“Limonov” by Serebrennikov : spewed out, a little vain

Edouard Savenko (1943-2020), known as Edouard Limonov (« lemon » in Russian), is a colorful character: a scandalous, provocative Russian punk writer, author of dozens of autobiographical books. Limonov went through every color on the political and sexual spectrum, calling himself a dissident, a thug, anti- then pro-Soviet – ditto for the West – anti- then pro-Putin and eventually founded the National Bolshevik Party….

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But the two hours and twenty minutes of this biography don’t show us much more than what was already described in the book by Emmanuel Carrère (who makes a cameo in the film). Ben Wishaw is very good. Serebrennikov sometimes inserts words into the image, as in Leto, but the film, always at full throttle, as if under speed, is stunningly loud and furious. The film’s formal showmanship, spewed out and a little vain, quickly wearies us.

Traduction Emma Frigo