This movie, which I first saw 65 years ago (!), held me in its grip during and long after my time in the movie theater. Still a high school student, I quickly went to the novel and consumed it in mere weeks, not months (including the section on "The Grand Inquisitor," which is missing from the film. The images of the movie stayed with me while reading the novel (after which, the same author's "Crime and Punishment" was slow, drawn-out, thoroughly boring.)
One of the themes of the movie is the classic Oedipal struggle between father and son, which entails manliness, money, religious faith, and sex. I was struggling with my father's meek ways (like the sick little boy whose father is humiliated by Dmitri (Brynner). I didn't realize it at the time, but as a father today I recognize a similar rebellion and rejection in my relation with my own "grown-up" son.
But the film's under-appreciated performance is that of Maria Schell as Grushenka. Within seconds of meeting her, Dimitri is smitten--and the audience must feel the same for the story to work. Schell lights up the screen with the most memorable, expressive face--signifying joy, sensuality, carelessness, indifference, ironic detachment, total commitment--all in the language of cinema--not of the theatrical stage (the problem with the negative review quoted in the film's Wikipedia entry). Rumor long had it that the part was first offered to Marilyn Monroe. Though I'm also an M.M. fan, Maria Schell is the one and only Grushenka--the heart of this remarkable film.
One of the themes of the movie is the classic Oedipal struggle between father and son, which entails manliness, money, religious faith, and sex. I was struggling with my father's meek ways (like the sick little boy whose father is humiliated by Dmitri (Brynner). I didn't realize it at the time, but as a father today I recognize a similar rebellion and rejection in my relation with my own "grown-up" son.
But the film's under-appreciated performance is that of Maria Schell as Grushenka. Within seconds of meeting her, Dimitri is smitten--and the audience must feel the same for the story to work. Schell lights up the screen with the most memorable, expressive face--signifying joy, sensuality, carelessness, indifference, ironic detachment, total commitment--all in the language of cinema--not of the theatrical stage (the problem with the negative review quoted in the film's Wikipedia entry). Rumor long had it that the part was first offered to Marilyn Monroe. Though I'm also an M.M. fan, Maria Schell is the one and only Grushenka--the heart of this remarkable film.