The Last Station
The Last Station is due to be released in the UK on 19 February 2010. Its European release was slightly earlier and Helen Mirren has already won Best Actress award at the 2009 Rome Film Festival. Also both Mirren and Plummer were nominated for the Golden Globe Awards (in Best Performance – Drama and Best Supporting Performance). So it is very likely that the film would be met positively by British audience as well.
However, there are many things about this story and Tolstoy’s life that might need additional clarification in order to be fully understood by general audience. As we know, the film shows the final year in the life of Leo Tolstoy and his family. According to the critics, who have seen the film, the acting and costumes were superb which proves that the actors had done a great work trying to reconstruct an atmosphere of early 20th century.
This success is partly due to Helen Mirren’s heritage: born Ilyena Vasilievna Mironov, on paternal side she belongs to Russian aristocracy. In her interviews Mirren even mentioned that one of her ancestors appeared in War and Peace.
Although the filming mainly took place in Germany, the authors did their best in creating an authentic atmosphere.
Tolstoy is portrayed by Christopher Plummer, who is known to UK audience as Captain von Trapp from The Sound of Music. It would be interesting to see in what language they are going to talk to each other. Those who have read War and Peace in the original know that many parts of the novel were actually written in French which was frequently used in 19th century Russia. Sofya Tolstoy, writer’s wife, had German roots and, therefore, often spoke in German, whereas Tolstoy himself could speak and write in over 16 languages. He even studied Ancient Hebrew and Greek in order to read the Bible.
It is true to say that Tolstoy had complicated relationship with his wife but she often helped him with his literary work. According to the diaries, she copied the manuscript of War and Peace seven times. She was very interested in photography, which was a new activity at the time. Thanks to her, now we have plenty of photos demonstrating writer’s everyday life.
This year is 100th anniversary since Tolstoy’s death. Born in 1828, during his long life he managed to create hundreds of stories, novels and other literary works. His most famous novel, War and Peace, is often included to the lists of greatest novels and has an enormous range of characters (almost 600) from unknown peasants to Napoleon.
During his last several years, Tolstoy was developing his own system of religious and philosophical views. This system had thousands of followers all over the world from Japan to Canada. Gandhi, who was influenced by his ideas, called Tolstoy “"the greatest apostle of non-violence that the present age has produced."
In 1910 Tolstoy decided to leave his family, house and all possessions. However, he didn’t manage to travel far away from his estate. He only reached a tiny Astapovo railway station, which became world-famous just because he spent there his last days.
By Zair Kashek
Tagged in Helen Mirren