Tolstoï, le dernier automne

Original title: The Last Station

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

19K

YOUR RATING

Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer in Tolstoï, le dernier automne (2009)

A historical drama that illustrates Russian author Leo Tolstoy's struggle to balance fame and wealth with his commitment to a life devoid of material things.

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Period Drama Biography Drama Romance

A historical drama that illustrates Russian author Leo Tolstoy's (Christopher Plummer's) struggle to balance fame and wealth with his commitment to a life devoid of material things.A historical drama that illustrates Russian author Leo Tolstoy's (Christopher Plummer's) struggle to balance fame and wealth with his commitment to a life devoid of material things.A historical drama that illustrates Russian author Leo Tolstoy's (Christopher Plummer's) struggle to balance fame and wealth with his commitment to a life devoid of material things.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

19K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 5 wins & 18 nominations total

Trivia
Marks the first joint venture of real-life spouses James McAvoy and Anne-Marie Duff on a feature film. While still married they would appear together in several episodes of Shameless: Very Important Punk (2004) and after divorcing they would both have their voices in the animated series La colline aux lapins (2018) and appear in His Dark Materials : À la croisée des mondes (2019).

Goofs
Early in the film one of the characters refers to "flashbulbs," when there was no such thing in 1910 and in fact later in the film photographers are shown using trays of flash powder.

Quotes
Leo Tolstoy: "Your youth and your desire for happiness reminds me cruelly of my age and the impossibility of happiness for me." When I was courting Sofya, she was so young and pure, it seemed impossible that I'd ever have her. I didn't want to tell her how I felt and I wanted to tell her nothing else. So I wrote down a string of letters and asked her if she could decipher them. She looked completely confused, thinking it was a game or... I gave her one clue. The firs two Y's, I said, stand for "your youth" and then the most miraculous thing happened. She simply spoke the phrase, my phrase as if she had read my mind. In that moment, we both knew we would always be together. For those first years, we were incredibly happy, terrifyingly happy.

Crazy credits
Anthony Quinn is thanked in the end credits. Quinn was the first to purchase rights to Jay Parini novel.

Connections
Featured in Siskel & Ebert & the Movies: The Lovely Bones/A Single Man/The Princess and the Frog/Broken Embraces/The Last Station (2009)

Soundtracks
Un bel dì vedremo
from "Madama Butterfly"
Giacomo Puccini
Performed by Miriam Gauci (Soprano), Symfonický orchester Slovenského rozhlasu (as CSR Symphony Orchestra)
Conducted by Alexander Rahbari
Licensed courtesy of Naxos Rights International Ltd.
Libretto by Luigi Illica (uncredited) and Giuseppe Giacosa (uncredited)

User reviews94

Featured review

9/10

Excellent Historical Drama

This was an excellent historical film based on the relationship between Leo Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer) and his wife, Sofya (Helen Mirren), during Tolstoy's final years. The film also explores Tolstoy's relationship with his Assistant, Valentin (James McAvoy) and his cabal of acolytes, lead by Vladimir Chertkov (Paul Giamatti). The main tension comes between Vladimir, who wants Tolstoy to bequeath his copyrights to "The Russian People" and Sofya, who naturally would like the copyrights reserved for herself and family.

Mirren earned an Oscar nomination for Lead Actress and Plummer received one for Supporting Actor. I believe both were well earned. I liked the performance from the entire cast, particularly McAvoy as the adoring Assistant to Tolstoy. The screenplay was excellent and the Director, Michael Hoffman, did an outstanding job bringing pre-Communist Russia to life. The time period is 1910 and the cinematography beautifully captured the era. During the closing credits, actual film of Tolstoy and his Wife was run, underscoring what a great job the Director did in filming this.

A great movie and well worth seeing or renting.