Signis

Anton Chekhov’s The Duel

(JPEG)

US, 2101, Andrew Scott, Fiona Glascott, Tobias Menzies, Directed by Dover Koshashvili.

The film is also advertised as Anton Chekhov’s The Duel. It is based on a Chekhov novella and takes us into Chekhov land, the Russian Caucasus of the 19th century. The beautiful photography, however, offers the landscapes and waterscapes of Croatia, standing in. And, the film is certainly beautiful to look at, capturing the look of a small lakeside town, the elegance of the décor and costumes of the period.

There is a duel and it comes late in the film, not so much a shooting duel, though shots are fired, but a jolting experience, moral and emotional, for the two protagonists. It also provides a jolt for audience sympathies and a questioning of our understanding of the two men involved.

One is a government official who increasingly resents his ‘exile’ to this remote town where he finds no culture. Not that he is particularly cultured himself. He has a mistress who has opted to leave her husband for this life where she is not welcomed by most people and lives a self-indulgent life, unhappy with her husband’s lack of attention. He drinks, plays cards with cronies, does little work and wanders around in self-pity. He is played convincingly by Andrew Scott (distractingly resembling actor Mark Ruffalo).

The other protagonist is a self-confident scientist who researches and is about to sail for Africa. He despises the government official and is not loth to express his opinions and condemnations. He seems to relish the prospect of the duel even if shots are to be fired only into the air.

The film has an average running time, so there is time to respond to the characters and their behaviour and their dilemmas, without spending a lot of time contemplating them (as would happen in a Russian version of the story). There is a great deal of detail: visiting a hat shop, the card games, a rendezvous with the police captain, summer swimming in the lake, a buffet meal, kitchen activities, a doctor’s visit...

The government official is not a likeable man, wanting to escape back to Moscow, not having the resources to do this, angry with his mistress, feeling that she is clinging to him. But, being forced into the duel and standing exposed to possible death, has a powerful influence on him. The scientist, with whom we have to agree in his criticisms, also undergoes an experience as he stands with his loaded gun, the potential to kill a man. The duel undermines his certainties.

Fiona Glascott is the beautiful and fickle mistress. Tobias Menzies is the scientist. The director, now from Israel, was born in the republic of Georgia.

Peter Malone