FOR ART FILM LOVERS:“ELENA”

FOR ART FILM LOVERS:“ELENA”

“Elena,” from the Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev (“The Return”), now playing at the Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd., will cement Zvyagintsev’s reputation as that country’s artistic heir to Andrei Tarkovsky.

Lovers of foreign films will absolutely receive their just reward here, the perfect substantial film antidote to “The Dark Knight Rises.”

It does require a little mental adjustment to the dense pacing that moves with the speed of Russian literature. The luminous cinematography ofMikhail Krichman seems to be conducting one lingering camera study after another as domestic drama develops between husband and wife.

We love the idea that blood is thicker than water, but often forget that in every family it is the parents themselves who are the only two family members not related by blood to each other.

The post-Soviet view we are given of modern day Moscow is as bifurcated economically and architecturally as the family we are drawn into that centers on a well-worn couple in their 60s, sturdy Elena (Nadezhda Markina) and rigid Vladimir (Andrey Smirnov).

Married for only 10 years, we learn Elena was the caring nurse who looked after wealthy Vladimir getting aristocratic hospital attention for a ruptured appendix.

In their present life together, we clearly see this is Vladimir’s elegant home where Elena has a submissive role and her own separate bedroom. He calls the shots, she follows orders.

Both have children from earlier marriages. Elena’s middle-aged son Sergey (Aleksey Rozin) is a chronic layabout with a wife and teen son Sasha (Igor Ogurtsov) who faces military service if Sasha doesn’t get enrolled in college very soon. Alas, Sergey has no money for college tuition.

So Elena is caught in the middle, because Vladimir won’t give her any money for Sasha’s education.

Then there is Vladimir’s lovely daughter Katerina (Elena Lyadova), in her early 20s and estranged from Vladimir because she would rather pursue life’s hedonistic pleasures than live responsibly.

It takes about half the110-minute film to get this all set up, which is fine because every scene keeps tightening the screws on Elena’s intentions to always do the right thing. By now the slow place has become an ominous power that keeps building the more Elena keeps squirming.

Swimming in his health club pool one day, Vladimir has a heart attack, tossing asunder this bitter balance of relationships. From his hospital bed, Vladimir tells Elena his will gives everything to Katerina – except for a monthly stipend to Elena so she can continue living comfortably.

It is the practical as well as responsible Elena’s reaction to Vladimir’s selfish decision that gives this film its powerful ending.