'Come And See'

[Rolf Steiner]

Has anyone else watched this? It's my third viewing and I can't get around just how odd this film is. I can only guess it's a sort of impressionistic response to the Soviet WWII experience, rather than something that's meant to be literal history. No doubt that equally brutal events took place in that theatre, but the SS General with the pet lemur (or whatever it is) on his shoulder, or the Salon Kitty type doll chomping on lobster claws while the demolition squad to a job on the villagers? I dunno, it's a little 'outer limits'. And why, when the district Commissar type comes to round the kid up for the partisans, is he accompanied by a German feldgendarme??? Not helped by the fact it appears to have been dubbed into English by the same people who dub fifth rate kung fu films. Looks like I'm going to have to watch all those extras on disc 2 to find out...

[Simon H]

Saw it years ago, and first time around I thought the liquidation of the villagers in the church, by the Germans throwing grenades through the windows etc was a powerful sequence. I think you got it right with this being an impressionist sort of film. The ever present droning of that distant aircraft, as well as the final sequence, when the boy gets to fire his rifle into the Hitler portrait make the whole war experience seem unreal. Which i guess is what Klimov was after.

Good flick, I liked it.

[Rolf Steiner]

Hi Simon

Thanks for your views. Yeah, those droney sound effects add to the strange ambience for sure. Didn't the actor who played the kid go on to act in 'The Star' years later?