WINDOW TO PARIS

WINDOW TO PARIS is set in present day Petersburg, Russia, when the reformation from communism to democracy is turning crass with marketing replacing ideology. Nikolai, a high school music teacher, shares a whimsical story with the class until rudely interrupted by the delivery of scores of computers. Enraged, Nikolai smashes a computer and is dismissed. Since this happens on the same day he is to move into a new apartment, Nikolai and his neighbors have only one option: drink vodka until stupefied. Housing is at a premium, and Nikolai is happy to be assigned a room in an apartment filled with as many people as a crowded rabbit warren. While drinking, they observe a window open up, an old woman appear and leave through the window. The party scrambles through the window after her to find themselves in Paris, France, and so they begin a thirteen day adventure. Paris is everything that Petersburg is not: a consumer paradise where the stores are bursting with bounty.

This zany comedy is delightful and imaginative. However, the director falls victim to his own cynicism as he lapses into the lowest forms of humor — nudity and profanity. The director also seems as confused as the movie’s characters as the clash between Socialism and representative Democracy becomes a muddled argument about socialistic duty to your fellow countryman versus the value of conspicuous consumption.