From the acclaimed director of COME AND SEE
AGONY
The Life and Death of Rasputin
A Film by Elem Klimov
Under the direction of celebrated filmmaker Elem Klimov (Come and See), Aleksei Petrenko delivers a ferociously over-the top performance as Grigory Rasputin, the wandering Siberian monk whose messianic influence upon RussiaÂ’s monarch led its people, like lambs to the slaughter, blind and headlong into World War IÂ… setting the stage for revolution. Anything but a standard bio-pic, Agony is an unrestrained assault on the ruling class in Russia, whose
religious hedonism and political ignorance nearly destroyed the country. Influenced in part by such latter 20th Century phenomena as Charles Manson and The Exorcist, Klimov restages world history with jolting doses of sexual avarice, drunkenness, violence and insanity in startling contrast to staid historical accounts of Rasputin’s life and most peculiar death. At the same time that it was criticized for its harsh depiction of royal decadence, Agony was deemed politically blasphemous for its almost sympathetic treatment of Nicholas II (Anatoli Romashin) – a pathetic, weak-willed Czar who is dominated not only by the mad monk, but by his own wife and child. As a result, Agony, which was made in 1975, was banned for ten years in its native land until, in the era of Glasnost, Klimov’s radical political fable was properly recognized and triumphantly set loose upon the screens of the world.
- NTSC Region 1
- Widescreen
- Russian with Optional English Subtitles
- Klimov – A Film by Ron and Dorothea Holloway (50 min, w/ English subtitles)
- Trailer for Come and See
- Elem Klimov Filmography
U.S.S.R. 1975 Color 142 min. Letterboxed (2.35:1) Not Rated
In Russian with optional English subtitles
AGONY (Agoniya) The Life and Death of Rasputin
Directed by ELEM KLIMOV
Written by SEMYON LUNGIN and ILYA NUSINOV
Director of Photography LEONID KALASHNIKOV Editing VALERIYA BELOVA
Music ALFRED SHNITKE Costume Design TATYANA VADETSKAYA
Production Design SHAVKAT ABDUSALAMOV and SERGEI VORONKOV
With ALEKSEI PETRENKO ANATOLI ROMASHIN VELTA LINE ALISA FREJNDLIKH
ALEKSANDR ROMANTSOV YURI KATIN-YARTSEV LEONID BRONEVOY PAVEL PANKOV
