For quick characterization, I first like to know which country a movie is from. In this case, I was unsure.. stars: the usual anglo set (though I only knew Vanessa Redgrave). Director/producer/production company: Israel. I had bought the film for 1€, and had it shelved for almost a year, until I decided to give it a try last night.
And I was surprised to see it was a very Russian movie. Filmed on location in Moscow, or in Ostankino studios. Lots of Russian names in the credits, apart from the stars. Based on Dostoyevski's 1866 novel (which has been turned to film more than a dozen times), but enacted in 2000's Moscow.
And the outdoor scenes showed quite some of Moscow as I knew it from my trip there in 1988. The indoors scenes showed shabby apartments, as seen e.g. in Nochnoy dozor. In brief: visually I felt much at home in this.
Not having read the original novel, I can't judge how truthful it was rendered. Some of the acted emotions felt indeed 19th century to me, but then there were updates including Nietzsche, Hitler, and Stalin. So, much food for thought..
I agree that some of the acting was melodramatic (call it soap opera if you wish), but the disturbed Raskolnikov as well as the detective/judge Profiry (John Hurt) were interesting to watch over the full 2 hours.
I watched the pic again this morning (after some Wikipedia reading), and must say I liked it better the second time around. It's still an odd film, but now I really like it, and can recommend it to other lovers of film diversity :^)
And I was surprised to see it was a very Russian movie. Filmed on location in Moscow, or in Ostankino studios. Lots of Russian names in the credits, apart from the stars. Based on Dostoyevski's 1866 novel (which has been turned to film more than a dozen times), but enacted in 2000's Moscow.
And the outdoor scenes showed quite some of Moscow as I knew it from my trip there in 1988. The indoors scenes showed shabby apartments, as seen e.g. in Nochnoy dozor. In brief: visually I felt much at home in this.
Not having read the original novel, I can't judge how truthful it was rendered. Some of the acted emotions felt indeed 19th century to me, but then there were updates including Nietzsche, Hitler, and Stalin. So, much food for thought..
I agree that some of the acting was melodramatic (call it soap opera if you wish), but the disturbed Raskolnikov as well as the detective/judge Profiry (John Hurt) were interesting to watch over the full 2 hours.
I watched the pic again this morning (after some Wikipedia reading), and must say I liked it better the second time around. It's still an odd film, but now I really like it, and can recommend it to other lovers of film diversity :^)