La femme de Tchaïkovski

I'm always excited to see a production of sumptuous costume drama. It's notoriously expensive and difficult to pull off, and in the time of cheap shortcuts everywhere, 'Tchaikovsky's Wife' stands out for its consistency and authenticity of its style and production design.

Drama-wise, as the title implies, it's almost all about Antonia, the wife's perspective... and her perspective is extremely simple - her obsession for Tchaikovsky. The 2 and a half hour run is all about her anxious and gradually more manic and bitter obsession, and you can imagine it wouldn't be a very happy and even somewhat exhausting journey.

Tchaikosky as a character largely serves as her object of obsession rather than a full multi-dimesional person. He is definitely portrayed as rather cruel and frivolous (and real Tchaikovsky indeed was when it came to his wife), but he's also not depicted as a simplistic evil - there are fleeting moment of his human depth as in the 2 photo session scenes. And I can understand why they avoided using Tchaikovsky's music much (apart from Antonia playing the melody of the famous letter aria from 'Onegin'). The beautiful and emotional music of Tchaikovsky, the representation of his genius, would have shifted the weight of the film from Antonia to Tchaikovsky.

Despite it being a grueling journey, it didn't feel boring thanks to the sumptuous production design and rather theatrical style. From the very first scene of the dead Tchaikovsky rising to taunt Antonia for daring to come to his funeral, one should understand this was not to be a conservative and realistic depiction of drama. Yet there definitely were some scenes that rather stood out like a sore thumb - Antonia presented with a bunch of muscular young men (or indeed more dramatic reprise of it at the end) or her lover masturbating himself in his blood stained death bed feel the director being overtly ambitious.

Overall I appreciated the film... though I'm not sure if I want to go through it the second time.

Alyona Mikhailova is really quite good here as the all-but-obsessed "Antontina"" who takes a shine to the already acclaimed, but not especially wealthy, Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky (Odin Lund Biron). She manages to use her influential friends to get her into his conservatoire but though a competent pianist, struggles to make the grade or to pay the 50 roubles per month fee! Her infatuation encourages her to propose marriage to him. He politely declines, but she perseveres and in the end he opts for a companionship style of relationship. Initially that works, but gradually her love wants to manifest itself in something more physical and that repels him. Repels him to the extent that he leaves her and seeks a divorce. She fights this and with poverty and extreme emotional loneliness looming we follow her life through to it's rather sad conclusion during which, despite having three children with her lawyer lover "Shlykov" (Vladimir Mishukov), she never fails in her love. History tells us a little of the man's peccadilloes, and indeed as the film progresses we soon see that his "preferred" company is of much more importance to him that his marriage. That drama plays out in an uncomfortable to watch series of scenarios that cannot help to elicit a great degree of sympathy for a lady caught up in something that neither can control. The films looks great capturing the imagery, poverty and aspirations of late 19th century Imperial Russia but it's a really slow burn and I am afraid I just didn't really ever quite understand why she was quite to pathologically besotted with a man who, to his credit, was clear from the outset that he didn't want a marriage at all, and that if he did it was unlikely to offer more than a "brotherly" love. I needed to know just a little more of what made her tick and to be honest, I also needed a bit more meat on the bones of his life too. There's also a distinct paucity of his music which rather reduced this to the status of a stylishly photographed melodrama of family discord that really underdelivered on the characterisation front. Mikhailova does well though, her diminishing grasp on sanity and reality being well depicted and in all this is worth a watch. Just a little disappointing.

It's a story about a woman threatening Tchaikovsky to be her husband, or she would kill herself, and wandering all around hysterically to try to find out where Tchaikovsky was after his escape of their marriage. Because Tchaikovsky was a gay, he would of course not fall in love with a woman, not to even mention marry one! God damn it! The whole process took 2.5 hours, and the movie just seems like it couldn't get a point, like a fly hovering from the east to the west, and the opposite direction again, again and again with no destination. It's just too ridiculous. Even the worst soap opera in my country would never feature something like this. I really feel like I'm fooled around. I think that rating 2 stars is just too enough. I can't rate even higher.

Tchaikovsky's Wife is a period piece with masterful narrative. First and foremost this is not a pure fiction, based on archival documents on the life of Tchaikovsky in 1870s. The director puts a mere focus on composer's wife whose transformation goes from devoted lover to blind obsession and self destruction. This never-chosen narrative has so many side plots enriching the film enormously. Marriage in its society imposed form can be an unnatural act with disastrous consequences as we put as witnesses. Tchaikovsky's Wife is a rare gem, a true masterpiece. Acting, cinematography, music and period details are exquisite. Must see.

Ugh ... disappointment of the last few years ... despite some very beautiful cinematographic ideas ... the script is despicable : this movie is a disguised propaganda against homosexuality ... I nearly threw up towards the ending ... I'm still so upset ... They highjacked Tchaikovsky's tragic marriage story and packaged it up as a costume drama ... but clearly to make a picture of the composer and other homosexual men as mean opportunistic vilains ... you don't learn anything about him nor her nor about the historical circumstances etc. .... There's no music either ... It's a pitiful recount how a woman desperately tries to have sex with a man who is clearly not into it AND who told her so from the very beginning: marriage yes but only as a brother!

In the movie they even make allusions that it's not normal if a man doesn't want to shag a woman if he sees her naked .... how on earth did this get selected in Cannes is beyond my comprehension...