The film "Bitter!", Or What we Russians don't know about ourselves
In the comedy "Bitter!" Roma's groom without mercy gives a new car just to sail to his bride in a fragile boat with a red rag instead of a sail. A dream is a dream!
We Russians are not like everyone else. This has been known for a long time. But what exactly are our features? We know that we are capable of performing strange, impulsive acts, as if at the behest of the soul. And often we ourselves cannot clearly explain why we did just that.
The need to understand oneself has always been strong in a Russian person. Therefore, there were so many attempts to unravel the essence of the "Russian soul" in literature, poetry, and cinema. This search continues today. Let's try, together with the system-vector psychology of Yuri Burlan, to shed light on the secret of the Russian mentality. And an interesting basis for research will be provided by the comedy "Bitter!"
Wedding in Russian
To understand that we are watching a search movie, let's look at the end of the story told on the screen. We see the wet groom, the bride in a charred wedding dress, the bride's father with a shot in the leg, the groom's mother with blurry makeup. They sit dejectedly in the police bus, then sing, cry and hug.
And then Sergei Svetlakov tries to get into the bus window, who in this film plays himself in the role of the "star presenter" of the wedding celebration. They are trying to drag him away and take him away, but he breaks back and shouts: “Guys! It was the best wedding of my life! I swear! It's very Russian! I want to give you a fee! Russia!".
Now let's go back to the beginning and watch the movie. The parents of the bride and groom organize a traditional wedding. But the bride dreams of a wedding "in the style of the Little Mermaid" - on the seashore, in a yacht club. Wanting to make her dream come true by all means, the bride and groom decide to hold a second wedding, but by coincidence, both weddings are scheduled for the same day.
First, we get to the wedding, as it is accepted in our country. Everything happens widely and dashingly: bride price, registration at the registry office, a photo at the monument, a feast with plenty of booze and funny contests, drunken antics and a scuffle. As the saying goes: "Drink-walk!"
Further, the bride and groom escape from one celebration and come to another - to the yacht club. However, instead of the expected European-style wedding, they will have a vulgar club party with loud music and striptease. And then the relatives arrived in full force. However, the bride, in spite of everything, decides to hold a "ceremony" during which her "prince" will sail to her, waiting on the shore, on a boat under a scarlet sail. What came of this is more interesting to watch, not to retell.
The film "Bitter!" - folk comedy
The film "Bitter!" was released in 2013. According to the film's director Zhora Kryzhovnikov, the filmmakers "wanted to show real people and a real wedding." Therefore, in preparation for filming, they looked for inspiration not in glossy magazines with their glamorous stories, but in videos from YouTube.
Everything in this film is so natural and recognizable that the effect of presence is created. The talent of the creators, the excellent acting, and the fact that the motion picture was shot in the style of "wedding video" played a role in this.
At first glance, the main place in the picture is occupied by violent drunkenness, but not everything is so simple. It should be noted that the authors managed not to go too far and balanced the sarcasm in relation to what was happening with condescension and tender irony. They sympathize with their characters, so after the film there is no residue of disgust.
Most Russian film critics have praised Bitter! as a funny, witty and truly popular film. And the main assessment was given by the people themselves, who took the picture with all their hearts. As a result, this comedy became the most profitable domestic film in the history of Russian film distribution, and the film director was awarded the Nika Prize.
Yes, no doubt, we recognize ourselves and our life in this film, albeit in a somewhat exaggerated, grotesque form. But did the authors in their story about the “wedding in Russian” answer the question about the secret of the Russian soul? Is it really our essence - this is the breadth of nature, hospitality, love of drinking - and nothing more? No, these clearly visible manifestations are only part of our mentality. The main secrets are hidden in the depths of the psyche. And they can be revealed with the help of systemic psychoanalysis.
Rationality or Impulsivity?
In the comedy "Bitter!" we can observe a lot of impulsive, irrational behavior. Here the bride and groom give the car they received as a gift for the wedding for the fulfillment of their dream of playing the Little Mermaid. Here the groom's brother burns a brand new marriage certificate. Here is an intelligent, peace-loving groom approaches a newly-made father-in-law and quite unexpectedly gives him a fist in the face.
There is no logical explanation for such actions. Any representative of the skin mentality with its rationality and logic will perceive such behavior as insanity. And we ourselves cannot always explain it. Irrationality is one of the properties of the urethral vector, which is also inherent in representatives of the urethral-muscular mentality.
On the one hand, such irrationality can play a cruel joke on us and lead to disastrous consequences. On the other hand, at the moment of danger, irrational behavior makes us unpredictable, which in the struggle gives an unconditional advantage - it does not allow the enemy to calculate our behavior and actions. In this case, irrationality is a chance to win.
Irrationality is also needed for moving into the future, for which the urethral vector is responsible. A breakthrough into the future is impossible without a jerk "for the flags" - it is always a paradoxical act leading to the new and unknown. Traditional paths trodden or calculated by logic will never lead to the future.
