A rare astronomical phenomenon — the parade of planets — has a strange effect on several men. The heroes of the film — an astrophysicist, locksmith, salesman, architect, loader, trolley bus driver — are called up for military training, which ends ahead of time. There is a strange pause in their life — no one knows where they are, no one is waiting for them, and they themselves can not rush anywhere. This short respite in a hasty and busy life gives the heroes the opportunity to experience strong and very important feelings for them.
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"Parade of the Planets" gives you an illusory airy, gauzy feeling. It's woven of a light and some invisible matter - hard to catch, yet impossible not to feel. It's late in the afternoon, the sky is still crystal, but you feel the air is thicker, there's a sense of doom all around... the thunder is coming. The storm that will wash away everything. We won't even see it, probably, but the feeling itself is overwhelming.The film, a continuous surreal metaphor shot in the everyday life style, may seem a little hard to interpret without knowing the context, but everyone can appreciate the incredible sense of weightlessness and doom it manages to combine.
What you will find here for sure: great score, fantastic sets, adorable characters, impressive women, weird happenings, allusions to Christian antiquity and to the antiquity BC...What you will certainly NOT find here: CGI, fiery explosions, bed scenes and wild sex, blood spilling, taboo language and foul swearing, toilet humour, violence and sadistic violence, horror elements, drug themes, rock and heavy metal...It's in the same league as a much more famous "Stalker" while being not a single bit inferior in quality.Perhaps, the audience of today will consider this one as a very sexist example of cinema. Well, this world has been sexist since the very beginning and women can go to kitchen and wash the utensils while men are enjoying this extraordinary male movie.If you fall asleep during this feature, it's not for you. Tastes DO differ.A 10 out of 10. Thank you for attention.
Russian director Vadim Abdrashitov's "Parade of the planets" defies easy classification. It begins as a science fiction film and just when things appear to have settled for viewers, it treads cautiously to be considered a 'military film.' There are various minor incidents which happen throughout the film. However, they do not make up for a convenient, linear narrative structure. If one were to list a close yet apt description of this film, it can be judged to be a film about 'male bonding in Russia'. It is very rare in the field of world cinema that audiences come across a film which captivates viewers yet at the same time forces them to endlessly rack their brains. There comes a point in this film when things become so complicated for viewers to understand the very essence of this film that even the astronomical event of supreme importance mentioned in the title has limited or almost no role in the film. It is just a tiny backdrop in the larger scheme of things in the lives of some Russian military men. There is a labored, swift intermingling of past and present lives. Once these leading men's 'emotional merry go round' is over, they return back to face their normal lives.
