Cinema with a Criminal Twist

Russian films and series haven't sparked as much debate within the CIS territories as Zhora Kryzhovnikov's series "Slovo Patsana" ("The Boy's Word: Blood on the Asphalt"), which delves into the formation of the Kazan phenomenon of youth gangs in the USSR during the 1980s. Meanwhile, outside the countries of the former Soviet Union, no Russian crime genre film has seen success, unlike genre films from America, France, and Hong Kong. Let's try to understand why.

Let's ask ourselves: why have detectives dominated the book market for a whole century? It's quite simple. Except for war, no other field of human activity provides screenwriters with such opportunities as the criminal business. Military and criminal adventures (let's add the Western genre here for historical accuracy) allow the creation of numerous sharp conflicts that reveal vivid characters.

Try recalling any film without a criminal plot that truly captured your imagination - say, a movie about teachers or municipal workers. It's incredibly difficult to come up with a truly interesting, drama-rich story about a school teacher. But a story about a bank robber? That's a different story.

The reason there are more crime films than military ones is also straightforward - budget constraints. Money is needed, at the very least, for military uniforms, weapons, and equipment, while a decent crime film can be made, like Quentin Tarantino, in an empty warehouse.

Photo: Dashiell Hammett — one of the pioneers of American noir, started as a detective at the Pinkerton detective agency.

In addition to the fact that, as screenwriter Buck Henry ("Catch-22") claimed, the best films on earth are made in Hollywood, the popularity and high quality of American crime cinema are also explained by social-historical reasons.

Don't be surprised by the abundance of American films about maniacs - at the peak of this problem, in the 1980s, there were over 200 serial killers operating in America. The myth of the American way of life is inseparable from violence. Let's remember the gun culture that emerged during America's conquest or the phenomenon of organized crime, which during the 13 years of Prohibition brought entire private armies to the streets and corrupted law enforcement and government.

Nihilistic "film noirs" of the 1940s-50s, reflecting the post-war pessimism, thematically gravitated towards the "hardboiled novel." The genre's founding fathers, James Cain and Dashiell Hammett, began respectively as a journalist and a private detective, drawing their book plots straight from the streets.

Before the arrival of New Hollywood, when censorship finally disappeared, a substantial body of documentary and fiction literature had accumulated, written by prosecutors (Anthony Higgins), police officers (Joseph "Donnie Brasco" Pistone), and even criminals (Eddie Bunker). The most notable works were adapted for the screen, bringing forth the harsh truth of life. For instance, the non-fiction account of two cops, Anthony Igen and Salvatore Grosso, "The French Connection," transformed into a genre-defining film directed by William Friedkin.

Photo: Bank robber Eddie Bunker became a renowned writer and appeared in several movies, including the legendary "Reservoir Dogs".

Returning to organized crime, which had wide financial interests including in film production, let's note: thanks to the Mafia, criminals from outright degenerates in the first gangster films like "Little Caesar" and the classic "Scarface" turned into heroes. In "The Godfather," a gangster is a wise visionary, a person of state reason who created their own state within a state, one that was far more just and efficient.

The notion that the mafia hindered the filming of "The Godfather" is a myth. The mobsters simply didn't want the word "mafia" to be used in the film, associating it with the Italian community in America. (Agree, the word "organization" used in John Boorman's film "Up Close" sounds more ominous.)

On top of that, real-life mafioso Joe Colombo advised producer Phil Raddi on several scenes, notably the infamous restaurant murder scene. It's no wonder that in the 1980s, during mafia raids, the FBI invariably found tapes of "The Godfather" on the shelves, and Marlon Brando (portraying Don Corleone) never settled any restaurant bills in Little Italy throughout his life.

Movies on criminal themes in all their diversity, from comedic buddy movies to the quintessential American courtroom drama, were made, without exaggeration, by all significant American directors.

Even in Woody Allen, the least typical Hollywood director, there's a bank robber comedy, "Take the Money and Run," a gangster comedy, "Bullets Over Broadway," an ironic detective story, "Manhattan Murder Mystery," and entirely realistic crime dramas like "Match Point" and "Cassandra's Dream."

