Dead Mountaineer's Hotel 4K 1979

The film is based on the novel of the same name by the Strugatsky brothers and features a screenplay written by them. Adapting the Strugatskys is difficult, practically impossible, partly because, unlike many other science fiction writers, they possess undeniable literary talent, and bringing a talented text to the screen is no easy task. At best, you can make what is called a film “based on” the book—and even then, only if you are Andrei Tarkovsky.

As for this film, its creators shouldn’t even have tried. Although it was shot almost strictly according to the text, it is still far from the original. And yet, mind you, this isn’t even the most complex or profound book by the brothers. Essentially, it’s an ordinary detective story, just with aliens. And it also features the humor present in practically all their books—which is abundant in the book but entirely absent in the film, making everything even more dreary. And in general, I have many questions for the film’s creators.

I can understand why Brun’s gender was established from the very first frames. In the Soviet Union, such hints were not welcome. But where is her Bucephalus, the monster motorcycle that smashes through hotel walls at 120 miles per hour, dragging 432 bricks behind it? What, is it written somewhere in Karl Marx’s works that motorcycles should be banned, and everyone should walk through the back door? Where has the incomparable magician du Bardl... Dubr... Barnstockr gone? Why is Mr. Moses so faceless, rather than an eternally drunk, mad despot with a whip? And where is the grave-like snorting, howling, and barking of the gloomy prankster Simon Simone, which for him signifies laughter? Why has the massive Viking Olaf Andvarfors turned into a cute—if not to say more—hairy hippie? I could go on like this for a long time, but I suppose that’s enough questions for one movie.