Movies Based On Classic Russian Literature
What is your favorite movie based on classic Russian literature? Many Russian writers have written great literature that has been turned into movies around the world. Which one is your favorite?
If you have any to suggest, come to this page and ask Snegurochka (the snow maiden) and Grandfather Frost (both are the Russian version of Santa Claus) to include them here.
https://www.thoughtco.com/best-works-russian-literature-4158120
If you have any to suggest, come to this page and ask Snegurochka (the snow maiden) and Grandfather Frost (both are the Russian version of Santa Claus) to include them here.
https://www.thoughtco.com/best-works-russian-literature-4158120
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- DirectorDmitriy SvetozarovStarsValeriy DegtyarAnna KhilkevichAlisa MironovaAll that Alexei Nechaev - a highly placed state official, a prize-winning professor, member of state commissions, foundations, and presidential councils - has achieved in his almost 40 years is destroyed in an instant, including his home and family. He fell in love with a woman young enough to be his daughter -- a charming, childlike and naïve woman. Unaware of what he's doing, Nechaev slowly begins to dismantle his life, bringing it to a final, desperate end.
- DirectorPavel KadochnikovStarsEugenia FilonovaEvgeniy ZharikovIrina GubanovaA Russian fairy tale about a maiden named Snegurochka, who is made out of snow.This is based on a play of a Russian Christmas fairy tale was by Aleksandr Ostrovskiy
- DirectorSergey BondarchukStarsLyudmila SavelevaVyacheslav TikhonovSergey BondarchukThe Russian aristocracy prepares for the French invasion on the eve of 1812.Count Leo Tolstoy
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsTakashi ShimuraNobuo KanekoShin'ichi HimoriA bureaucrat tries to find meaning in his life after he discovers he has terminal cancer.Count Leo Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”
- DirectorAleksandr KaydanovskiyStarsAlisa FreyndlikhValeriy PriyomykhovVytautas PauksteThe world and life, seen through the eyes of the hero, are infinitely indifferent to his pain and suffering. But unexpectedly for himself at the time of death, he experiences relief and reassurance. "You can't live like that!" - Tolstoy's voice from the old record frames the whole story.Count Leo Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”
- DirectorJoe WrightStarsKeira KnightleyJude LawAaron Taylor-JohnsonIn late-19th-century Russian high society, St. Petersburg aristocrat Anna Karenina enters into a life-changing affair with the dashing Count Alexei Vronsky.Count Leo Tolstoy
- DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsAlisa FreyndlikhAleksandr KaydanovskiyAnatoliy SolonitsynA guide leads two men through an area known as the Zone to find a room that grants wishes.“Roadside Picnic” by Arkadiy Strugatskiy
- DirectorRichard BrooksStarsYul BrynnerMaria SchellClaire BloomDrama based on Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky's homonymous novel about the proud Karamazov family in 1870s Russia.Fyodor Dostoevsky
- DirectorsKirill LavrovIvan PyrevMikhail UlyanovStarsMikhail UlyanovLionella PyryevaKirill LavrovThree brothers, one spiritual and living at a monastery, the other - a gambler, and the third - an intellectual, work out their problems in 19th century Russia.Fyodor Dostoevsky
- DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsEdward ArnoldPeter LorreMarian MarshA young man is haunted by the murder of a neighborhood pawn broker and hounded by the local police inspector who suspects that he is guilty.Fyodor Dostoevsky
- DirectorLev KulidzhanovStarsGeorgiy TaratorkinInnokentiy SmoktunovskiyTatyana BedovaRaskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student, kills a pawnbroker and her sister. Police suspect him after his outbursts. His family arrives, followed by suitors. He befriends a clerk's daughter, Sonia, a prostitute who urges him to confess.Fyodor Dostoevsky
- DirectorNorman JewisonStarsTopolNorma CraneLeonard FreyIn pre-revolutionary Russia, a Jewish peasant with traditional values contends with marrying off three of his daughters with modern romantic ideals while growing anti-Semitic sentiment threatens his village.The stories this was based on was written in Yiddish. Author: Sholom Aleichem
- DirectorDavid LeanStarsOmar SharifJulie ChristieGeraldine ChaplinThe life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.Boris Pasternak
- DirectorOliver HermanusStarsBill NighyAimee Lou WoodAlex SharpIn 1950s London, a humorless bureaucrat decides to take time off work to experience life after receiving a grim diagnosis.Count Leo Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsJames MasonShelley WintersSue LyonA middle-aged college professor becomes infatuated with a 14-year-old girl.Vladimir Nabokov
- DirectorsBoris ButakovIvan Ivanov-VanoStarsJim BackusAleksey GribovMariya VinogradovaEnthrallingly and fervently, colorfully and directly narration about the surprising adventures of little Ivanushka and his true friend - magic Horse, outwitting a foolish and greedy tsar.Pyotr Ershov - I came across this one while looking up the Russian fairy tale of The Firebird. I had learned about the fairytale from the very old computer game “The Last Express” where The Firebird Poem and legend and a jeweled mechanical model based on it plays a very large part in the game.
