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Agony (Russian: Агония, romanized: Agoniya; U.S. theatrical/DVD title Rasputin) is a 1981 Soviet biographical film by Elem Klimov, made c.1973-75 and released in Western and Central Europe in 1982 (United States and Soviet Union 1985), after protracted resistance from Soviet authorities.[1] The film is notable for its rich, sometimes baroque style, its sumptuous recreation of episodes from the final year of Imperial Russia and the psychological portraits of Grigori Rasputin and the Imperial family.

Agony
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Elem Klimov
Written by	Semyon Lungin Ilya Nusinov
Produced by	Elem Klimov
Starring	Aleksei Petrenko
Cinematography	Leonid Kalashnikov
Edited by	Valeria Belova
Music by	Alfred Schnittke
Production company	Mosfilm
Distributed by	Mosfilm
Release dates	21 July 1981 (1981-07-21) (Moscow) September 1982 (1982-09) (Venice) 19 February 1983 (1983-02-19) (Berlin) June 1985 (1985-06) (Soviet Union)
Running time	see below
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Russian

Plot

The storyline follows the final months of 1916 up to the murder of Rasputin; some events have been telescoped into this time though they actually happened earlier, during the war. Rasputin's effect on people around him is shown as almost hypnotic, and the film avoids taking a moral stance towards him—breaking not only with Soviet history but also with how he was regarded by people near the court at the time, some of whom regarded him as a debilitating figure who disgraced the monarchy and hampered the war effort.[2]

Cast

• Aleksei Petrenko as Grigori Rasputin
• Anatoli Romashin as emperor Nicholas II
• Velta Līne as empress Alexandra Feodorovna
• Alisa Freindlich as Anna Vyrubova
• Aleksandr Romantsov as Felix Yusupov
• Yuri Katin-Yartsev as Vladimir Purishkevich
• Leonid Bronevoy as Ivan Manasevich-Manuilov
• Pavel Pankov as Manus
• Mickhail Danilov as Mikhail M. Andronikov
• Mikhail Svetin as Terekhov
• Boris Romanov as Balashov
• Lyudmila Polyakova as Praskovya Fyodorovna, Rasputin's wife
• Afanasi Trishkin as Maklakov

Production

As evidenced by the scenography and photography, resources appear to have been lavish, but once finished, the film was declared unsuitable for release; the reasons is considered to be due to the depiction of the imperial family.[3] In this film Nicholas II is shown as weak and indecisive rather than brutal, and this did not square with the way the period had been retold in Soviet historiography and schoolbooks.[4] Furthermore, the Bolsheviks make no appearance, though it takes place during the final months of the empire, when the state was drifting toward revolution. This is historically truthful; the Bolsheviks had a very low level of activity in Russia during the First World War, as most of their leaders were abroad or in prison and at the time they made no real, organized contribution to the unrest until after Lenin had returned in April 1917, by which time the Tsar had already been deposed. This was something Soviet history would not recognize; instead Lenin would be portrayed as the wise general of the upheaval from the start, and the Bolsheviks as the mass party of the working classes. Finally, the prominence of sexuality and sectarian religion in the film were hard to stomach for Soviet censors.[5][6]

Release

The film went unshown until 1981, when it was screened at the Moscow Film Festival and attracted very favourable reviews. Released in Western Europe, Czechoslovakia,[7][8] Hungary,[9] Poland[10][11] in 1982, it was hailed as one of the most original Soviet films of the 1970s.^{[citation needed]} It was screened later in 1985, at the dawn of the Glasnost era.

The versions released in the 1980s, and later on DVD, differ somewhat in length and the final voice-over newsreel shots of the 1917 revolution may have been added in to appease authorities.[12] The original mid-1970s cut does not seem to have survived, and it is unclear how much was rewritten or possibly reshot after 1975.

Alternate versions

At least four versions of the film exist, from 73 minutes,[13] 104 minutes, 142 minutes (the North American DVD release from Kino International) and 151 minutes (the 1982 international release).

References

External links

• Agony at IMDb
• Watch Agony online at official Mosfilm site (with English subtitles)

На других языках

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[de] Agonia

Agonia (russisch Агония .mw-parser-output .Latn{font-family:"Akzidenz Grotesk","Arial","Avant Garde Gothic","Calibri","Futura","Geneva","Gill Sans","Helvetica","Lucida Grande","Lucida Sans Unicode","Lucida Grande","Stone Sans","Tahoma","Trebuchet","Univers","Verdana"}Agonija) ist ein Spielfilm des sowjetischen Regisseurs Elem Klimow. Er handelt vom Leben des sibirischen Bauern Rasputin, der Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts zu großem Einfluss im Zarenhaus kam. Der Film wurde von 1966 bis 1974 gedreht, durfte aber in der Sowjetunion zunächst nicht aufgeführt werden. Erst 1981 wurde er im Ausland und schließlich 1985 auch in der UdSSR gezeigt.

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- [en] Agony (1981 film)

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[it] Agonia (film 1981)

Agonia (Агония) è un film sovietico diretto da Elem Klimov.

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[ru] Агония (фильм)

«Аго́ния» — двухсерийный советский художественный фильм режиссёра Элема Климова, снятый в СССР в 1981 году по сценарию Семёна Лунгина и Ильи Нусинова. В основе сюжета находятся личность Григория Распутина и заговор с целью его убийства. В роли Распутина — Алексей Петренко.

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