Story of an Unknown Man (1980)

movie

(71)

Country: Soviet Union
Genres: Drama, Romance
Release: 1981-04-01
Director: Vytautas Zalakevicius
Writers: Anton Chekhov , Vytautas Zalakevicius
Language: Russian
Stars: Evgeniya Simonova , Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy , Georgiy Taratorkin , Lyudmila Zaytseva , Pavel Kadochnikov , Sergey Muchenikov , Boris Romanov , Ion Ungureanu , Anatoliy Skoryakin , Gleb Plaksin
Runtime: 100 min
Awards: 1 nomination
AKA: Opowieść nieznanego człowieka (Poland) , Story of an Unknown Man , Rasskaz neizvestnogo cheloveka , Nepazistamo zmogaus pasakojimas , Nepažistamo žmogaus pasakojimas (Lithuania) , Рассказ неизвестного человека , Egy ismeretlen elbeszélése (Hungary) , Erzählungen eines Unbekannten , Récit d'un homme inconnu (France, French Republic)
Plot: I liked it. The plot is following. It is the end of 19 century in Russia. A member of revolutionary terrorist group gets an assignment to kill an important government official. In order to approach to him he becomes a footman (a servant) in the house of this official's son. He has to hide his noble origin, his knowledge of French and, which is more important, his self-respect and dignity. His master has a love affair with married woman. One day she leaves her husband and unexpectedly moves to her lover's flat. She considers her lover to be outstanding person. She is full of different hysterical ideas and soon her lover becomes very tied of her. So our hero watches all their relations in progress and soon he begins to feel sympathy for a woman. He begins to reconsider his own intentions and thoughts, which makes him lost. The movie itself is quite serious one. It is not love story as you may expect from my summary. It is not a story about revolutionary struggle as well. It is philosophical introduction into human soul, nature of love or hate. It asks eternal question: Why do we live? What for? It is about lost generation, laughing on Turgenev's heroines, who at least were able to follow their fighting men anywhere. It is about degeneration of ideas (comparing with what was a beginning ? "dekabristy" in 1825 and their wives following them to Siberia) and impossibility to find your own place in life. Watch it! I strongly recommend. In spite of seriousness the film is not boring. It is nicely cut, acting is perfect. Simonova as always excited hysterical woman in love is just perfect. I gave this movie 8 out of 10.
IMDB:tt0230686