Вдох-Выдох (Vdokh― Vydokh) (Inhale-Exhale)

Visually stunning movie but Ivan Dykhovichnyj abilities as a storyteller are disastrous as I can imagine that the story could have been interesting, but the way he chose to tell the story is not only awfully tedious with senseless dialogues, but also does not allow viewer to get involved with the story. There was a moment that I turned off the volume and just watched the images, the amazing visual compositions, the so similar to Tarkovsky water and water scenes; but as we all know, it is not enough to watch visually outstanding scenes, you need more to be able to enjoy a movie.

I believe that Dykhovichnyj tried too hard to do too many things like doing art cinema, trying to make more interesting the story by keeping the viewer guessing “what is going on?” “is she a hooker?” “is she the wife?” or going forward and back in time with what looked more like dreams; but the problem is that there was nothing holding all his efforts and got totally lost. And I believe is a shame as since the very beginning until the very end the cinematography, framing, set composition, lighting and other tech specs are truly stunning and deserved a better narrative.

This movie tells the story of an ex- couple encounter that split because the wife had an affair with a woman. But their love story is very melodramatic and absolutely not credible with unbelievable bad lesbian scenes that are worthy of any male magazine, but not in such a beautiful succession of images. Still, I’m sharing what one critic says “ Bravery: For the first time in domestic filmmaking, a serious lesbian line is drawn here, and with such beautiful actresses, too.” Yep, the movie generated controversy because doing the lesbian story line and if you feel like reading more I suggest you go here.

In saw the complete film even when I was tempted to stop it I endured only because the images where absolutely beautiful and well the actors were also good looking and became part of the visually stunning images.

I do not recommend this movie at all, not even to those that enjoy the lesbian interest genre as the pace and movie style surely will annoy them.