Ther movie chronicles the end of Tolstoy's life, after he had adopted a monastic public persona, espousing a simple life and wearing peasant clothing and a long beard, despite his noble birth and extensive estate. It could be taken directly from the pages of 'LOVE AND HATRED: The Troubled Marriage of Leo and Sonya Tolstoy', by William L. Shirer. The movie describes the people who surrounded the Tolstoy's at the end of his life, and one in particular, Valentin, who gains both husband and wife's confidence.
The movie does tell a story taken directly from Sofya Tolstoy's diary that is quite telling of the couple's relationship:
"Just as I was going to the door, Lev Nikolayevich called to me.
‘Wait a moment, Sofya Andreyevna.’
‘What is it?’
‘Will you read what I am going to write?’
‘Very well.’
‘I am only going to write the initials. You must guess the words.’
‘How can I do that? It’s impossible! Oh, well go on.”
He brushed the games scores off the card table, took a piece of chalk and began writing. We were both very serious and excited. I followed his big red hand, and could feel all my powers of concentration and feeling focus on that bit of chalk and the hand that held it. We said nothing.
[He wrote these letters:] ‘y.y.&n.f.h.t.v.r.m.o.m.a.&i.f.h.’
‘Your youth and need for happiness too vividly remind me of my age and incapacity for happiness,’ I read out. My heart was pounding, my temples were throbbing, my face was flushed – I was beyond all sense of time and reality; at that moment I felt capable of anything, of understanding everything, imagining the unimaginable."
Sofya is Anna Karenina. She is a brilliant personality disordered woman who is at once enchanting and infuriating. She has borderline personality disorder, and she both hypnotizes Tolstoy and is tormented by him. All of the actors are superb in their histrionics, very Russian, and it is well worth seeing.
No comments:
Post a Comment