The new push for the development of the crime genre came with the cable television revolution. It's no coincidence that many of the leading serial phenomena of recent times are crime shows: "The Sopranos," "Breaking Bad," "True Detective."

Indeed, the vast number of American films and series on criminal themes reflect the actual state of crime, primarily organized crime. As of 2023, there are about 1.4 million criminals in gangs, including ethnic and motorcycle gangs, engaged in a real war with the police. Although overall street violence has significantly decreased over the past decade, in some areas like Detroit, Michigan, or Oakland, California, police officers still do not enter unarmed.

Moreover, let's not forget about the penal system - the USA ranks first globally in the number of incarcerated individuals. Over 2 million convicted individuals sit in more than 4,500 prisons with varying statuses and conditions (municipal, federal, state prisons), convicted of a wide spectrum of charges, from credit card fraud to murder.

Hence, it's no surprise that in the USA, true crime shows about real crimes not only match the popularity of crime films and series but also thrive.

From Convicts to Director's Chair

Following the United States, the French criminal cinematography stands second in chronology and cultural influence.

For American and Hollywood filmmakers, it was a beneficial creative exchange. For instance, the aesthetic of the poet of gangster cinema, Jean-Pierre Melville, notably influenced 'independent' directors of the 1980s like David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch, later seeping into Tarantino's pastiches. Meanwhile, the directors of the French New Wave, who adored Alfred Hitchcock, crafted national versions of American film noir. They were the first to describe this transatlantic genre in film literature and even gave it a name - based on the legendary "noir series" from Gallimard publishing house.

Photo: Gangster cinema icon Jean-Pierre Melville never wore a cowboy hat or dark glasses.

The timeline of French organized crime runs close to the American one: the criminal underworld in France thrived in the 1930s and peaked again in the 1980s. Much like in the US, famous criminals garnered keen interest from both the public and celebrities, essentially becoming national celebrities themselves.

Interestingly, in Europe, French gangsters from the legendary Bonnot Gang, like their 'colleagues' across the ocean, were the first to shift to fast cars. Moreover, the depth of penetration into governmental and law enforcement structures in French organized crime surpassed even that of the Americans.

This occurred due to World War II, during which the criminal underworld played an active role on both sides of the conflict. Gangsters who sided with the Gestapo hunted yesterday's Resistance allies and vice versa, with intelligence services being filled with professional criminals who worked for the government after the war.

The world of crime intertwined not just with politics and intelligence but also with the world of art. Jean-Pierre Melville had acquaintances among gangsters and, as he claimed himself, was in a gang in his youth. The star of Melville's films such as "Le Samouraï," "Le Cercle Rouge," and "Un Flic" had connections with a Yugoslav mobster (Alain Delon was guarded by a real gangster named Marković) and even became the main suspect in a murder case. Another prominent actor, Lino Ventura, was friends with a French gangster Joseph Damiani, sentenced to 25 years - this term replaced his guillotine sentence.

In fact, the phenomenon of post-war criminal cinema in France lies in the fact that it was created by the criminals themselves.

After prison and amnesty, Damiani, under the pseudonym Jose Giovanni, wrote novels like "The Hole," "Second Breath," "Consider All Risks," "The Outcast," and "Two in the City." These bestsellers in the "Noir Series" transformed into popular films by Melville and Claude Sautet. Later, Giovanni authored thirty screenplays and even directed films himself. The best actors starred in films based on his screenplays and novels – apart from Ventura and Delon, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Serge Reggiani, and Jean Gabin.

The fame of French crime novels wasn't only owed to Damiani. Journalist Albert Simonin, sentenced post-war for anti-Semitic propaganda, wrote the famous novel "Don't Touch the Loot" in prison, adapted into a film by Jacques Becker. Simonin later wrote the screenplay for another famous gangster classic, "Grisbi" by Henri Verneuil.

Auguste Le Breton, who took his criminal nickname 'Breton' as his literary pseudonym, was, by profession, a thief and card hustler. His novels were the basis for the epochal film "Rififi" by Jules Dassin and another universally recognized masterpiece of gangster cinema, "The Sicilian Clan" by Verneuil.

