AN ORDINARY EXECUTION/ UN EXECUTION ORDINAIRE

France, 2010, 105 minutes, Colour.
Andre Dussollier, Marina Hands, Edouard Baer, Denis Podalydes.
Directed by Marc Dugain.

An Ordinary Execution is based on a novel by the writer-director of the film, Marc Dugain. It is of Russian story from the French perspective.
It is 1952, Joseph Stalin is ill, it is coming towards the end of the dictator’s reign. He has become more paranoid, dismissing his doctors, his bodyguard, and summoning a young doctor who has a reputation for healing to care for him. This is a secret and she is compelled to deceive her husband about why she is absent from home. He is a physicist and they have been trying to conceive a child.

The film explores the relationship between the dying dictator and the young doctor, her professional care, her own personal feelings, the temptation to do something about Stalin’s life and its ending.

There is something of a hopeful ending with husband and wife together again Stalin dies and there is a possibility of a new era in Soviet Russia

Andre Dussollier a is very persuasive as Stalin. Marina Hands is also persuasive as the doctor.

1. Russian story? The 1950s? The story of Stalin, his illness, his death? The end of the Stalinist era?

2. A French perspective, the writer and his novel, screenplay, directing the film?

3. The title, in relation to Anna, in relation to Vassilly?

4. The atmosphere of Russia, Moscow, the bleak 1950s, the exteriors, interiors, dark? A film of the interiors? Stalin, the end of his life, paranoid about doctors, bodyguards, suspicions? His meetings? The background of prison in Moscow, the gulags?

5. Stalin’s character, audience knowledge of him? His destructive history? His life, his rule in Russia? The police and security? The end of his life, his health?

6. Anna, her life, her husband, the marriage, wanting to conceive a child – and the complaints by the concierge about the noise of their passion? Her work, reputation, healing power? The husband, his work, physicist?

7. The approach by the police, work, the secrecy, the consent she gave? Her husband, the story, separation, divorce? The attempt to protect a husband?

8. The experience with Stalin, the discussions, fears, psychological, emotional interaction? The practice with him? The potential for killing him?

9. The effect of the experience Stalin’s death? The husband life, being united again?

10. The apartment, the concierge, his interventions?

11. The film as a chamber piece, characters, the situation – in the context of the 1950s and the Soviet Union?