Agonia

What an awful movie. Rasputin is portrayed as a completely insane person. We get no insight at all into his personality. This is just another movie in a row of sensationalist movies about Rasputin. The only movie who takes Rasputin seriously is "Rasputin" made in 1996 starring Alan Rickman, Ian McKellen, David Warner and others. It's so tiring to watch yet another Rasputin movie about a crazy evil monster creating havoc. Always we get "The mad monk" angle. Rasputin was never a member of any monk order and therefore never defrocked, but who cares about details like that. There was a real religious side to Rasputin and there was a darker side, but the books and movies only focus on the latter because that's where there's money to be made. I wonder when we're going to see a historically accurate movie about Rasputin. Perhaps never, I fear...

I don't understand russian language and I'm not very familiar to russian history, but the events told in this film make a very strong and exciting experience. Much of this is due to Elem Klimovs very conscious use of cinematic methods. The mad monk (Rasputin) as an evil force in russian politics is portrayed with great force. Klimov seems to be one of the great cinematic poets and dramatist who can tell a story of violent and dramatic political events, and also of private and psychological conditions. The actors are first rate in every aspect and make this cruel story a memorable, thrilling and moving experience. Agoniya means of course agony, and that is what the imperial family and the political elite in Russia went trough these years. Klimov had to do some compromises, but this film is in any way a masterpiece.

...but I speak the language fluently. Even so, I need the subtitles to get through this one. Petrenko is VERY convincing as the mad monk.

The plot is every bit as convoluted and murky as was Russian society in those days.

It's a great film, one of my favorites from Russia/USSR...

I must say that for me no other director is even getting close to the level of annoyance of Mr. Klimov. I like Petrenko and the is guy really trying to get this stuff off the ground but even such heavyweight as him can't pull this off. Rent it if you have seen the other one - for the full measure but Elem bores the hell out of me with his predictability.

a special film. at first sigh, about a man who was in many others movies used as exotic character. in this case , he represents only the pretext. for a story about a profound crisis, for the chronicle of the fall premises of a monarchy. in same measure, it is a manifesto. the reaction of Soviet authorities about it is the basic argument. because the realities presented by Elem Klimov are against the entire portrait of Tsarist regime presented by official sources. and Rasputin himself is not exactly the expected one. but the film is, in same measure, less than a tool of political opposition. it is an analysis of Russia. the Russia from yesterday and today. the Russia of illusions and leaders and incertitude, hope and faith. and this facts does it a special film. because the fragments of documentary film reminds the powerful shadows behind the artistic purposes.