El principe idiota

This is still in many ways the finest screen version and effort of squeezing Dostoyevsky's mammoth novel into the frames of a 90 minutes movie, but it is not a failure, on the contrary no one else has been able to make such a beautiful comprimation of the gigantic novel while still maintaining its major content; and it's above all the actors that make this film wholly commendable, especially Gérard Philppe as Mushkin, and there has never been a more convincing Mushkin on the screen. Aglaia and Nastasia Filippovna are also perfect, and the film has been endowed with a wonderful music score, enhancing its beauty and esthetic qualities. It is early in black-and-white but still stylistically perhaps the best effort to put the novel Dostoyevsky himself regarded as his best into a comprehensive screen version.

I saw this film 1947 . all I remember a few very impressive close- ups. by the time i read the book (twice) the film completely was forgotten. all i have left is the 11x14 german language 4 page film- program.the photography is outstanding. I would like to see this film again,but do not know if a video is available.

Stiffly directed, clumsily edited, weighed down with pointless shots to show off Leon Barsacq's sumptuous sets of 19th century Saint Petersburg, this is still a scorching and hypnotically beautiful romantic melodrama thanks to the sheer magic of its two lead actors. In his first major film role - as the pious Prince Myshkin - Gerard Philippe radiates the most sexualised saintliness you are ever likely to see on screen. As Natasha Filipevna, the doomed courtesan he falls in love with, Edwige Feuillere is at once meltingly sensual and hard-as-nails - a romantic dominatrix in luscious Escoffier gowns, who falls victim to her own finer instincts.

Mind you, I've no idea how this film will play to fans of Dostoevsky. (Personally, I have always loathed his work, finding it an exercise in boring pseudo-spiritual navel-gazing.) Yet for the same crowd of doomed romantics who adored Garbo in Anna Karenina or Omar Sharif and Julie Christie in Doctor Zhivago (and may not give a toss for Tolstoy or Pasternak) this is one film to track down at all costs. Admirers of 'deep' Russian fiction will most likely be apoplectic, but don't they all just love to be miserable anyway?

Fyodor Dostoyevsky possessed an amazing sense of drama, an ability to build his stories to thrilling climaxes and to create unforgettable characters that live and breathe. This makes his novels ideal for the medium of film. In the astonishing absence of a definitive Russian version of 'The Idiot' (I personally find Pyriev's film of 1957 extremely dull) one must look farther afield. Kurosawa's magnificent version came in 1951 preceeded three years earlier by the film under review. Director Georges Lampin and scenarist Charles Spaak have managed to reduce the novel to ninety minutes of screen time. This means that lots of characters have been diminished but we are able to focus on the triangle of the tantalising but unstable Nastasia Filippovna, the brutish, passionate Rogozhin and the saintly, compassionate Prince Myshkin. Their scenes together are electric. Nastasia is one of the author's greatest creations and the divine Edwige Feuilliere gives one of her most astounding performances. Lucien Coedel is mesmerisingly menacing as Rogozhin and Gerard Philippe is totally convincing as a man whose simplicity and goodness are in stark contrast to the cynicism and selfishness around him. Good support from Jean Debucourt, Marguerite Moreno and Natalie Nattier. Superlative score, production design and cinematography with great direction by Lampin whose finest hour this was to be. He returned to Dostoyevsky with a modern dress version of 'Crime et Chatiment' in 1956 and although that film has merit none of his other films alas comes close. Amazing as it may seem Dostoyevsky is not everyones cup of tea but this excellent film serves to remind us of his genius.

Gérard Philipe, in his first screen role, plays an impoverished Russian aristocrat with an angelic face and a kind heart who is condemned to tell the truth in a tsarist society whose corruption won't allow it. He is a saintly figure. Unfortunately, far from performing miracles, his innate frankness tends to make things worse for everyone around him after confronting them with their inner failures. This film boasts incredible production values (costumes by Escoffier, sets by Bakst) and some of the finest dialog of any French movie (by Charles Spaak). Even Maurice Thiriet's idiosyncratic music manages to sound Russian at times. The film's elliptical retelling of the Dostoeivski novel (in 91 compact minutes) cannot be outdone for sheer intelligent and elegant movie-making. The actors, down to the last bit part (Marguerite Moreno, Sylvie, Debucourt, Chambreuil), are superb and would have made a retelling of "The Three Little Pigs" just as fascinating: Philipe as an unstoppable El Cid figure out of his element is halfway between Don Quichotte and Paphnuce (in Anatole France's "Thaïs") and already reveals his genius; Edwige Feuillère has never been more expressive, magical and mysterious; Lucien Coëdel and Nathalie Nattier might as well have been born for their respective parts since this is one of their too few screen appearances. I just saw this film again on Ontario's French channel, TFO, tonight. It deserves to be restored and made generally available on DVD. If only to show the world what actors there were on this planet before Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio took over.