To See Paris and Die Movie Review

Award-winning actress Tatyana Vasilyeva stars in Alexander Proshkin's To See Paris and Die. Orekhova (Vasilyeva) and her adult son, Yuri, live together in a room in an apartment shared with many neighbors who are incapable of minding their own business. Orekheva hopes that Yuri will receive a prize in an upcoming music contest, so she tells him that he cannot marry Katya, his Jewish fiancee. A fierce anti-Semite, Orekhova firmly believes that Katya will destroy any chance Yuri may have to achieve success. This Russian entry suggests that talent only appears to transcend the perennial challenge of a Jewish identity, and its downbeat conclusions indicate that, drawn to its most illogical extremes, belief in such an apparition leads to tragic consequences. By some startling coincidence, Leonid Gorovets’ Coffee with Lemon, made in Israel in 1994 and also starring Vasilyeva, had pretty much the same theme. AKA: Uvidet Parizh i Umeret.

1993 100m/C RU Tatyana Vasilyeva, Dimitry Malikov, Stanislav Lyubshin, Vladimir Steklov, Nina Usatova; D: Alexander Proshkin; W: Georgi Branev; C: Boris Brozhovsky. VHS