In the carriage of a train heading to St. Petersburg, Prince Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin, who returns to Russia after four years of treatment in a Swiss sanatorium, meets the wealthy merchant Pa... Read allIn the carriage of a train heading to St. Petersburg, Prince Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin, who returns to Russia after four years of treatment in a Swiss sanatorium, meets the wealthy merchant Parfyon Rogozhin. From him, Myshkin first hears about a certain Nastasya Filippovna Barashko... Read allIn the carriage of a train heading to St. Petersburg, Prince Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin, who returns to Russia after four years of treatment in a Swiss sanatorium, meets the wealthy merchant Parfyon Rogozhin. From him, Myshkin first hears about a certain Nastasya Filippovna Barashkova, a former kept woman of the nobleman Totskiy.
- Director
- Writers
- Stars
- Awards
- 1 nomination total
- General Yepanchin
- (as N. Pazhitnov)
- Ferdyshchenko
- (as V. Muravyov)
- General Ivolgin
- (as I. Lyubeznov)
- Afanasiy Totskiy
- (as P. Strelin)
- Sharmanshchik
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
No doubts, temptation to compare this version with the miniseries made by Vladimir Bordko in 2003 works. But not in brilliant manner . First, for wise crafted version , who has the fair desire to propose only a part from novel.
Second, for atmosphere and great use of close up.
For rooms and for eyes and for the large slices of madness.
And for the honest way to offer, in noble manner, the spirit of Dostoievsky novel.
In short, just a masterpiece. In special sense.
This film meets all those requirements, and it's the only one that does. Although the second part was never made, the first part is worth watching and re-watching. The crazy Soviet montages, the crazy eyes, the red velvet everywhere, the lighting from beneath that makes everyone look like they're in hell...it's brilliant.
The soundtrack is gorgeous. I wish I could find it on mp3. And when one character says to another: "What's wrong with your face?" the face in question is worth the entire film. And it's pure Dostoevsky. HUZZAH for this film.
"Intense" is probably the one best word to describe this adaptation; the performances are all tuned to an appropriate level of passionate unreason and tortured emotionality for Dostoevskian characters, and the direction supports this, with plenty of tense, lingering close-ups. The production looks rich and claustrophobic, with the lush but small rooms seeming to amplify the charged nature of the scenes. Even the make-up people seem to have assisted in creating the uniform artistic effect, as all the characters seem appear sunken-eyed and almost maddened.
Yuriy Yakovlev is appropriately innocent and ineffectual and Myshkin, which in this tense atmosphere means his character tends to fall into the background perhaps more than one might expect. The show is really stolen by Yuriy Yakovlev as Nastasya Filipovna. She's looks gorgeous and gives a fantastic performance -- constantly laughing and toying with others. She has as much screen magnetism as anyone I've ever seen, and I was surprised and disappointed to learn that she appeared in relatively few films being mainly a stage actress. With her interpretation is makes perfect sense why so many of the men fall head over heels for this "shamed" woman, and her mercurial, teasing, troublemaking character makes perfect sense.
Did you know
- ConnectionsFeatured in Legendy mirovogo kino: Ivan Pyryev
- SoundtracksPo Nevskomu gulyala prelestnaya Katrin...
Music by Nikolai Kryukov
Lyrics by Mikhail Matusovsky
Performed by Tamara Azarova
- How long is The Idiot?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- The Idiot
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime2 hours 4 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1