Brief Encounters / The Long Farewell: Two Films by Kira Muratova
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Synopsis
Nobody made films like Kira Muratova. Uncompromising and uncategorizable, the Ukrainian iconoclast withstood decades of censorship to realize her singular vision in hypnotically beautiful, expressionistically heightened films that remain unique in their ability to evoke complex interior worlds. Her first two solo features, Brief Encounters and The Long Farewell, are fascinatingly fragmented portraits of women navigating work, romance, and family life with a mix of deep yearning and playful pragmatism. Long suppressed by Soviet authorities, these films became legendary—along with their maker—and they now make for a revelatory introduction to this most fearlessly original of artists.
Picture 9/10
The Criterion Collection presents two films by Kira Muratova—Brief Encounters and The Long Farewell—both sourced from new 4K restorations. Each film is presented with a 1080p/24hz high-definition encode in the 1.37:1 aspect ratio, restored from the original 35mm negatives.
While Criterion could have opted to place both films on a single disc, they wisely chose to give each film breathing room on its own dual-layer disc. This decision has paid off remarkably. Though still not without minor flaws, both presentations deliver razor-sharp images with excellent contrast and grayscale, resulting in a wonderful photographic texture and a wide range of detail within the shadows without any crushing. Grain retains a natural consistency, though zooming in on stills makes it evident minor blocking is present in darker areas. Despite that, I found the encodes otherwise impressive in motion, maintaining a clean and natural appearance during playback, and those underlying shortcomings don't surface, unlike other recent high-def Blu-ray presentations from Criterion, like I Am Cuba.
The restorations have been executed wonderfully, with only a few minor marks remaining—so subtle that you’d have to actively search for them. Aside from a few stylistic choices where the image softens, both films look stunning. I'm truly amazed by how well they’ve turned out.
Audio 6/10
Both films feature monaural Russian soundtracks presented in single-channel PCM. The audio is clean and free of distortion, but the range is extremely limited. Dialogue, music, and sound effects all sound quite flat in both films. However, this seems to be more a limitation of the original recordings than a fault of the restoration.
Extras 7/10
Aside from one feature, Criterion largely repackages the content from StudioCanal’s respective UK Blu-rays, porting over the interviews with film scholars Elena Gorfinkel and Isabel Jacobs, which are included on the corresponding discs. Gorfinkel’s two contributions (running approximately 25 and 29 minutes, respectively) take a broader view, examining how these films reflect Kira Muratova’s career during the period the two films span. She discusses the depiction of women’s roles in Soviet Russia, Muratova’s evolving style—which became increasingly experimental, ultimately leading to The Long Farewell being shelved—and touches on Muratova’s early life and career, including her collaborations with her husband.
Jacobs’ interviews (running 15 and 16 minutes each) focus more specifically on the films themselves, analyzing their stories, themes, and Muratova’s narrative construction. She breaks down editing choices, the use of montage, and scene transitions, while also providing further insight into why The Long Farewell was shelved for so long. Both sets of interviews are insightful and should help newcomers (like me!) better appreciate Muratova’s work, which I confess I found a bit baffling at first.
While StudioCanal’s release of Brief Encounters also includes a video essay by Masha Shpolberg, this has unfortunately not been ported over to the Criterion release. However, Criterion has unearthed a 5-minute interview with Muratova, recorded for a 1991 episode of the French program Cinéma cinémas. Although brief, the interview is charming and offers a glimpse into her thoughts on filmmaking, the censorship her work faced, and her love for American films. This interview is included on the Brief Encounters disc.
Disappointingly, these are the only on-disc features, though Jessica Kiang contributes a lengthy and thorough essay on the films and Muratova, included in the insert. Despite the brevity of the extras, the material provided is thorough and serves as a wonderful introduction to the filmmaker.
Closing
Overall, it’s a solid set. While the features are somewhat limited, they still offer a thorough introduction to Muratova’s work. Combined with the sharp high-definition presentations, this release earns a strong recommendation.
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