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ArthouseSchmarthouse’s review published on Letterboxd:
4 Blu Ray (Second Run)
Loved DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME. Did not have a good time with this. Like DAWSON CITY, the doc uses the discovery of long-thought-lost filmreel as a way into subjects on a micro and then a macro level. In this case, the story of a film restoration becomes the career of one obscure (in the West) actor becomes the tale of Soviet cinema becomes the history of the Soviet Union itself. All worthy stuff, in theory. But the film feels unfocused and scattershot, mostly because, unlike DAWSON CITY, the footage itself-- which relates to one specific movie-- is not especially enlightening in and of itself, failing to connect particularly gracefully with the wider points about the history of the USSR. Plus, Morrison insists on showing us long (and I mean long) clips from the film, which as it turns out is pretty dull. But the use of nitrate-damaged film stock was pleasingly hypnotic.
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