| Event Name: | Poor, Poor Pavel |
| Description: | Based on a 1908 novel by the Symbolist Russian poet and philosopher Dmitrii Merezhkovskii, Mel’nikov’s film tells of the reign of Tsar Pavel I from 1796 to 1801, up to his assassination by disaffected army officers and nobles. Mel’nikov has proved himself adept at recreating eighteenth-century Russia, having already directed The Tsar’s Hunt, about the royal pretender Ekaterina Tarakanova, in 1990, and The Tsarevich Alexei, about Peter I’s son and disgraced heir, in 1997. In purely artistic terms, this is his most accomplished excursion yet into that century, although its somewhat revisionist ‘ideology’ leaves some questions unanswered.
It is generally accepted that Pavel was unstable as monarch, with inconsistent policies and a reactionary desire to check republican rhetoric unleashed by the French Revolution. We learn little of these policies in Mel’nikov’s film. Indeed, it is questionable whether Pavel, as played by Balabanov stalwart Viktor Sukhorukov, is unhinged. Certainly he is regarded as insane by those around him, but Sukhorukov’ s Pavel comes across as more impulsive in his reactions and misguided in his judgments.
Tickets: 7, conc. 5 (Friends of Pushkin House, students and OAPs) |
| Type of Event: | Historical - Archaeological Events |
| Event Agenda: | Lecture-Screening
Poor, Poor Pavel
Introduction by Ludmila Gromova and Vitaly Yerenkov
RUSSIAN HISTORY IN FILM SERIES
Language: In Russian with English subtitles
Historic Drama _ Russia _ 2003 _ col _ 1hr 43mins _ dir. Vitaly Melnikov, with Victor Sukhorukov, Oleg Yankovsky, Oksana Mysina, Svetlana Kryuchkova. |
| Event Location: | PUSHKIN HOUSE |
| Event City: | London |
| Type of Venue: | Cultural Center |
| Station/Stop: | |
| Directions: | |
| Event Start Date | 14-Dec-11 |