Grim parody on and witty homage to Jean-Luc Godard’s firs masterpiece A Bout de Souffle. The film has romantic and nostalgic tendencies that we probably see if we watch Godard’s classic now, but Nikotin is above all a contemporary film.The story is familiar enough and quickly told. A young man meets a girl who eventually betrays him. The boy conducts his own fate, as it were. He leads a reckless life and knows he faces anunhappy ending. Nikotin is filled with references to A Bout de Souffle, such as the flash cuts, the collage character, the titles, the apocalyptic visions of desperate people shooting and the way the pictures and music are in counterpoint. There is even a funny (fake) interview with Godard in the film, a mirror-image of the interview of Jean Seberg with Jean-Pierre Melville.Nikotin is a true symphony of industrial and other sounds. The dialogues are sparing and seldom relevant. Director Ivanov would appear to want to express the world of the big city with all the cinematographic means at his disposal. Fast cars, motorbikes and people chasing each other against the dark background of monumental and decaying urban architecture, saturated with humour. Nikotin is related to A Bout de Souffle as the titles complement each other: ‘nicotine’ versus ‘out of breath’.
