What you (may have) missed on 3:AM recently:
Fiction: ‘Fabled Streams’ by Daniel Hales
Reviewed: Max Dunbar on Natasha Walter’s Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism
Non-fiction Terry Southern is 3:AM’s Cult Hero, Stewart Home on BFI Flipside series, Will Stone on Elem Klimov’s Come and See:
The ordeal of filming and the difficult subject matter, placed a severe strain on all concerned with it, none more so than its lead actor the virgin performer Alexei Kravchenko, who was only thirteen years when filming began. One of the more notorious stories surrounding the film concerns the fact that Klimov employed methods of hypnosis on his lead actor in order to protect him from the considerable psychological demands of his role. There was a genuine fear that the boy might absorb so much horror he would be left permanently damaged by his experiences. Fortunately this did not happen and Kravchenko, whom Klimov praised for his nerve and composure on set, went on to lead a comparatively normal acting career. Given the scenes witnessed during the film, this is some achievement, especially since Klimov was at pains to make his sets as authentic as possible, even using live ammunition to achieve realism. However, Kravchenko later attested to the fact that in certain harrowing scenes such as the burning of the church he genuinely feared for his sanity.
First posted: Sunday, February 7th, 2010.
