Inspired by Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, Sokurov’s Save and Protect recalls the most crucial events of Emma’s decline and fall: affairs with the aristocratic Rodolphe and the student Leon, the humiliation that follows her husband’s botching of the operation on the stable boy’s clubfoot. The universality of the theme of eternal struggle between the soul and the flesh is conveyed through the absence of specific reference to time or place: although the film seems to begin in 1840, its surreal mode effortlessly accommodates an automobile and the strains of “When the Saints Go Marching In” on an off-screen radio. Focusing on passion from a woman’s perspective and downplaying plot, Sokurov explores his subject in exquisite detail, capturing not only the heat of passion but also the quiet moments before and after and the innocent sensuousness of the body.
Released: Sep 05, 1990
Runtime: 168 minutes
Genre: Drama
Stars: Cécile Zervudacki, Robert Vaab, Aleksandr Cherednik, Dariya Shpalikova, Evgeny Yufit, Igor Bezrukov
Crew: Yuri Khanon (Original Music Composer), Yelena Amshinskaya (Art Direction), Leda Semyonova (Editor), Vladimir Persov (Sound Director), Lidiya Kryukova (Costume Design), Lyudmila Kozinets (Makeup Artist)