The Kreutzer Sonata [DVD] [2008]

This is a very good film, or should I say video since it is shot on video for that added true to life feeling. Based on Tolstoy's novella that was inspired by a performance of the sonata, the movie very sensibly puts the music at the centre of things, so that it is as much about the expressive power of music as it is jealousy and sexual obsession.

Danny Huston impresses as the intense and fixated Edgar, a man filled with long suppressed violence, both visually but especially through the narration which is key to the story's interest. Sometimes voice over is a bore but not here. Elisabeth Rohm is very sexy as Edgar's wife, the frustrated pianist who comes out of retirement for a benefit organised by Edgar and begins the partnership with Matthew Yang King's violinist that turns Edgar's anxiety over his wife's itchy feet into paranoia over her imminent adultery.

Video suits the novella, a character study without grand themes. The sex scenes are pretty raunchy though not really prolonged, the fiery exchanges between violin and piano being equally erotic. One can't help empathising with both husband and wife, but especially Edgar as he does his best to be the good, trusting, considerate husband and keep his fears locked away, but eventually finds his self control slipping away.

If it were up to me, maybe I would change some of the dialogue, including a tasteless remark referencing Jacqueline Du Pre, and possibly cast an actress who was less obviously sexy and more fascinating in terms of her character, her gaze. Russian women in literature are usually passionate, intense, spiritual, haughty creatures idolized by their men. I don't think Rohm quite has these elusive traits. It's also a little unbelieveable that Abi gets pregnant so clumsily, when surely a morning after pill would have fixed things (the perils of updating the story).

Well worth seeing. Sexy and dangerous. Time for me to finally read some Tolstoy.

"I like it" as a film rating is appropriate for a rom com, heist thriller, musical or feel-good love story. This is an altogether different proposition. Nothing "feel good" about this movie. It is a dark, grim exploration of marriage and shallow, improvised values which is, ironically adapted from a 19th century novel (confirming the view that there really is nothing new under the sun). I remember a similar viewing experience years ago seeing Mike Leigh's 'Naked' - brilliant, shocking, compelling and deeply uncomfortable because of the nihilism. If you want redemption and a happy ending, don't bother with this. If you want to think, be challenged and don't mind a trip to the dark side, see it.

Danny Huston plays a wealthy philanthropist in Beverley Hills, living a life he obviously abhors, where status is everything and what you have/are able to acquire determines what you are. One of his "acquisitions" includes a beautiful and gifted wife. The marriage and subsequent family life is accidental and the consequence of an illicit and explicitly shown affair. With voice over in the present, the film tells the story of this doomed union with a sublime Beethoven recital as its backdrop and emotional focus.

Danny Houston is an AMAZING actor. His menace combined with sexiness and that fabulous voice completely dominates the film. Cripes, you cannot take your EYES off this man on screen. Elizabeth Rohm is also wonderful - naturally beautiful with an authentic acting style and an innocence that makes the premise of the film and the ending we know is coming all the more unnerving. The documentary-style filming suits the naturalistic acting and is incredibly powerful because the content is SO shocking.

The one weak spot is the scene with Anjelica Houston. It seemed as if it was from a different film but that's one weak spot in an otherwise thought provoking and emotionally exhausting viewing experience.

Danny Huston seemed to appear out of nowhere when he starred in Ivansxtc, Bernard Rose's adaptation of Tolstoy's The Death Of Ivan Ilyich. That extraordinary smile which has been described as shark-like and the rich voice which seems to sound more and more like his father's were suited perfectly to the despicable character of Hollywood agent Ivan Beckman. Much was made of the resistance by some in Hollywood to see a film that depicted the darker side of the industry to be made first of all, and secondly to be distributed once it had been shot. There's no such thing as bad publicity of course and it helped to draw attention to the film which made a virtue of its low budget digital video camera work and used a classical score to excellent effect. Rose intends to make a trilogy of Tolstoy adaptations, of which this is the second part; again starring Danny Huston, again using that handheld digital video look and naturally making excellent use of classical music.

