Banned in Russia: “The Death of Stalin”
The style of humor in satirist Armando Iannucci’s latest film, “The Death of Stalin,” is a frightfully uneasy one. Sight gags and slapstick erupt from a pervasive atmosphere of dread and terror.
In one early scene, an orchestra conductor is so overcome with worry that a wiretap may have caught him disparaging the titular dictator’s musical discernment that he faints, thwacking his head on a metal bucket. Just moments before, Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin) had phoned in a request for a recording of the performance.
But because it’s for live radio, it hasn’t been taped, causing the producer (Paddy Considine) to sheepishly hold the studio audience hostage for a repeat performance.
Even the highest-ranking members of the government are scared that they will inadvertently do something to get themselves killed: Communist Party secretary Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi) has his wife write down everything he says — along with the dictator’s reaction — studying the ever-evolving list to refine his behavior.
As Stalin’s deputy, Georgy Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor) should be next in line, but Stalin’s brutal enforcer Laventri Beria (Simon Russell Beale) has already begun his savage plotting for power.
But while Iannucci whips up a fever-pitch frenzy, his film, based on a 2017 graphic novel,
is not a farce, but a tragicomedy. Throughout the film, comic moments are derailed by jarringly violent outbursts (or the threat of them).
Remembering the uproarious laughter of Iannucci’s “In the Loop” (2009) can create a longing for more humor than Iannucci shares here. But the filmmaker doesn’t seem to mind if he steps on the joke. He has a serious point to make about the dangers of surrendering truth in the face of power.
It’s not surprising that the film was banned in Russia, where Vladimir Putin appears to be following in the footsteps of the dictator who is being lampooned here, suppressing speech and allegedly eliminating his critics. But Iannucci has other Western targets in his sights as well. By implication, “The Death of Stalin” is about all power-hungry leaders with shifting ideology and demands of absolute loyalty.
Anyone else sound familiar?