«Idiot» Director Ivan Pryev, USSR, 1958. In the roles of Yuri Yakovlev, Julia Borisov, Nikita Podgorny, Leonid Parhomenko and others.
The novel of Fyodor of Dostoevsky «Idiot» was first published in 1868 on the pages of the Russian Journal. At the heart of it is an attempt to represent in the world the calculation, the greed, and the social attributes of an ideal, «positively beautiful» human being. It is embodied in the main hero, Prince Myshkin, who returns to Petersburg from Switzerland after treatment for epilepsy.
Dostoevsky asks: Can sacrificed Christian love that abandons itself be effective in a world of passion, or is it doomed to become a passive vision of tragedy? The answer wasn’t funny. Prince Myshkin, trying to reconcile everyone, shows by his own example that in a world of egoism the good looks like powerlessness — or madness.
The triumph and finale of the novel is the triumph of chaos and outrage. Myshkin’s final seizure on the body of Nasstasia Philipovna, his return to the condition for which he was treated in Switzerland, is a profound symbolic act. The cruel and cynical world rejects its last hope of spiritual renewal.
The screen created by director Ivan Pryev became a classic Soviet movie. The film is made only in the first part of the novel, as also the original tweet says: «Part one. Nastasia Philipovna.» The alleged second part, according to filmmakers, was not filmed because the director «did not find any art tools for the tragic circumstances of the second half of the book». However, there is also a legend: the pretending to be Prince Myshkin Yuri Yakovlev, after the filming, almost ended up with a mental disorder in a psychiatric clinic and refused to film in the second part; the Jews, however, could not imagine replacing him, did not resume filming.
Yes, a film by the Dust can only serve as a push point to get into Dostoevsky’s novel. And yet, by the skill of acting and directing literacy, the painting is not equal. The film was released on May 12, 1958; by the end of December, more than 30 million viewers had seen it. The «Council screen» magazine called «Idiot» the best play in 1958.