Russian dissident Kirill Serebrennikov evokes an impossible and tragic love

After two years of house arrest in Moscow, and settled in Berlin for more than a year and a half following his escape from Russia, the Russian dissident director Kirill Serebrennikov leaves Tchaikovsky’s Wife Wednesday, February 15. Dedicated to the tragic fate of composer Piotr Tchaikovsky’s wife, his new opus is however less convincing than his two previous films, but sprinkled with flashes. Due to the evocation of homosexuality, a taboo subject in Russia, the film was banned from broadcasting in the territory.

Classic but bold

In 19th century Russia, Antonina Miliukova is madly in love with the famous composer Piotr Tchaikovsky. Pressing him with her attentions, she convinces him to become her husband. But the musician abandons her, preferring the company of men. Ignored and snubbed by her husband, she nevertheless follows him into his intimate circles. Overwhelmed with love, she endures everything until the death of the composer, and will end up in an asylum.

After the birth of the Leningrad rock scene in Leto, Kirill Serebrennikov remains attached to a musical subject even if he does not deal directly with Tchaikovsky. His new film is devoted, as its title suggests, to the composer’s wife, a subject already covered in Ken Russel’s 1970 biopic, Music Lovers. Serebrennikov does not borrow the excesses of the British director. More classic, it nevertheless offers dreamlike scenes of great beauty, and audacity contrasting with more expected choices.

Critical vision

Vladimir Putin did not appreciate that the dissident director exposes Tchaikovsky’s homosexuality in his film, which in his eyes taints a national icon. In addition, the director, who has refined a very beautiful reconstruction of the Russia of the tsars, depicts a bloodless, muddy country, with an indigent population despised by a frivolous aristocracy, while the potentate of Moscow is fascinated by the tsarist regime of Saint -Petersburg. From this point of view, Serebrennikov always demonstrates his independence, wondering how he managed to make films, always devoted to his country, with such a critical vision. Petrov Feverin competition at Cannes in 2021, was, from this point of view, a rant that is as supercharged as it is poetic on Russian society.

Brave and true to history, Tchaikovsky’s Wife does not, however, arouse the enthusiasm of Leto or of Petrov Fever. It is more lukewarm, no doubt because it oscillates between boldness and classicism. But the photography is magnificent, alternating between the warmth of interiors lit by candles and gas, and the coldness of empty and freezing rooms. And the tragic interpretation of Alyona Mikhailova redeems more conventional ideas, from a Western point of view, but still sulphurous in Putin’s Russia.

The sheet

Gender : historical drama
Director: Kirill Serebrennikov
Actors: Odin Lund Biron, Alyona Mikhailova, Ekaterina Ermishina
Country : Russia / France / Switzerland
Duration : 2h23
Exit : February 15, 2023
Distributer : Film Tray

Summary: Russia, 19th century. Antonina Miliukova, a wealthy and brilliant young woman, married the composer Piotr Tchaikovsky. But her love for him turns to obsession and the young woman is violently rejected. Consumed by her feelings, Antonina agrees to endure everything to stay with him.