Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie

Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov (Petrov's Fever) brilliantly adapts Emmanuel Carrère's novel about the Russian writer Limonov, a controversial personality whose sulphurous life reflects Russian excesses.

Edouard Limonov (1934-2020) lived a rock'n'roll life. He began as a worker and thug in Kharkov, a poet in Moscow, became an idle exile, a failed author, a homeless person, a butler in New York in the 1970s, then a trendy writer in Paris in 1980. A pro-Serb militiaman, dissident then political prisoner, he ends fascist in the former USSR. As Emmanuel Carrère writes, he is a hero of a novel, who has no moral sense, and at the same time he has something poetic.

The Russian director uncompromisingly retraces the journey of this unsympathetic and provocative dandy. The film is in the image of its subject, in eternal movement, with a creative, overexcited as in Petrov's Fever. Limonov's ballad takes place at high speed. Serebrennikov plays with frames, sharpness and blur, colors and black and white. The transitions between sequences and eras are of great virtuosity, as are the long take shots, especially the one in New York. The film is of great visual richness, brilliantly reconstituting the different worlds, the USSR of the 60s, 70s, 90s, New York, Paris.

The images, songs and original music composed by Massimo Pupillo enrich each other. The songs, a reflection of Limonov's thoughts, were replayed, thus giving them a contemporary dimension. The film is in English because of its international dimension, Italian production, Russian director, adaptation by a French writer.

The performance of the English actor Ben Wishaw is impressive, always fair and credible as a Russian writer, both as a young man and as a sixty-year-old man.

Director Serebrennikov took 5 years to make this film, due to the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Against all expectations, his film is even more relevant.

Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie
Directed by Kirill Serebrennikov
Written by Kirill Serebrennikov, Ben Hopkins, Pawel Pawlikowski
Freely adapted from the novel Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère
Produced by Ardavan Safaee, Lorenzo Gangarossa, Mario Gianani, Dimitri Rassam, Ilya Stewart
Starring Ben Whishaw, Viktoria Miroshnichenko, Tomas Arana, Corrado Invernizzi, Evgeniy Mironov, Andrey Burkovskiy, Maria Mashkova, Sandrine Bonnaire, Emmanuel Carrère, Céline Sallette, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing
Director of photography : Roman Vasyanov
Editing: Yurii Karikh
Music: Massimo Pupillo
Production company: Wildside, Chapter 2, Fremantle Spain, France 3 Cinéma, Hype Studios
Distributed by Pathé (France)
Release dates: May 19, 2024 (Cannes Film Festival), December 4, 2024 (France)
Running time: 137 minutes

Seen on May 19, 2024 at the Cannes Film Festival

Sabine's Mark:

Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov's The Ballad of Limonov is an adaptation of the novel by Emmanuel Carrère. As the film opens, a voice-over suggests that Limonov is in an interrogation room, apparently in Paris in 1989. Then we see him appear on screen, short hair, small glasses, he spells out his name, mentions his background, his childhood in Kharkov, his jobs in various cities as a laborer, poet, butler, homeless man, dissident, a real novel his life. The film continues with a flashback to 1969, in black-and-white. Limonov is spending an evening with his friends in Kharkov, Ukraine.

But tired of this sad, monotonous and, above all, dead-end existence, he lost interest in Kharkov, preferring to throw himself headlong into the capital, Moscow, where he met and rubbed shoulders with a wealthy milieu, in particular Helena, his alter ego, with whom he fell madly in love despite their social differences: he the penniless poet, cold of character, she the worldly woman, playful, free, unscrupulous, ready to follow him to the ends of the earth. They've discovered each other and are a perfect match. And it's only natural that their love of freedom should lead them to leave the Soviet Union for fascinating New York. A city where all daring and vices are permitted, their intimacy is revealed on screen in a few daring scenes. The journey continues through the darker New York of the homeless and abandoned.

The director's numerous flashbacks take us on a journey through time, showing us Limonov's incessant to-ing and fro-ing according to his mood, his madness and his quest as a writer. What can be unsettling, in our opinion, is the over-systematic use of flashbacks. We got lost in them at times, not knowing what date we were on: was it his own life or that of his novel hero Eddy? It would be easy and wise to follow the film in advance by reading up on his tumultuous life, or even to read the book by Frenchman Emmanuel Carrère.

The English author Ben Whishaw is a scream of truth, impressive in his role as Russian writer, butler and political dissident. He's at times unsympathetic with his scathing words, fiery, immoral, but also endearing in his pursuit of an ideal life imbued with sincerity. His physique evolves wonderfully, from his youth with short, then long hair, to his period of dissident imprisonment, he's very believable.