I finished reading the novella on which it is based just an hour or so before watching the film so it was with some ease that I could recognise some of the lines that Rose had lifted from the book, what parts he had decided to discard and what to keep. In Tolstoy's novella the story is related by its hero, Pozdnyshev, to our narrator as they share a train journey. In adapting it into a film Rose has to rely heavily on voice over to relate the views and opinions of his own hero Edgar. Voice over is one of those things that critics get very sniffy about, and it's certainly a pain when it's lazy or unnecessary, but I'm not sure how else Rose could have got across Edgar's many views and theories about modern life without using it. Perhaps it might have been improved slightly if it had been set up early on that the voice over we were listening to was in fact a conversation between Edgar and someone else. Edgar is a man from a similar social strata to Beckman but with a far more beneficent outlook, helping to run a foundation set up by his family which provides funding for work in the sciences. We see him meet his future wife at a party when she is currently dating someone else and so their own relationship is born of infidelity and possessiveness. The arrival of children is unplanned and the impact of that is for Elisabeth Rohm's wife to give up her career as a classical pianist. So the film clearly follows the book's themes of marriage as enslavement, sex as dangerous, and children as a curse and burden. Over the films length we see the relationship from its very beginning to its bloody end with the slow decay in between.

The book is divided roughly into two sections. The first where Pozdnyshev holds forth with his wisdom from experience about marriage, human relations and the truth of the world as he sees it, and the second where he tells the story of his own descent into jealousy, torment and finally murderous rage. The book is weighted just slightly in favour of the former, the film naturally is all about the latter with the voice over providing snippets of Edgar's wisdom. The central event to both is the duet of wife and violinist on Beethoven's Violin sonata no.9. It is Edgar who organises the charity benefit during which the piece will be played, Edgar who chooses Aiden, the violinist, and Edgar who chooses to introduce him to his wife, determined to prove himself the perfect husband by allowing his wife to regain some of that freedom and individuality lost by becoming a wife and mother. Aiden recounts the history of the piece of music, originally dedicated to George Bridgetower, the dedication changed when Bridgetower apparently 'besmirched' the morals of women Beethoven cherished (Aiden's own theory being that Bridgetower had slept with one of Beethoven's ex's) and finally bearing the name of Rodolphe Kreutzer, who considered the piece unplayable and in fact never played it himself. So the music itself is possibly tainted with the stain of immorality but for Edgar it is a very personal experience. A man who doesn't see the point of classical music at all becomes obsessed with this one piece, the music going round and round in his head, as the constant presence of Aiden in their house practising begins to build up the pressure, feeding that green shoot of jealousy until it is all Edgar can think about.

Rose's editing and use of the music itself is brilliant, helping to create the fever of jealousy, the irrationality of Edgar's thoughts, his animalistic urges, the subtle shift from sexual passion to violent possession to murderous rage. There is something however that makes the film slightly less impressive than Ivansxtc, something hard to pin down. Some of the improvised dialogue falls very flat (and in one truly bizarre moment Edgar's daughter walks in on her mother practising at the piano and says 'You're not doing it for real' - presumably because the actress isn't doing it for real (the piano parts played by a professional musician) but its inclusion in the final edit suddenly draws attention somewhere it shouldn't be), the film feels a bit long even though it is only 99 mins (perhaps due to some of the improvised meandering), the digital camera work has fewer moments where it can assert itself stylistically and there were even times when I wanted Huston to ramp it up just a notch. Rohm is fantastic as his wife, particularly in an exposed role which demands she spend much of it naked and engaged in vigorous sex with her husband. She exudes a natural beauty and openness on which Edgar can project his lurid fantasies and paranoias. However, given that you can read the book in roughly the same time it takes to watch the film, you don't need me to tell you which would be the better use of your time.