The Kreutzer Sonata (2008)
The Kreutzer Sonata (2008)
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | PAL 16:9 | 01:35:42 | 7,50 Gb
Audio: English LPCM 2.0 @ 1536 Kbps | Subs: None
Genre: Drama
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | PAL 16:9 | 01:35:42 | 7,50 Gb
Audio: English LPCM 2.0 @ 1536 Kbps | Subs: None
Genre: Drama
Director: Bernard Rose
Writers: Lisa Enos (screenplay), Bernard Rose (screenplay)
Stars: Danny Huston, Elisabeth Röhm, Matthew Yang King
British director Bernard Rose clearly has a thing for those two 19th-century giants of music and literature Beethoven and Tolstoy. He turned out a Beethoven biopic, Immortal Beloved, back in 1994; made a period adaptation of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (starring Sophie Marceau and Sean Bean) in 1997; and reworked Tolstoy’s story ‘The Death of Ivan Ilyich’ in a contemporary setting for 1999’s ivans xtc.
Now he brings his big passions together with The Kreutzer Sonata – a version of Tolstoy’s enigmatic 1889 novella, which was itself inspired by the eponymous Beethoven work.
British-born director Bernard Rose, known as a horror specialist for his 1992 shocker Candyman, is showing some stunning form with his modern adaptations of Tolstoy. After a conventional account of Anna Karenina, Rose brought off a brilliant version of The Death Of Ivan Ilych in 2000; set in modern Hollywood, and entitled Ivansxtc, it starred Danny Huston as Ivan, the agent and Tinseltown power-player, confronting the awful truth about his approaching death. Now Rose has adapted Tolstoy's novella The Kreutzer Sonata, again starring Huston, again set in contemporary Los Angeles. The result is bold, brilliant and exhilarating: an intimately horrible, sexually explicit and black-comic portrait of a toxic marriage that is closer to the spirit of the original than any number of costume dramas. It is not merely a study of jealousy and obsession, but a profoundly pessimistic and nihilistic rejection of romantic love and sex itself – which, in a world without God, is the ultimate blasphemy.
The Kreutzer Sonata (2008)
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Huston plays Edgar, a very rich man in early middle age, whose worldly charm and sensuality attract a woman he meets at a party: this is Abby (Elizabeth Röhm), a beautiful and talented classical pianist, who is already in a relationship. Their passionate, clandestine affair leads years later to marriage, but Abby is discontented, having now given up music for children. To appease her, Edgar induces his private charitable foundation to host a benefit concert, so his wife will play Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata to a moneyed private audience, but she must therefore practise long hours with a handsome violinist: Aiden (Matthew Yang King).
The Kreutzer Sonata (2008)
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Instantly, Edgar conceives a fanatical jealousy – after all, did Abby not once cheat on that former boyfriend to be with him? Yet he is neurotically compelled to let Abby be alone with the handsome newcomer, to prove to himself that he is not threatened, and so creates the scab he's picking at. Abby is entirely innocent, but exasperated and sexually disaffected with Edgar, and also insists on maintaining her affectionate friendship with Aiden, just to prove to herself that she is a free agent. And so this neurotic, poisoned situation metastises in Edgar's mind.
The Kreutzer Sonata (2008)
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In his novella, Tolstoy has a line about the supposed joys of the honeymoon and conjugal bliss being like a fairground con-trick whose victims are too ashamed to admit they've been duped and so too ashamed to warn others – and thus the scam continues for eternity. In Rose's movie, it is monogamous intimacy itself that is vilified through Edgar's crazed worldview. His wife's essential unknowability – in fact, the unknowability and uncontrollability of everything outside his head – drives him mad.
The Kreutzer Sonata (2008)
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The despair and contempt also includes Beethoven and all classical music, which Edgar secretly loathes: the famous duet, so far from being a sublime meeting of spirits, is a clenched, ritualistic confrontation in tune with the violence and pornography of Edgar's private hell. Rose's Kreutzer Sonata looks a little like Haneke's The Piano Teacher, and bears comparison with Chantal Akerman's version of Proust's The Captive – but is freer and more uninhibited. My only reservation is with Rose's use of voiceover narration, which is, perhaps, a little pedantic. But it doesn't stop this from being a superbly creative adaptation.The Guardian
The Kreutzer Sonata (2008)
Listen, I have seen 23 first votes that rank this film as a 3.7
The one negative review I saw was from a fan of the original novella by Leo Tolstoy; they made complaints about major points of the novella, including its philosophies and theories on marriage and sex, not being duly appropriated in this adaptation.
And I have to say that they are plainly insane to "besmirch" this film as to the extent that they have.
The Kreutzer Sonata (2008)
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What I got out of this film was an originally filmed and paced independent film that wasn't annoyingly experimental. Its voice over made the film into a good unforced narrative with acting that was equally effective.
I loved the story, I loved the acting. The feelings of jealousy, suspicion, anxiety, and suffocation were so absorbing. I felt attached to most of this film. The acting was fluid and perfect chemistry. There are so many ways to act a scene. Danny Huston and Elisabeth Rohm's performances were some of the most realistic and enjoyable I have ever seen. At times the film felt like a documentary between the characters and the hand-held style.
I felt like this was definitely one of the best films I've seen in a long time. This is a wonderful ride with a great efficacy.IMDB Reviewer
The Kreutzer Sonata (2008)
Special Features:
- Making of The Kreutzer Sonata (12:21)
- Stills Gallery
- Trailer
Thanks to heaver.
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