The Idiot

It is just not fair to make films like that. The director discovered hidden visual dynamite in the bottomless text of the dark genius of Dostoevsky. The best actors of the world's oldest acting school perform like there is no tomorrow. Together, they crash on your senses with an impact of a natural disasters rather then a human-made entertainment.

Every episode goes at amazing pace, rich in events, and crafted brilliantly. It never fails to captivate. Every scene has action, intensity, emotion and impact. TV drama format suits it perfectly - viewers need these breaks.

Although the language is a problem for general English-speaking public, the film is strongly recommended to industry professionals and academics. It has material for 10 years of research and following.

P.S. I am not associated with anyone in that film in any way.

I don't know if it is a good film. But, for certain ,it is a masterpiece.

For Dostoievsky's universe the words are unavailing. The comments are only games of vain ambition, trips in narcissistic nooks. The biography, the verdicts are slices of personal vision and not search of truth.

Dostoievsky is expression of his work. And his books are the territory of a well-organized world.

This film is the exceptions of my remarks. "Idiot" is a jeweler's achievement. Every nuance, every detail is careful polished. It is a example of to restore a masterpiece. A subtle acting, a gorgeous Lev Myshkin, a spectacular script. In fact, the result of a terrible fight between novel and film, between word and image, expression of Bortko's deep respect for a magnificent creation.

It is so remarkable for his art that the beginning of East European pride is made. But this film is not TV product. It is foretaste of a impressive spirituality, of a special refuge, about the price of illusion in Russian space, about the relation with a far Occident.

The first value of film is the language. Soft, worm, subtle, old, it is the atmosphere of a fascinating time and space, a literature and belief. Is it too little?

A fantastic achievement! Brilliant acting, especially Mironov and Inna Churikov. Olga Budina (Aglaya), Vladimir Ilyin (Lebedev), Aleksei Petrenko (General Ivolgin), and Vladimir Mashkov (Rogozhin) also give very strong performances. The masterful treatment of even the most minor characters (e.g. Yepanchin's butler) provides an incredibly rich texture for this amazing story. The main difficulty for the non-Russian speaker is the incredibly uneven quality of the English subtitles. As others have stated, the subtitles go from very good to suddenly unintelligible. In parts they annoying lag behind the dialog. The music is weak also, much of it computer-synthesized, and very repetitive. But those quibbles aside, this is a real masterpiece.

The director's daring quest to film a script as close as possible to the book is also the movie's greatest weakness. The second half of the book, and hence of the movie, is emotionally much less active than the first half, so the contrast is naturally emphasized due the movie time format. The result is that the second half of the movie is plain boring.

Everything else is a success - photography, music, cast ( a brilliant cast, except an overly hysteric and non-charming Nastasya ), costumes, the very atmosphere of the dark and psychotic Petersburg of Dostoyevsky are meticulously combined into a theatrical, even intimate, show. The Prince's protagonist Parfion gives energetic, raw-power perfomance ( too bad he wears same black suit through the whole movie, a bit pathetic ). The Prince's best parts are his thralling monologues, when one can almost physically sense how the others' cynicism is extinguished by his naive sincerity.

The movie should appeal to the fans of 'psychological' genre, as special effects and action are obviously absent here.

Dostoyevsky, the world master of classic literature, is a psychopathic psychologist. He is the disease and the cure. No one but him can deliver a true Russian character, full of life's passions: love and hatred. Dostoyevski's characters are simultaneously capable of cruelty and compassion. They are sinful and repentant - but never dull. Idiot gives one so much to ponder about the meaning of life. Film's psychedelic characters represent our innerly hidden demons, which can easily surface, when disturbed. The acting is great. I recommend this film to anyone who is a philosopher. It will stimulate your mental energy for a quite some time.