Greed or generosity?
The breadth of the Russian soul is known all over the world. Only Russians can go for walks and carousing, spending their last money. What for? In the name of what?
In the comedy "Bitter!" Roma's groom without mercy gives a new car just to sail to his bride in a fragile boat with a red rag instead of a sail. A dream is a dream! Where have you seen this ?! But only generosity is another property of the urethral vector, which we all absorb along with our mentality. That is why there is nothing worse for Russian women than a greedy man …
Law and order or “risk is a noble cause”?
Law and order flourish in Western countries with their skin mentality. This makes the life of the inhabitants of Europe and the United States orderly and safe, but in the perception of a Russian person it is boring and bland. And at the wedding shown in the film "Bitter!", You will not get bored! The wedding ends with the seizure of special forces: the newlyweds, their parents and guests lie side by side on the beach "hands behind their heads." That's a holiday …
And all because of what? Friends of the groom took the phone away from the drunk Svetlakov and started calling all the numbers in the “star's” phone book. When it came to mom, a heart-rending cry followed into the phone: “Mom! I'm in Gelendzhik, I was kidnapped! Well, what law-abiding Westerner would take such a risky trick? And drunken Russian guys take it just as a joke. They don't even have a thought that they are committing illegal actions.
Me or WE?
Shouts of "Bitter!" sound in a friendly chorus throughout the film. The wedding guests are always together, next to each other, hugging and hugging. We observe how the attempt of the bride and groom to separate causes resentment and misunderstanding among others.
The muscular component of our urethral-muscular mentality makes us communal. It is in the West that individualism flourishes, where everyone is for himself. We are all together, we are one whole. This is explained historically: in our harsh climate, it was simply impossible to survive alone.
So in our history, wedding guests move around the city and the surrounding area in a friendly crowd, as if we are faced with a single organism, and not individual people.
Justice and mercy are our everything
In the film "Bitter!" there is one more event: the groom's brother foolishly shot at the bride's father and hit him in the leg. However, he did not tell the police about it, on the contrary, he said that he was to blame - he accidentally shot himself in the leg. And now the young guy will not be jailed.
“What is it? - the Western man will be indignant. - He's guilty and must be punished! How can you shoot people? And he will be right. But Russians have their own view of things.
We have a special relationship with the law, in which the personal relationship is more important than the letter. We have our own understanding of justice, which is always above the law.
Justice and mercy are unique qualities inherent in the Russian mentality. They mean giving back to scarcity. To those who really need it. Only a Russian person is ready to “take off the last shirt,” in other words, give up the last. He is willing to take risks in the name of the salvation or well-being of another. And it does not have to be this other relative or close person. Russian mercy does not divide into friends and foes.
Life without measure
In the comedy "Bitter!" there is one more active character - vodka. But not at all because all Russians are drunkards. And not even because the events of a wedding celebration are shown, where one cannot do without a feast with alcohol.
The fact is that alcohol disinhibits the cerebral cortex. In a state of alcoholic intoxication, consciousness fades into the background, and the unconscious takes the first place. Therefore, in this state, we lose the limitations of law and culture and behave in accordance with our unconscious desires.
And if in a sober state we do our best to fit into the current skin phase of development with its rationality, striving for success and material superiority, reasonable economy, then in a state of intoxication all these aspirations alien to us fly off like an unnecessary husk. And the Russian freemen begins!
The strongest inner desire for freedom, which does not recognize any restrictions, is given to us Russians, not at all for entertainment. It is here that the great potential for the development of the entire Russian world lies. Earlier, the desire for life without frames and restrictions resulted in the development of new territories, unification with other peoples, great breakthroughs in the field of science and art. Today we have to make breakthroughs not in the external, but already in the internal plane - in the field of the mental, when understanding the psyche is able to unite all people and stabilize the situation around the world.
A curse? Chosenness
So did the movie "Bitter!" to the question why we are like this and why are we given to be so different from others with our unique mental superstructure? Is this why we, Russians, were born to drink, walk and brawl, and then, having sober up, regret what we did and calculate the losses? We don't find the answer in the film. But with the knowledge of modern psychoanalysis, the answer becomes obvious.
The system-vector psychology of Yuri Burlan explains the amazing and irrational behavior of Russian people by the peculiarities of our unique mentality. The vast expanses of our country with its fields and forests have formed an urethral-muscular mentality, which has no analogues anywhere else in the world.
There are densely populated countries with a muscular mentality (China and India), countries with an anal mentality with its adherence to centuries-old traditions (Arab countries), countries with a rational skin mentality, which today set the tone in the modern consumer society (Western Europe and the USA). However, the urethral mentality was formed only in one country - Russia, or rather in the post-Soviet space.
And until we learn the features of our mental superstructure, that is, our perception of the world, our actions will remain a mystery to us, an unconscious behavior. Only by realizing our true essence, we can finally understand ourselves and find our real place in the community of people called "humanity".