In prison, bear hunters and counterfeiters like Alphonse Boudard (scriptwriter for sixteen films, including the popular "The Outsider" directed by Jacques Deray, starring Belmondo) and Roger Duchesne, who once robbed a bank for 800 million francs - Melville cast him in the lead role in "Bob the Gambler" in 1956.

Once Upon a Time in Hong Kong

The influence of the mafia in Hollywood is depicted vividly in one of the most striking plotlines of "The Godfather" and in at least a dozen bestsellers. It's known that among other unions, gangsters controlled the unions of background actors and cinematographers. However, the only organized crime group that didn't conceal its interests in the film industry were the triads from Hong Kong.

In our parts, the Hong Kong crime cinema is less known than Quentin Tarantino or Melville's films. (The VHS era may recall the martial arts film boom, shining with the star of Jackie Chan) Meanwhile, during its heyday, before this city-state returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, Hong Kong's film production ranked third globally after Hollywood and Bollywood.

Photo: 77-year-old classic filmmaker John Woo returned with the film "Silent Rage," released worldwide in December.

Directors like Ringo Lam ("City on Fire") and John Woo ("The Killer," "Hard Boiled") not only influenced Hollywood action films but also successfully worked in Hollywood in the 1990s. Woo directed major box office hits like "Face/Off" with John Travolta and Nicolas Cage in leading roles and the remake of "Mission: Impossible" with Tom Cruise.

The impact of Hong Kong cinema can be assessed by the fact that the patriarch of gangster films, Martin Scorsese, finally received his long-awaited Oscar for the remake of the Hong Kong hit "Infernal Affairs" by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak.

Dmytro Komm described the actual state of affairs in his book "Hong Kong: The City Where Cinema Lives." According to the film critic, Hong Kong filmmakers divided the triads into two categories - good and bad:

"The 'good' ones were those triads who invested in cinema, seeking to emerge from the shadows and gain a reputation as honest businessmen. Paradoxically, it was these 'good triads' who were among the few producers funding non-commercial art films in Hong Kong, as their goal was not to make a profit but to gain respectability.

Conversely, dealing with the 'bad triads' led to serious trouble... Stars associated with them could literally be forced at gunpoint to perform in pornographic films or work without any payment. Internal gang clashes within the film industry were not uncommon – for example, Jet Li's action star manager, Jim Choi, was shot dead in 1992 right at the door of his own office. During the investigation, it was revealed that Jim Choi was a gangster from mainland China who amassed a fortune in heroin trade."

The "Hong Kong Babylon" guidebook quotes a dialogue between producer Wu Tun - a former triad hitman sentenced to life in Taiwan but released "for good behavior" - and director Stanley Kwan:

"I'm not asking your film to generate profit; I just want you to bring me an award from some festival."

"I'll try, boss," the director replied. "But if, for some reason, I fail – will you kill me?"

Why Russia Failed?

Russia stands as the only country with ancient criminal traditions and a high level of crime, including organized crime, whose criminal cinema proved unappealing to the international market – even notable films like the infamous "Brother" by Alexey Balabanov. Similarly, "Slovo Patsana," despite the hype surrounding the series, barely made an impact beyond the CIS for Russian diaspora.

What causes this? Firstly, corruption within the Russian film industry is so pervasive that many films funded by the state never even made it to screens – they were written off as so-called "creative failures." Across this vast country, perhaps the only 'independent' film producer, Sergey Selyanov, aimed at recovering the invested funds. (Selyanov's portfolio includes films by A. Balabanov and almost all noticeable contemporary Russian cinema, from "Mama, Don't Cry" to "Compartment No. 6.")

The only two Russian directors whose films resonate at international festivals are Andrey Zvyagintsev and Alexander Sokurov, working in a European style of auteur cinema.

Secondly, Russian cultural codes are simply not interesting to anyone outside Russia. Crime cinema there was either a mimicry of Tarantino's films or based on the traditions of the 'dirty realism' of movies from the Perestroika era, which ceased to be sought after globally after the collapse of the USSR.

Creating national crime cinema requires mythology – think about how romanticized the aura around Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow or the French eccentric Pierrot was. Russian cinema, however, has lacked mythology for the past thirty years. Consequently, Russian cinema reverted to reproducing Soviet myths, particularly about organized crime in the USSR, as seen in the series "Slovo Patsana”.