- DirectorsJames AlgarGaëtan BrizziPaul BrizziStarsJames LevineSteve MartinItzhak PerlmanAn update of the original film with new interpretations of great works of classical music.While Disney used Igor Stravinsky’s suite to tell a circle of life story of life, death, and rebirth, the story to the ballet to which this goes is like this - The Firebird, which is a magical half woman / half bird creature, is “captured by Prince Ivan, but when he sets her free she gives him a magic feather, which he uses to defeat the spell of Kaschei the Immortal, who had captured thirteen princesses. Prince Ivan then marries the most beautiful of them.” - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firebird_(Slavic_folklore) I just didn’t feel the list would be complete without somehow adding the real tale of the Russian folk tail.
- DirectorMario BavaStarsMichèle MercierLidia AlfonsiBoris KarloffBoris Karloff hosts a trio of horror stories about a stalked call girl, a vampire-like monster who preys on his family, and a nurse who is haunted by her ring's rightful owner.Two of these stories are based on Russian authors. One supposedly by Anton Chekhov though it is debated if he was the author. The other is Aleksei Tolstoy (billed as A. Tolstoy) who is not to be confused with Leo Tolstoy.
- DirectorsRoss MacGibbonIan RicksonStarsRoger AllamRichard ArmitageAnna Calder-MarshallThe Professor retires and moves back into his estate with his young wife, turning the lives of those who have been maintaining it in his absence upside down.Anton Chekhov
- DirectorNuri Bilge CeylanStarsHaluk BilginerMelisa SözenDemet AkbagA hotel owner and landlord in a remote Turkish village deals with conflicts within his family and a tenant behind on his rent.Anton Chekhov
- DirectorDouglas SirkStarsLinda DarnellGeorge SandersAnna LeeAn alluring peasant woman lures a cynical aristocrat away from his milquetoast fiancée, with tragic consequences.Anton Chekhov (but look at who is playing in the cast! George Sanders)
- DirectorRichard AyoadeStarsJesse EisenbergMia WasikowskaWallace ShawnThe unenviable life of a government-agency clerk takes a horrific turn with the arrival of a new co-worker who is both his exact physical double and his opposite otherwise--he's a confident, charismatic ladies' man.Fyodor Dostoevsky (Suggested by Pencho15)
- DirectorMartha FiennesStarsRalph FiennesLiv TylerToby StephensRussia, 1820s: Onegin inherits his uncle's country estate and moves there from St. Petersburg. He befriends his neighbor, Lensky, and meets Tatyana through him. She falls in love with Onegin but he just wants friendship.Alexander Pushkin (Suggested by Pencho15)
- DirectorNikita MikhalkovStarsOleg TabakovYuriy BogatyryovElena SoloveySt. Petersburg, mid 19th century: the indolent, middle-aged Oblomov. He sleeps much of the day. His boyhood companion, Stoltz, now an energetic and successful businessman, adds Oblomov to his circle and introduces him to Olga.Ivan Goncharov (Suggested by Pencho15)
- DirectorWilliam OldroydStarsFlorence PughCosmo JarvisPaul HiltonIn 19th-century rural England, a young bride who has been sold into marriage discovers an unstoppable desire within herself as she enters into an affair with a worker on her estate.“Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk“ by Nikolai Leskov (Suddested by Pencho15)
