The Master and Margarita

Russia 2024

Master and Margarita (2024) review

Oh when in Soviet Russia…

Plot: Based on Mikhail Bulgakov's novel "Master and Margarita". 1930's, Moscow. A famous writer is censored by the Soviet state: his novel is banned, and the theatrical premier of his new play about Pontius Pilate - canceled. In just a few days he becomes an outcast. Inspired by these misfortunes the writer conceives a new novel in which the devil, named Woland, satirically revenges all those responsible for the writer's downfall. He knows this novel can never be published in the USSR, but Margarita - his muse pushes him to write it no matter what.

I truly believe Master and Margarita is one of the most powerful pieces of literature to come out from Russia. Yes I am aware War & Peace is more talked about, but look, I read all of its 1000+ pages and though it is an epic in every sense of the word, it does drag quite about. As for Master and Margarita, Soviet writer Mikhail Bulgakov created a satirical, quasi-biblical allegory that represents themes that are crucial to the human experience, such as struggle between good and evil, corruption in government and high society, human fragility, religion and prophecy, and the endurance of love over all. It’s a masterfully written piece of work, and one that is truly hard to adapt to screen, due to how much happens through its pages. However I’m all for directors giving it a go, with Michael Lockshin taking the challenge with a motion picture that was originally a co-production between Russian studios and Universal Pictures, though the latter pulled out following the Russo-Ukrainian War, even though most of the filming was already complete. Nevertheless after multiple delays the final product is here, so let’s digest.

Let’s talk through the positives first. It’s nice to see a Russian production of such grand scale, that even gives Hollywood a run for its money. There are some truly spectacular set pieces, and also interesting visuals, especially of a futuristic post-modern take of the Soviet Union, that reminded me a little of the recent Atomic Heart video game. Also the inclusion of August Diehl who plays the central Satanic figure Voland. This casting choice was a truly inspired one, as Diehl both looks and feels as if he came out straight from the pages of Bulgakov’s novel. There’s just this presence to him, as you can tell the power behind his eyes, yet he can also be really charming and witty. Whenever he was on-screen, the movie fully came to life, as he managed to perfectly balance the damning mocking tone with a deep inner understanding of things beyond the human mind. Look, there’s a great reason why they casted an actor outside of Russia for this part, as Diehl honestly was incredible. Funny how this is the same guy who got his testicles shot off in that WW2 Tarantino flick. Evgeniy Tsyganov as the titular Master too felt perfectly apt for the role, in some ways personifying Mikhail Bulgakov himself. The Master is a character that can so easily come off as dull, as he’s generally very stoic and constantly deep in his own thoughts, so it was a nice interpretation with Tsyganov breathing more life into him.

Unfortunately this is where the positives end. Look, I think it is truly impressive for the entire novel to be transferred into a 2hr 30min film, and of course I expected certain parts to be rushed. However the movie shoots itself in the foot by trying to approach the source material in a different way. Messing with various realities and reorganising the events of the novel in a completely different order, the result is messy and all over the place. I can say with full certainty that if I haven’t read the book before that I’d be so confused as to what the hell was going on in this movie. From the way it jumps from one place to the other in non linear fashion made it so difficult to be engaged and feel connected with the characters. There was a lot of extra narrative elements added to an already overstuffed plot (with a lot of creative choices being outright baffling) as such causing the movie to need to rush even more certain other key plot points that again, it was really disorganised and jarring.

Also, I know that ever since Batman it’s now cool to go dark with everything, but The Master and Margarita is a novel that doesn’t shy away from raising a few eyebrows. In fact it goes out of its way to be as weird and ridiculous as possible, with the inherent horror and tragedy that befalls each of its characters being felt only later, after the laughs have died down. The humour in the book, especially the dark stuff - that’s sort of famously the Russian novelists’ coping mechanism against, uh, being a Russian novelist. Yet this new 2024 film hardly allows a single joke, and instead tries to cover everything with a dark dramatic tone, and I feel that really takes away from the charm of Master and Margarita. Heck there are even sequences in the film that are supposed to be played for laughs, like the Behemoth cat’s shootout with the KGB cops that screams for physical comedy potential, yet the movie kind of glosses over it in a very monotonous way.

Aside from August Diehl and Evgeniy Tsyganov, the casting left a lot to be desired. Yulia Snigir made for a really bland Margarita. Voland’s entourage of demons, who in the book are a cause for some truly entertaining if silly shenanigans, here are completely wasted, and in fact are borderline annoying. Yuri Kolokolnikov as Korovev, the main member of his entourage, was actually horrendous. In the source material Korovev is a trickster, yet there was still wiseness within his madness. Here however Kolokolnikov plays him as if he were some kind of deranged clown, screaming every single line and maniacally laughing for absolutely no reason. The talking cat, who is one of the book’s best characters, in here is just a CGI cat who says maybe only two lines of dialogue in the whole film, and even then it’s a lazy mumble courtesy of actor Yura Borisov. Claes Bang as Pontius Pilate looked bored out of his mind. To be fair, the whole biblical side plot of Pilot and Jesus suffers the most here by being downgraded to maybe 5 minutes, which at this rate I feel like they should have cut the whole thing out entirely as the 5 minutes added nothing to the overall film. But yes, Claes Bang was evidently there to collect a pay check, and part of me wishes that instead we just had James McAvoy reprise his comedic take of Pilate from The Book of Clarence that came out earlier in the year.

