Film noir aficionados will fondly remember Siodmak for noir classics like Criss Cross and especially The Killers, but what he does here is a little glitzier: backed by MGM’s big cash, the production first tried to cast Kirk Douglas as Armand de Glasse in the adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s gambling opus, but Douglas opted for the much smaller noir sport drama Champion — which gave him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. This is one of the few novels by Dostoyevsky that I haven't read, and I think it's not only his most political but also his most prescient in terms of today's world—particularly the individual faced with corrupt systems, the movement toward anarchy and rebellion, and the webs of power that bind all individuals to their oppressive societies no matter how hard they strive to be free of these restrictions. What Dostoyevsky diagnosed in this novel was the tendency to think of ideas as being somehow more real than actual human beings. * Alexei Nilych Kirilov (or Kirillov) is an engineer. The fire rages all night, but by morning it has dwindled and rain is falling. You don't really love — oh, what is here is higher than love! So What's the Deal with this "Ashes to Go" Thing? the German romantics (mainly E.T.A. After eight days, he calls on Stavrogin and the true nature of their relations begins to become apparent. In a stirring and originally censored chapter, he confesses he is a pedophile and refuses to repent. According to Frank, "the book is almost a compressed encyclopedia of the Russian culture of the period it covers, filtered through a witheringly derisive and often grotesquely funny perspective, and it creates a remarkable 'myth' of the main conflicts of this culture reconstructed on a firm basis of historical personages and events."[69]. A man torn between two alluring beauties pretending (including Natasha Blasick of Paranormal Activity 2 fame) to be something they’re not, the Russian mafia’s involvement, and a city (Los Angeles) where dreams and harsh realities collide. It is both a beautiful work of art and magnificent background work. ** imdb title|id=0087250|title=La femme publique* 1988, "Les Possédés" adapted by Andrzej Wajda. "[85] In his book Dostoyevsky in Manhattan OK. Loosely based on sensational press reports of a Moscow student’s murder by fellow revolutionists, The Possessed depicts the destructive chaos caused by outside agitators who move into a moribund provincial town. They read Kirillov's note and a short time later Shatov's body is discovered at Skvoreshniki. [Read the novel at Project Gutenberg], 白痴 (The Idiot) – 1951 JAPAN When she realizes that he is extremely ill and that Sofya Matveyevna has been looking after him, her attitude softens and she sends for her doctor. In this respect, Bresson reflects on the role of the artist as a creator of images, where the ideal lies in the pursuit of the elusive – in the empty spaces that reveal the essential “gesture which lifts its presence from the object” – the illusion of transcended love.” [Strictly Film School], Shades of Day – 2006 USA At the same time, Lenottibianche is not a sentimental film, and on the level of observation, it is lucid and at all times realistic.” [Criterion], Quatre Nuits d’un Rêveur (Four Nights of a Dreamer) – 1971 FRANCE When she hangs herself Stavrogin is present in the next room and aware of what she is doing. He’s somewhat distressed by this, but is also drawn to the beautiful intruder. Already present are Dasha, her older brother Ivan Shatov, and a nervous Stepan Trofimovich. * Bishop Tikhon is a bishop who, in Dostoevsky's original drafts, Stavrogin visited for guidance, and revealed some of the disturbing events of his past. Spent over a decade discussing the merits (and lack thereof!) DVD | Review. Cramming a dense, immense (in every sense of the word) classic like Crime and Punishment into a 88 minute film is no easy task, especially when you’re pretty much forced by the studio to make it. They agree that Shatov will have to be killed and a plan is made to lure him to the isolated location where he has buried the society's printing press. Kirillov sums up Stavrogin's dilemma thus: "If Stavrogin believes, then he doesn't believe that he believes. Dostoevsky saw atheism as the root cause of Russia's deepening social problems. Originally shot in 2006, the film was re-released in 2015 as a Director’s Cut. Deeply shocked, Stepan Trofimovich goes to the Governor to complain. In his mind he is the man who, by his own intentional death, will demonstrate to humanity the transcendence of pain and fear and free them of the need to invent God.[67]. The same contrast that is expressed in the spatial division of the film exists within the characters themselves. To endure ten seconds one would have to change physically . [5] According to translator Richard Pevear, the demons are "that legion of isms that came to Russia from the West: idealism, rationalism, empiricism, materialism, utilitarianism, positivism, socialism, anarchism, nihilism, and, underlying them all, atheism. If you’ve seen these films adapted somewhere — who knows, there might be a rich history of adapting Dostoyevsky works in Georgia, Nigeria or Turkmenistan — don’t hesitate to let us know! Marie and the baby become ill, and die a few days later. Directed by Gary Walkow The serfs have been freed by Alexander the Second, courts democratized, the death penalty seldom carried out, people can speak and write freely, up to a point. To everyone's surprise, however, a complete stranger walks in and immediately begins to dominate the conversation. * Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky is the philosopher and intellectual that is partly to blame for the revolutionary ideas that fuel the destruction that occurs in the book, whose one famous work was based on the idea of Apocatastasis. Sternberg thought that Peter Lorre was inappropriate, but noted that he was the only cast member who read the Dostoevsky novel. The plan is for them to meet again in two years when he’s completed his studies. The Double manages to overcome its conceptual clichés (the doppelgänger convention in particular), thanks to two winning performances by lead Jesse Eisenberg and the always reliable Mia Wasikowska (or should we say three, since Eisenberg alone plays two?). . Kirillov has been forewarned and is eagerly awaiting him. Some of them also feature links to Project Gutenberg or other sources where you can read them, because we’re cool like that. Very similar to barracks communism, Shigalyovism demands that ninety percent of society be reduced to a condition of inhuman slavery so the other actually useful ten percent of society is free to make progress. [14] As a young man Dostoevsky himself was a member of a radical organisation (the Petrashevsky Circle), for which he was arrested and exiled to a Siberian prison camp. The character of Shatov represents a Russian nationalist response to socialist ideas, and was initially based on Nechayev's victim Ivanov, but later on the contemporary slavophile ideas of Danilevsky [72] and to some extent on Dostoevsky's own reformed ideas about Russia. Fedka, an escaped convict, and former serf, goes on a crime spree, imagine murders and robberies, in this place ! Verkhovensky escapes, but the remainder of his aspiring revolutionary crew is arrested. The form and substance are infinite perfections. Not for everyone, but hard to forget for everyone who chooses to watch it. She agrees and they leave. 2009, "...the itsy bitsy spider..." adapted by. Nikolai has many adventures with women and violence, travels the world, Greece, Germany, France, Switzerland, Egypt and even Iceland, but can never be happy, his conscience will not permit that. by Vintage. Thinking this will be his final interaction with the society, Shatov agrees to come. A lot darker and moodier than most of Kaurismäki’s later works, and decidedly not as polished, but still a very interesting look at the early days of this eclectic director.