Les possédés (Dostoevskij - i demoni) - Andrzej Wajda

premessa, tutti i film di Wajda sono da vedere e questo non è da meno.
tratto da "I demoni", di Dostoevskij, racchiude in due ore qualcosa di quell'immenso capolavoro, che è irriducibile.
e però è un bel film, sottolinea lo spirito del tempo e prefigura i drammi futuri.
a me è piaciuto, tu prova, poi mi dici - Ismaele

The course which the film version of The Possessed travelled from 1974 to 1984 had been long, dark and plagued with failure.

It seemed to me that I knew a fair amount about this work, more than about other novels I had transferred to the screen. Above all - this was the main source of the stage impact of The Possessed - I myself had adapted it into a play. So I had no doubt that I would be able to do it again and The Possessed would take command of the screen and of the audience. All the same, the first unsuccessful version of the scipt should have warned me, making me search for an adaptation less influenced by the theatre.

Dostojevsky's prose is theatrical, as his characters speak incessantly, driven by a desire to arrange their relationships with others and with the world by means of thoughts expressed in words. The stage is the place where much is said. Anybody who allows the characters of Dostojevsky to speak, even if he makes no attempt to stage the ideas of the dialogue, stands a fair chance to come near the essence of the issues presented in the novels of this cruelly talented writer.

Andrzej Wajda

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…Uscito pressappoco nel periodo in cui dalla Polonia giungeva sugli schermi di tutto il mondo il "Decalogo" di Kieslowski, con il quale è inevitabile un confronto, seppure alla lontana, "I demoni" fa fare al veterano Wajda la figura del pivellino. Alla scarsa riuscita contribuisce anche un cast franco-polacco che non convince fino in fondo. Il migliore, secondo me, è Laurent Malet nella parte dell'ateo coerente fino all'ultimo Kirillov, ma se la cavano anche Radziwilowicz e ovviamente Isabelle Huppert. «Ma» come nota Tullio Kezich «Stavroghin, il demone numero uno, nell'incarnazione di Lambert Wilson sembra Dracula; la tedesca Jutta Lampe è truccata da Gelsomina e Omar Sharif fa la figura di un levantino che ha perso l'aereo».

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This story begins in 1870 at a little town somewhere in Russia. It processed the real "Nyecsajev story". A group of young revolutionists wanna ruin the system with violence. They think this is the only chance to reform the old Russian Society. The leader of this group is Pierre.

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Dostoievski was a giant and a master painter of the Russian soul. This film is a good rendition of his work, altogether prophetic (on the Bolcheviks) and coined with pessimism.
The Slavic twist that Wajda brought to the picture is essential. Madness, brittle human relations and utopia are the key ingredients among which a pleiad of very Russian characters evolve. None of them seem to be part of the real world, they seem more rooted in the realm of philosophy.
Reading Dostoievski and Tolstoi could have avoided many ugly things indeed.

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I demoni è uno dei miei romanzi preferiti e dinanzi a adattamenti cinematografici di Dostoevskij il mio giudizio, naturalmente, è sempre prevenuto. L’opera in questione è di Wajda, grandissimo regista, per cui ero curioso di conoscere il risultato della trasposizione.
La versione italiana di cui sono in possesso è poco inferiore alle due ore. Il film è un riassunto molto conciso ma che smarrisce oltre una decina di punti-chiave del romanzo…

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Le Journal du Dimanche

« Wajda réussit des images superbes, des scènes fortes (...).Malheureusement l’ensemble est un peu froid. Sibérien. Les Possédés ne nous possèdent pas. Ne nous touchent pas. On le regrette d’autant plus qu’il aurait suffi de peu de chose pour que Wajda nous livre une fois de plus un chef d’œuvre ».

[S.N.], 28/02/1988

Révolution

« Quant à la mise en scène, c’est une totale réussite : caméra nerveuse à l’unisson de la violence des personnages, images somptueusement traitées en couleurs chaleureuses, bande sonore saisissante par son expressivité distanciée. Compte tenu de l’évolution de Wajda (vers le romantisme) et du cinéma en général (vers le spectacle), je crois qu’on peut prononcer le mot de chef d’œuvre. Et il faut espérer que le film incitera bon nombre de spectateurs à lire ou à relire le roman ».

Marcel Martin, 26/02/1988

L’Express

« Convulsionnaire, paroxystique, désordonnée, cette adaptation des Possédés de Dostoïevski, par Wajda et Jean-Claude Carrière déconcerte d’abord, tant l’action, où la violence verbale et la violence physique se chevauchent constamment, apparaît sous une forme confuse et morcelée ».

Dominique Jamet, 26/02/1988

Le Canard Enchaîné

« Leur jeu ainsi que l’adaptation de Jean-Claude Carrière et la mise en scène de Wajda rendent remarquable et passionnant ce film en subversion originale ».

Jean-Paul Grousset, 24/02/1988

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Wajda emerges from this dangerous undertaking with his honour intact, but this is not his best film. And this despite the richness of the sound track, where certain lines of the dialogue take on a form reminiscent of concrete music. And despite the quality of the images, which draw attention to the skilled use of great lighting contrasts.

Gilles Marsolais
"24 Images", Quebec, spring 1988

The resistance with which any work by Dostojevsky meets filming attempts clearly demonstrates what is the essence of literature, the source of its unity and greatness. For reminding us of its status, the highest in the world of art, we owe a debt of gratitude to Wajda as well as his film The Possessed. So for this, we thank him.

Zbigniew Bienkowski
"Tygodnik Kulturalny", Warsaw, 24 July, 1988

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