Ended on 7/1/2010
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ANTON CHEKHOV'S THE DUEL -
(unrated)
2010 - USA - English/Spanish - 95 minutes - High Line Pictures
Directed by: Dover Koshashvili
Featuring: Andrew Scott, Fiona Glascott, Tobias Menzies
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showtimes and tickets
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 Save Shakespeare, Chekhov is the literary giant whose work is most frequently adapted for the screen. THE DUEL gives life to a classic Chekhovian tale: the young ne'er-do-well aristocrat vs. the arrogant man of science; the attraction of a manipulative, narcissistic, albeit beautiful mistress vs. the life of the mind and of principled action. Gambling, alcohol and flirtations consummated in an impossibly beautiful countryside hold obvious attractions for Laevsky. But the provinces begin to bore him and worse still, he's fallen out of love. Then financial ruin looms, and his mistress's sexual dalliances threaten a violent denouement.
Dover Koashvili, director of "Late Marriage", assembles a brilliant ensemble cast of British actors who strike just the right balance between intrigue and that particularly Russian brand of ennui we associate with Chekhov - but which today might elicit a prescription for Celexa.
"THE DUEL is intelligently staged and impeccably crafted. The period atmosphere is sensuous. (It’s) the most successful literary adaptation I’ve seen since Pascal Ferran’s 2006 “Lady Chatterley.”"
-J. Hoberman, Village Voice
“The Georgian-born director, Dover Koshashvili (who made the bitterly funny "Late Marriage"), and the screenwriter, Mary Bing, have gotten the rough texture and the pitch, music, exactly right… The rhythms are so evocative you’d think they’d unearthed a new (early) Chekhov play.”
–David Edelstein, New York Magazine
"Believably inhabited, consistently surprising and true-feeling in detail and sweep."
-Manohla Dargis, NY Times
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