived from the original on 2012-12-18. Retrieved 2015-08-26.
  15. ^
  16. ^
  17. ^ Виктория Шохина (2006-10-05). Чапай, его команда и простодушный ученик (in Russian). Независимая газета. Archived from the original on 2016-03-02. Retrieved 2015-08-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  18. ^ Karadzhev 2013, 52:40.
  19. ^ Karadzhev 2013, 53:47—54:02.
  20. ^ Михаил Фомин (2011-03-25). "Бабочка сознания" порхает из России в Европу (in Russian). Online newspaper "Правда.Ру". Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2015-08-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  21. ^ Karadzhev 2013, 58:17.
  22. ^ a b André Duchesne (2012-08-15). "Karine Vanasse et Anne-Marie Cadieux tournent en Allemagne (Deutschland / Kanada 2012-2015, Spielfilm)". La Presse (in French). Newspaper "La Presse". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-08-26.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  23. ^ "Buddha's Little Finger (Deutschland / Kanada 2012-2015, Spielfilm)" (in German). Online data base "filmportal.de". 2015-08-26. Archived from the original on 2021-01-16. Retrieved 2015-08-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  24. ^ Жан-Марк Барр снимется в "Чапаеве и Пустоте" с подачи фонда Михаила Калатозова (in Russian). Information Agency "InterMedia". 2007-02-12. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2015-08-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  25. ^ a b Новая экранизация романа Виктора Пелевина (in Russian). Web portal "kinokritik.com". 2009-07-20. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-08-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  26. ^ Фильм по "Чапаеву и пустоте" Пелевина начнут снимать в Германии летом (in Russian). РИА Новости. 2011-03-21. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2015-08-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  27. ^ "Buddha's Little Finger (2009)". archive of "IMDb". 2009-01-23. Archived from the original on 2009-01-23. Retrieved 2015-08-26.
  28. ^ Karadzhev 2013, 57:53.
  29. ^ "Buddha's Little Finger" (in German). Web portal "Filmstarts [deilmstarts]". 2015-08-06. Retrieved 2015-08-26.
  30. ^ "Buddha's Little Finger" (in German). Website "Moviepilot". 2015-08-06. Retrieved 2015-08-26.
  31. ^ "Kinostarts (Startliste, 06.08.2015)" (in German). Electronic magazine. 2015-08-06. Archived from the original on 2015-08-27. Retrieved 2015-08-27. Buddha's Little Finger - D, CA 2015. Regie: Tony Pemberton{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  32. ^ "Aktuelle Literaturverfilmungen im Kino (Revolution und Teufel)" (in German). Journal "buchreport [deuchreport]". 2015-08-04. Archived from the original on 2015-08-09. Retrieved 2015-08-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  33. ^ "Kinos in Leipzig (LuRu - Kino in der Spinnerei)" (in German). 2015-08-06. Archived from the original on 2015-08-06. Retrieved 2015-08-26. Buddha's Little Finger — 20:00

Further reading

  • "Писатель "П". Попытка идентификации" [Writer Pi: The Attempt of Identification] (documentary film) (in Russian). Directed by: Boris Karadzhev [ru], Grigoriy Ryabushev, Screenplay by: Boris Karadzhev, Operators: Evgeniy Artemiev, Teo Solnik, Grigoriy Ryabushev, Music by: Evgeny Kadimsky, Konstantin Shmyrev, Producers: Evgeniy Golinkin, Pavel Odynin. Moscow: Film studio "КЛИО". 2013-09-15. 74 minutes in.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)