We enjoyed the last forty minutes of the film more, as it was easier to follow, with more dynamic staging and a more rhythmic soundtrack featuring a Russian punk rock band. You can either fully embrace Limonov's ballad or, on the contrary, hate it, with its lack of chronology and numerous flashbacks spoiling the perfect understanding. What's more, the film is rather long - over two hours - and would undoubtedly benefit from a second reading to get a better grasp of it. As a topical film about the Ukraine, it would have been interesting and instructive to see Limonov's reaction to the Russian attack, but he unfortunately died of illness two years earlier.

Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie
Directed by Kirill Serebrennikov
Written by Kirill Serebrennikov, Ben Hopkins, Pawel Pawlikowski
Freely adapted from the novel Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère
Produced by Ardavan Safaee, Lorenzo Gangarossa, Mario Gianani, Dimitri Rassam, Ilya Stewart
Starring Ben Whishaw, Viktoria Miroshnichenko, Tomas Arana, Corrado Invernizzi, Evgeniy Mironov, Andrey Burkovskiy, Maria Mashkova, Sandrine Bonnaire, Emmanuel Carrère, Céline Sallette, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing
Director of photography : Roman Vasyanov
Editing: Yurii Karikh
Music: Massimo Pupillo
Production company: Wildside, Chapter 2, Fremantle Spain, France 3 Cinéma, Hype Studios
Distributed by Pathé (France)
Release dates: May 19, 2024 (Cannes Film Festival), December 4, 2024 (France)
Running time: 137 minutes

Seen on May 19, 2024 at the Cannes Film Festival

Mulder's Mark:

Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov's The Ballad of Limonov is an adaptation of the novel by Emmanuel Carrère. As the film opens, a voice-over suggests that Limonov is in an interrogation room, apparently in Paris in 1989. Then we see him appear on screen, short hair, small glasses, he spells out his name, mentions his background, his childhood in Kharkov, his jobs in various cities as a laborer, poet, butler, homeless man, dissident, a real novel his life. The film continues with a flashback to 1969, in black-and-white. Limonov is spending an evening with his friends in Kharkov, Ukraine.

But tired of this sad, monotonous and, above all, dead-end existence, he lost interest in Kharkov, preferring to throw himself headlong into the capital, Moscow, where he met and rubbed shoulders with a wealthy milieu, in particular Helena, his alter ego, with whom he fell madly in love despite their social differences: he the penniless poet, cold of character, she the worldly woman, playful, free, unscrupulous, ready to follow him to the ends of the earth. They've discovered each other and are a perfect match. And it's only natural that their love of freedom should lead them to leave the Soviet Union for fascinating New York. A city where all daring and vices are permitted, their intimacy is revealed on screen in a few daring scenes. The journey continues through the darker New York of the homeless and abandoned.

The director's numerous flashbacks take us on a journey through time, showing us Limonov's incessant to-ing and fro-ing according to his mood, his madness and his quest as a writer. What can be unsettling, in our opinion, is the over-systematic use of flashbacks. We got lost in them at times, not knowing what date we were on: was it his own life or that of his novel hero Eddy? It would be easy and wise to follow the film in advance by reading up on his tumultuous life, or even to read the book by Frenchman Emmanuel Carrère.

The English author Ben Whishaw is a scream of truth, impressive in his role as Russian writer, butler and political dissident. He's at times unsympathetic with his scathing words, fiery, immoral, but also endearing in his pursuit of an ideal life imbued with sincerity. His physique evolves wonderfully, from his youth with short, then long hair, to his period of dissident imprisonment, he's very believable.

We enjoyed the last forty minutes of the film more, as it was easier to follow, with more dynamic staging and a more rhythmic soundtrack featuring a Russian punk rock band. You can either fully embrace Limonov's ballad or, on the contrary, hate it, with its lack of chronology and numerous flashbacks spoiling the perfect understanding. What's more, the film is rather long - over two hours - and would undoubtedly benefit from a second reading to get a better grasp of it. As a topical film about the Ukraine, it would have been interesting and instructive to see Limonov's reaction to the Russian attack, but he unfortunately died of illness two years earlier.

Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie
Directed by Kirill Serebrennikov
Written by Kirill Serebrennikov, Ben Hopkins, Pawel Pawlikowski
Freely adapted from the novel Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère
Produced by Ardavan Safaee, Lorenzo Gangarossa, Mario Gianani, Dimitri Rassam, Ilya Stewart
Starring Ben Whishaw, Viktoria Miroshnichenko, Tomas Arana, Corrado Invernizzi, Evgeniy Mironov, Andrey Burkovskiy, Maria Mashkova, Sandrine Bonnaire, Emmanuel Carrère, Céline Sallette, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing
Director of photography : Roman Vasyanov
Editing: Yurii Karikh
Music: Massimo Pupillo
Production company: Wildside, Chapter 2, Fremantle Spain, France 3 Cinéma, Hype Studios
Distributed by Pathé (France)
Release dates: May 19, 2024 (Cannes Film Festival), December 4, 2024 (France)
Running time: 137 minutes

Seen on May 19, 2024 at the Cannes Film Festival

Cookie's Mark: