Slow, pensive, and somber, The Village Detective: A Song Cycle is a dive into four Soviet film reels found at the bottom of the ocean by Icelandic lobster trawlers. Scattered across the seabed, soaking in mud for over 50 years, the reels were handed over to a noted restorer for inspection and cleaning. What was revealed wasn’t a lost work or rare film, but incomplete and damaged reels of well-known Soviet actor Mihail Zarov’s most known comedy. The film’s creator, Bill Morrison, uses these reels as a jumping-off point into Soviet film history, focusing on the works and life of Zarov.
Less a study and more a meditation, the film isn’t exactly informative the entire time. There is an element of Zen apparent in the film which may interest some viewers. Instead of acting as an informative authority, Morrison simply invites the viewers to view the cast-off scraps of a bygone media machine with some added context and connections. While a simple documentary about Zarov would hold more entertainment value, The Village Detective: A Song Cycle is more esoteric, contemplative. It is a work of art.
My disappointments in this film only came from my expectations that there would be more meat to the documentary segments. Viewed less as a documentary and more as an art film, this movie holds much more value. It is a meditation on the scraps we will leave behind as a society in the guise of a documentary about Soviet film. People looking for documentary information on international film history or Mihail Zarov would be better off looking elsewhere. This was a bit frustrating given the ubiquitous footage of Zarov’s other films shown throughout the documentary. Those looking to contemplate degradation, change, and the future of film through the lens of these discarded reels will be quite pleased.
Morrison, as displayed in his other film projects, has an eye for the beauty in dirt and the implications of film as an artifact: What would be left of our society if it had to survive in steel can underwater for half a century? More or less than The Village Detective? Would it make any more sense? These and other questions come to mind as what remains of this copy of The Village Detective plays on screen. This is an excellent recommendation for any library collection of art films and patrons seeking museum-style artistic experiences in their own homes.