The Master and Margarita / Master i Margarita (3 DVD SET, ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
by Vladimir Bortko
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Actor: Aleksandr Adabashyan, Gennadi Bogachyov, Lev Borisov, Liubomiras Lauciavicius, Roman KartsevDirector: Vladimir Bortko
Brand: CP Digital
Primary Contributor: Anna Kovalchuk
Primary Contributor: Aleksandr Galibin
Primary Contributor: Oleg Basilashvili
Primary Contributor: Vladislav Galkin
Primary Contributor: Kirill Lavrov
Primary Contributor: Aleksandr Abdulov
Primary Contributor: Aleksandr Filippenko
Primary Contributor: Sergei Bezrukov
Primary Contributor: Aleksandr Bashirov
Primary Contributor: Valentin Gaft
Commentary: Based on novel by M.A. Bulgakov
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: Russian (Unknown); English (Subtitled)
Format: Box set, Color, Import, NTSC
Running Time: 450 unknown-units
Published: 2006
Studio: CP Digital
DVD Reviews of The Master and Margarita / Master i Margarita (3 DVD SET, ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
DVD Review: Far and Away the Best Version of this Great Novel
Summary: 4 Stars
After a few film stabs at Bulgakov's novel, stabs which tended to end up like the overly ambitious Vicenza's nobles' Palladio designed homes - mostly facade - this very long adaptation now offers a much longer and fuller reading of what heretofore appeared an impossible challenge - making film sense of the convoluted triparite plot of this 20th century masterpiece. The storyline has been followed in order, and most, though not all, of the endless subplots depicting Stalinist Russia are trotted out. Unfortunately, not everything is equally well done, and frankly the material calls for a more breathless treatment, especially for the scenes in then contemporary Russia. Much of the film is paced far too slowly for Bulgakov. (See, for example, in contrast the film version of Bulgakov's Ivan the Terrible, where Elizabeth I's Russian counterpart is brought back by the comic deux ex machine par excellent, a Time Machine, to modern day Moscow. Ivan the terrible is switched with the lowest imagineable official, an apartment manager, for very ripe comdey indeed.) To a great extent I tend to side with reviewer MMM and his thoughts about tone or the lack of contrast in the dramatic presentations.
Also problematic, seen today, seventy years later, the historical story and the modern story, between the Master and Margarita's biblical story and the present day events (sic) have out of necessity taken on an unintended dual historical perspective - for today's viewers Stalinist Moscow is as much a part of the past as Pilate's Judea. The director never offers an acceptable film solution to this real quandary.
Therefore - Important caveat: Prospective viewers should be strongly warned against watching the film until or unless they have read the novel. Much more than is usually the case, the ins and outs of Bulgakov's delicious satire should first be experienced in the written word.
Some unacceptable - at least for me - odd choices: the devil in the novel is seven feet tall and extremely extroverted - not a regular grand signeur as cast in the film. Behemoth, the giant cat, is very disappointing indeed as a small person inside a cat costume. (I thought that sort of costuming went out with the silent film Peter Pan's Nana, an obvious person romping around in an animal costume.) On the plus side, while some of the witches give people heart palpitations, the actress playing Margarita is so strikingly beautiful she might actually revive the dead; while the cut throat Azazello could fit right in with the underworld characters of Brecht's Three Penny Opera Berlin.
Another and major point for me - the film fails to hammer and sickle out the depths of the Stalinist terror. Bulgakov's novel tends to show this nightmare obliquely, in a complex mirror made up of a lifetime's gathering of theatrical tricks. Not surprising, given how carefully he was monitored. Modern viewers don't quite sense the extent of what's up since the State Police's use of death and torture is never directly shown. Bulgakov further, and probably out of self-defense, muddies his waters of responsibilty by transferring questions of life and death into the hands of Fate, or as often as not, a reading of the Stars or Tarot cards. The Devil and his grotesque coherts cheerfully point out what lies in store for victims, save in the case of the odious informer Baron Maigle, who they kill themselves. They do scare the life out of a few poor souls, but usually it all has a moral edge, and a large comic impact.
Perhaps the film's director could have better aided modern viewers - largely ignorant of the NKVD - by showing the great poet Akhmatova vainly waiting outside the walls of the Police Station for information on her missing husband, with no news and no one telling her or the others lining up in the frigid snow the status of their arrested spouses, friends, and children. Such a touch might overweight things, but it might add a necessary human connection absent the current versions assumptions. It certainly would buttress and parallel both the love story between the Master and Margarita, and the terror behind the novel's endless events of arrests and human disappearances.
High points - the Crucifixion scenes - or a low point if you will - the Variety theater show; and the wild behavior of Margarita Nikolayevna after she puts on the magic cream. The director did, however, fail to carefully depict the Nabokovian touch of the black velvet slippers. Also Margarita's hair is already curly before she adds the cream - it's supposed to change after. Etc. ect. The maid riding the pig was cute, in every possible way!
Not a great film, but a good one. I've seen a few Bulgakov plays, and they really crackle like firecrackers at a Chiness New Year. The movie doesn't percolate often enough on a truly Gogolian heat. However, considering the degree of difficulty this effort, like a higher rated dive off the 10 meter board, easily deserves at least four stars.
PLEASE NOTE: Along with violence and beheadings this film contains more nudity than a Playboy mansion skinny dipping party: the film is absolutely NOT for children! (Unless you're the sort who send your children to the 'advanced' school Auntie Mame's nephew attended.)
Description of The Master and Margarita / Master i Margarita (3 DVD SET, ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
SOUNDTRACK (AUDIO): RUSSIAN DOLBY DIGITAL 2.0 / ENGLISH SUBTITLES. SYNOPSIS: Vladimir Bortko has become the first Russian film director to start shooting of renowned Bulgakov's novel and not to stop half-way. All the others Russian directors once engaged in the production of "Master and Margaret" have actually turned out to be unable to finalize their projects. The rumors say, it is due to some mysticism... The "Master and Margaret" begins with two story lines: the Devil and his retinue show up to make mischief in 1930's Moscow while Matthew the Evangelist attempts to uncover the truth about Pontius Pilate and the Crucifixion of Jesus in Jerusalem in A. D. 33. Halfway through the novel, Bulgakov unveils a third story line set in Moscow, in which the love-stricken Margarita bargains with the Devil to be reunited with her lover, the Master, a tormented writer-hero who pines away in an insane asylum. Bulgakov gradually weaves the three scenarios together, all the while exercising devilish lampoonery and wit to satirize Soviet life under Stalin. Because public discussions of religion and critiques of the government had long been punishable by a trip to the gulag, the themes addressed in "Master and Margaret" very rarely surfaced in the Soviet Union: many Soviet citizens read the Gospel story for the first time in Bulgakov's narrative.Bestsellers in DVD
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