Autumn Marathon

Andrey Buzykin is a translator in Leningrad who also teaches at the university. He cannot say no to anyone. He has a wife and a lover and cannot leave either. His neighbour calls him out to drink and he goes. A colleague steals his translation and he says nothing. A visiting Danish professor gets him up for a run every morning and he runs. He spends his days running between people and satisfies none of them. Georgiy Danelia directs. Oleg Basilashvili plays Buzykin, Natalya Gundareva his wife, Marina Neyolova his lover. The genre has its own name in Soviet cinema: the sad comedy. There are things to laugh at and none of them is happy. Danelia's whole cinema is built on that double register. Buzykin's problem is presented not as a moral weakness but as a structure of personality. He deceives nobody deliberately and means no harm; he simply avoids conflict, and in avoiding it betrays everyone. The film neither forgives nor accuses him. The title is the metaphor: a man running from morning to night and arriving nowhere. It was much loved in the Soviet Union and its lines passed into everyday speech, and it won prizes at international festivals. Who it is for: viewers who like Soviet comedy and quiet films built on character. Who it is not for: there is almost no plot, the protagonist is exasperating, and the film ends without resolving anything.