Filth, dirt, mud, secretions, bodily fluids, defecation, incoherence, madness, delirium, cognitive dissonance, headaches, gore and a total displacement from what makes modern social interaction. This is what someone should get ready for, before watching one of the most bizarre, gross, and complex films in recent memory, Hard to Be a God.
In this (barely) sci-fi medieval epic, a group of scientists from a futuristic Earth are sent to observe and help the civilization of a planet that is stuck in its medieval phase of history. There, anyone remotely considered an intellectual is sent to their death. Rumata, one of the scientists, is attempting to save them from their punishment. This is the premise, in written form, clearly communicated; however, once the film starts, if one had not read this, it would be extremely difficult to tell, if it wasn’t for the ominous narrator.
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The Borderline Incomprehensible Hard to Be a God
Lenfilm
Hard to Be a God ended up being Russian filmmaker Aleksei German’s final work, one that would crown a filmography known for pessimistic, slow-paced, torturous, and bleak explorations of Soviet life. Previous works of his such as My Friend Ivan Lapshin or Khrustalyov, My Car! would require an upbringing in, and understanding of Soviet Russia to fully grasp the totality of its narrative and messages.
It would be a mistake to think that this film would be easier to comprehend due to its generalized fictional setting. German’s traditional contextual brutality is brought upon again in Hard to Be a God, and in more demanding fashion, as it asks of the viewer to make sense of a cultural and social system totally foreign to not only modern times, but to any prior depiction of what is thought of as medieval in film done before.
The chaos and darkness of this world is seen through a sensorial approach that is deeply exhausting and asphyxiating. The filming and editing process were as complicated as the viewing of the material itself. Lasting six years with on and off filming, and six more years of editing, the complexity of its staging is felt through its entire 177 minutes. The film is nearly storyless; there seems to be no connection between its happenings and much less within them. Highly confusing, infuriating, nausea-inducing, and ultimately overwhelming, through it all, Hard to Be a God proves to be a one-of-a-kind experience set apart from any other motion picture that could be thought of as similar.
Cinematography and Art Direction
The camerawork and art direction work hand in hand as the esthetical foundation of the film, but also and more importantly as contextual tools for world building. Vladimir Ilyn and Yury Klimenko, veteran cinematographers approached the project with the typical black and white photography of prior German’s films, as a storytelling resource. The lack of colors or plasticity within the frames creates a visual anxiety, as it is never clear what are the fluids or ambiguous substances that cover most the surroundings.
Regarding camera movement, takes are extremely long with closed angles that never show the entirety of the medieval setting. We can only make up ideas of the environment’s totality through what happened priorly, taking it into account for the next shot. This becomes close to impossible as the art direction here conspires with photography, to confuse and create an ambivalent understanding of temporality and physicality.
The production design by Georgiy Kropachyov, another Soviet industry veteran, is detailed and at the same time chaotic. From the first frame to the last, it takes center stage, filling everything in sight (even the camera lens at times) with what can only be called an anti-hygienic wasteland. The characters are constantly covered in mud, alcohol, secretions, blood, and human fluids, making them aesthetically inseparable from their environment. Here everything is conceptually connected by a lack of knowledge, and the visual representation of this, is a world that is extremely claustrophobic, incessantly deranged, and overall, disgusting.
Sound Design
For non-Russian speakers, having to follow the subtitles of the film proves to be a difficult challenge, as only half of the film appears to be translated. Rumata’s constant blabbering and alcohol fueled conversations are difficult to comprehend and grasp as sentences seem to be left at half and lack any form of context to make up the rest of what’s going on.
And so here is where it gets even more complicated — as this is going on, if the main character’s interactions are filled with madness and nonsense, the rest of the dialogue or phrases surrounding him are even more delirious and impossible to comprehend. Shouts, shrieks, onomatopoeic vocal expressions, animals running around, and intense sounds of whatever the characters are doing cover up the rest of the sound design at almost all times.
There is not a moment of silence, peace or relaxation in Hard to Be a God, every scene is a grueling exercise of torture, especially aurally. A conscious effort to sonically understand what is going on is a futile exercise, as the whole point of the film’s sound design is to confuse, distort and upset any possible attempt to grasp the totality of what’s being said.
Decontextualized Setting
Going into this movie thinking of “medieval" in the same sense of other depictions is a grave mistake. The sci-fi nature of the story allows German to angle the environment to his own end. Aesthetic similarities to what has been portrayed as medieval times are there, but not quite as expected. Yes, the architecture looks kind of the same, and there are lords, slaves, ale and armors, but antiquated speech patterns are exchanged for nearly unintelligible forms of verbal communication.
“Royalty” is not clean, it’s dirty just like the rest, there seems to be no differentiation in regard to hygiene, and the scientists present in the planet have already fitted in, and are part of the stench and stink cluttering every corner of this world. It’s a strange setting that offers little to no explanation, the narration appears occasionally and is not a great aid, as whatever it conveys or explains, is hardly ever understood in the narrative, it ends up just being confusing and infuriating.
Aleksei German’s Direction
Placing oneself in the director’s chair for this film is excruciating. To have to deal with so many things going on at the same time, chickens running between the cast, dead beings hanging from ceilings, thousands of extras with a varied set of instructions, and overall a set which is about 50% mud seems like the most stressing task in the history of mankind.
Aleksei German’s passion for this film is bled through every frame. This complex exercise of control or lack of, could only be undertaken by someone willing to dedicate their heart and soul to crafting such a complicated work. In the end, all the elements work perfectly to create a symphony of confusion and darkness so dense it would be understandable for anyone who dares to see this film, to take a bath and some aspirin, before, during, and after watching.
The Philosophy of Hard to Be a God
The most daring notion Hard To Be A God brings to life stems from its title. The narrator has established Rumata and the others scientists from Earth as ones with an advanced knowledge compared to the inhabitants of the planet. Rumata, whose real name is Anton, has placed himself as a noble son of a pagan God, which his servants athe nd people of the planet believe to be absolutely true, and when challenged, he can easily persuade them to cease all disbelief. Basically, these scientists could play God at any given time, as they could manipulate a society that is 800 years behind.
As they are already deeply camouflaged, and they seemingly look and behave very much like the rest of society, if it wasn’t for the narrator, it would be hard to tell that they hold a considerable intellectual advantage. Thus comes the question — what would a God do? Rumata eventually makes a decision, but for most of the running time, it is the spectator the one that has a Godlike feeling, the one that must frustratingly endure to see the decadence, anti-intellectualism and lack of progress fall upon over and over again. Should a God then intervene? Or watch from afar as the world crumbles upon its own mistakes?
This notion is completed with the film’s technical aspects which create an immersive experience that has a lot of self awareness of the fact, that a film is something an audience must make its relation to. In doing so, German created a postmodern spectacle of the motion picture, more than a cultural product itself, which is ultimately why Hard to Be a God is a brilliant masterpiece that is also a filthy, disturbing, grimy, suffocating, vomit-inducing monster of a film.