It was never going to be an easy feat adapting Bulgakov’s epic into a movie. The narrative lends itself so much better to a TV series format, and in fact there is a wonderful 2005 limited series adaptation from Vladimir Bortko, and now that right there is how you make Master and Margarita work! That series featured great music, amazing performances, and plenty of breathing room to give every nook and cranny detail of the book its proper time. 2024’s Master and Margarita doesn’t come anywhere close to it, and though I do admire Lockshin’s ambitions, in the end it all falls flat on its face. August Diehl however is truly phenomenal in this, and honestly I really need to watch more of his acting work. I hear A Hidden Life with him is supposed to be good. Adding that to my watchlist as we speak.

Overall score: 4/10

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"The Master and Margarita" trailer with English subtitles

As far as I understand, now the director and producer are negotiating for international distribution, and then the trailer will be released with official subtitles, and maybe even with voice-overs (but I still recommend watching in the original dubbing)

今記事作成中の2020年10月現在、コロナ禍で洋画が軒並み全滅している最中に上映された貴重な超大作、クリストファー・ノーラン監督「テネット」をなんとなーく昔風アレンジにて妄想ポスター化してみました

とはいえ実は今回の妄想作品、当初は全然作る気はなくて、料理で例えるなら『メニュー（映画）が先にあったのではなくて、たまたまイイ食材（画像素材）を見つけたから作る気になった』のだ、と、なんかこんな感じのテキトーな運びで作成しております

でー、さて、そのきっかけの素材ですけど「テネット」劇中でもひときわ目立つホンモノのジェット機を爆破した非常に景気のイイ場面がありまして、たまたま見つけた「Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac」というタイトルのテレビ映画（「墜落！ポトマック河の惨劇」の邦題でＶＨＳが出てるみたいです、スゴい邦題だな）のポスターがちょうどそんな感じだったんですね 建物じゃないけど橋（とにかく建造物である）に飛行機が突っ込んでドカーン！なビジュアルしてて、でね、なんかピンと来たんですよ「あー、コレ使えばイイ感じにうさんくさいポスター作れるなー」って

「似てるけど違う、違うけどそんなに間違ってなくて、間違ってないけどやっぱ違う絶妙なパチモン感あふれる仕様で攻めてみよう」と、まあ、こんな感じに制作スタートなのでした（色々とヒドい）

大きく見せたい構成素材がひとつ決まれば、なんとなくの方向性もなんとなーく決まるモノで「テネット」本編から抽出した要素、メカとＳＦとサスペンス、あと酸素マスク（ガスマスク？）などなどから古い映画「カプリコン１」と「カサンドラクロス」をネタ元にして足して割って、あれやこれやで試行錯誤

タイトルロゴは当初「カプリコン１」や「ウォーゲーム」のポスターのロゴみたく（気になった方は検索してみてください）「昔のマイコン（否・パソコン）のフォントみたいな構成ドット数が少なめでカクカクしてるけど角は丸い」そんな感じのを目指してたんですけど「テネット」の「ネ」の字がどうにも上手く表現できなくて（斜めの線が難しかった・・・）何か他の手はないものかと探してみたら目についたのが「電子頭脳人間」という調べるまで存在すら知らなかった古いＳＦ映画のポスター

このポスターのタイトルロゴに、これまた昔のコンピューターっぽさを感じさせる「穴あきパンチカード」を模したドット模様が乗せられていて、それがイイ感じだったので、ドットの配置も数も丸ごといただいて今作のタイトルロゴにまんま乗せて、実はフォントだけでは表現できていない「昔のマイコンぽさ」を今作に醸してみました

あとは「変形タイムマシン物」な内容を表すのに逆さに加工した時計のシルエットを置いたり、ＩＭＡＸフィルムでの撮影＝７０ミリサイズのフィルムなのでそこを明示したり、色分けで表現された時間の順行逆行を主人公の衣類に持たせたりなどの細かい工夫をちょちょっと置いてこれにて完成

思い��きで作り始めてみたら、大ネタかつイイ感じにデタラメさも持った力作になったなー、となかなかに満足な一品であります（反響うすかったけど）

WATCHING

Been wanting to see this for quite a while. I figured it might be somewhat awful or very Eastern European or Chinese format style movie. They tend to flow longer and not as concisely cut as more westernized films.

The English dubbing is still pretty wonky in places, but it's easily forgotten. The story is pretty good. The format is decent, kind of hybrid fantasy adventure/action film.

Definitely a fan-service with the fight scene between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan. It's a bit of a shame they're not in their heyday, they have stunt doubles here, but the suspension of disbelief comes easy when you're into it and glad to see two classic action stars that never shared the screen until now.

But all-in-all, it's like Pirates of Caribbean, Princess Bride, with a little bit of Big Trouble in Little China.

It's a very loose adaptation of "Viy" by Nikolai Gogol from the mid-1800s.

An underrated win for the ace/aro community was truly that scene in Yuri on Ice when these two emotionally repressed teenage boys finally found someone they could trust and openly communicate “I have feelings for you” [the feeling was friendship, but they had never experienced this before].

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