Here’s one of the many anecdotes about Ivan Pyr’ev. During an early edition of the Moscow International Film Festival, several works deemed too you-know-what for the official program got screened off-schedule; not surprisingly, that’s where all the hip and the mighty wanted to be seen. That particular side-bar also featured a Resnais, doesn’t matter exactly which film – what’s important is: it was an exercise in cinéma, nouveau roman-style. Now, who would attend that screening but our friend Ivan Aleksandrovicˇ. The film began; after a while, the crowd got bored and a little rowdy. Suddenly, a shout ripped through the waves of babble – it was Pyr’ev, say­ing something like, “Shut up you dumb shits, and get lost! – and, hey, projec­tionist, start the film over again!” (Yes, he could get that rustic). Why remember this particular story here? Because: it sug­gests that Pyr’ev still retained his taste for cinematic experiments. That’s where he came from. The Civil Servant gives ample evidence of that: it’s fearlessly inventive, eclectic in its formal strategies, a bit cra­zy, while often surprisingly refined in its wit – a work somewhere between FEKS and KEM, albeit folksier than the works of these Lenfil’m groups. Of course, Pyr’ev got in trouble for this and couldn’t make a film for some three years. The lesson for him was clear: if he wanted to actually say something that would stick, he’d have to use broader cinematic idioms.