Sift through the madness, and a story begins to emerge. If you stare at the color collages long enough, a hidden picture is revealed. Anton is a slightly perverted shut-in, and his dopiness is fairly amusing to watch, but he weirds us out a little when he starts sniffing a customer's abandoned panties. Anton realizes that there's more to life than work. When a swimmer is killed, policemen come and place a floating chalk outline of the body in the water.
Characters look in on others' allegory-filled dreams by touching their eyes.
There is also a serious tone problem. Not that viewing svelte Khamatova nakedly cavort with a goldfish underwater isn't fun. Still, the film breaks the feel of 1920s nostalgia with its modern eroticism. Silent-film devotees may enjoy it, but anyone else should enter the theater at their own risk.