Centered on a well-meaning Professor, Autumn Marathon shows the chaos that ensues when one cannot learn to say no to himself, and therefore to others around him. Professor Andrey Pavlovich Buzykin is manipulated by everyone around him, especially the women in his life. His mistress Alla is constantly pestering him about having children with her and leaving his wife, Nina. Nina is clearly well-aware that her husband is lying to her and most likely cheating, so she manipulates Andrey into feeling sorry for her by moping around the house and saying that no one needs her. His fellow writer Varvara uses him and adds to his web of lies as he helps her translate, which will cause her to take his place with the publishers. Basically, the whole film is sometimes painful to watch because Andrey's lies to his wife and mistress become more complicated with each scene. At the end, he seems to be peaceful when both women finally leave him, but at practically the same moment, his mistress calls and his wife comes back home. In the final scene of this dizzying chaos, Andrey hasn't learned his lesson and lies to his mistress that his wife has left and lies to his wife that he left his mistress. In my Russian Film class, we discussed how Andrey really isn't that bad of a guy and just wants to please everyone, but as a grown man, he should know better. Throughout the film, it is clear that his lies hurt everyone around him and make his current life almost impossible to keep up with. I wish the film would have ended with him starting anew, but alas, this ending is much more in line with the reality that the older we get, the less likely we are to change.
Review of Autumn Marathon
