AlexanderAdamson Reviews of the movie Duelist
In St. Petersburg in the times of Alexander II, a nobleman named Yakovlev (Pyotr Fedorov) is announced, who is not taken by bullets, at any rate, the German baron-prodigy (Martin Wuttke), working for him as someone like an impresario, To substitute the offended side for money.
The metropolitan light, meanwhile, follows the antics of Count Beklemishev (Vladimir Mashkov), who borrowed money from all and does not give up, and in addition, before his eyes, the patroness of the Grand Duchess (Francis Petri) shamelessly glued to the young princess Tuchkova (Julia Hlynina); In the air there clearly smells a duel - and perhaps not one.
Going out on a thousand screens of the "Duelist", a potential blockbuster performed by the Siberian Alexei Mizgirev, the author of gloomy little tragedies about Russian provincials (Kremen, Tambourine, Drum, and Convoy) is an interesting story, of course. At least economically. In theory, it is clear that the larger the film project - and here the budget is quite serious by Russian standards, - the more compromises lie in its foundation: from some zero, expression ends. And, of course, we do not know how everything happened there with Mizgirev and his producer Alexander Rodnyansky (who works in the author's cinema, but not with charity). However, on the part of the finished film it looks as if from the very beginning Mizgirev received carte blanche. Some kind of wet dream of the festival director: here's the money, here's the stars for you, let's do it. And if the "Duellist" really becomes a hit, in which there are certain doubts, this will mean that the Russian viewer has seriously underestimated something, or, on the contrary, he is ready to go to anything, where Mashkov, beautiful and gentlemen officers.