You will know him by the shoes and watch he wears

December 13, 2007 3:14 PM

I am trying to understand the film, Eastern Promises. How authentic are the portrayals of the vory and ex-pat culture? With some googling I understand that the Russian spoken in the film was done well. But what about the rest?

I have been on a film watching spree and I was thinking about portrayal and perception. Eastern Promises is a film that bears watching again but I wanted to know how caricature the mannerisms, dress and speech are of the various characters. With gangster films using the Italian-America mob as its premise I can tell what is over the top caricature but the Russian/Ukrainian/Slavic stuff escapes me.

Sorry if this is chatty. Its slow at my office.

posted by jadepearl to society & culture (4 comments total)

The one Russian guy I heard talking about it said nothing about it being unrealistic or fake. Not much of a data-point, but...
posted by sammyo at 4:36 PM on December 13, 2007

I've heard that Mortgenson's tattoos in the movie are highly realistic. Apparently, after months getting into character, he showed up at a Russian restaurant visibly displaying the tattoos. The whole place went dead silent.

He's probably lucky that he didn't get himself killed.
posted by Afroblanco at 8:51 PM on December 13, 2007

good interview with Cronenberg here, where he touches on the subject
posted by ascullion at 4:44 AM on December 14, 2007

The interview is no longer available.
posted by jadepearl at 8:59 AM on December 14, 2007