Okay, I promised to watch Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (1996) ASAP in my guide to films about the fall of the Russian Romanov dynasty. So I faithfully did, and I was kind of bored?
The film focuses on Rasputin‘s (1869-1916) role in the downfall of the last Russian tsar (Nicholas II, reigned 1894-1917) just before and during World War One. And, unfortunately, I think part of the problem is that his role in the whole thing IS just so unbelievable, in that he was such a shady character! Born a peasant in Siberia, he became a wandering mystic; when he showed up in Saint Petersburg and became known as a healer, he became known to the royals who enlisted him to help with the bleeding episodes of Tsarevich Alexei, who had hemophilia. Surprisingly, this uncouth and rude “monk” was able to help, possibly through faith, rest, making the other family members relax, hypnotism, and/or aspirin.
In the film, Rasputin is played by Alan Rickman and he doesn’t spare us any of the historical figure’s dirt, sweat, spit, and other nastiness. He gets drunk, he vomits, he’s generally gross:
I’d seen this screenshot ahead of time, and the one saving grace is that is NOT Empress Alexandra (which I feared) and instead a random Russian aristocrat. Phew! (Rasputin and Alexandra were smeared with rumors that they were shagging but they were decidedly not; Rasputin did allegedly have sex with many Russian aristocratic women, however).
The film is narrated by the now-dead Alexei, which is super weird and cheesy. The other characterizations are pretty decent, although Ian McKellan comes off as a bit too competent as the tsar, and Greta Scacchi is a bit too beautiful and well preserved as Alexandra. Most of the action takes place among the family in their palace, with a quick jump to their execution. You get a decent sense of Alexei as a young boy who wants to BE a young boy, while his family constantly hover and worry; the daughters are all afterthoughts, however.
And because this film focuses on Rasputin, we get a FAR too long view of his murder, led by Prince Felix Yusupov (played by James Frain) that I just ended up fast forwarding through.
The costumes ARE great, however — designed by Natasha Landau, who I believe may be Russian as her first few films have titles in that language; she’s gone on to do many English-language productions but they all look low budget.
There’s a lot of uniforms, which I can’t comment on other than to say they look more than plausible to someone who knows nothing about uniforms:
Alexandra’s wardrobe is of course the showstopper, and it ranges from beautifully detailed Edwardian daywear:
To one nice fashionable evening gown:
To formal Russian court dress:
So, if you’re not too familiar with the story of the last Romanovs and/or a completionist, feel free to give this a spin – but you’re not really missing much by skipping it.
Have you seen Rasputin (1996)? Were you more impressed than me?
I’m sure that evening gown is made from an Assyt shawl.
Good catch!
Yes…which is reasonably period although I don’t know if Assiut was a Thing in Russia — ?
There’s an elementary tailoring fail in the uniforms of both the Tsar and Tsarevich in the last group of pictures: their tunics gape below the waist, even when they are standing to attention, not even walking. That shouldn’t ever happen with a tunic of this kind, and it’s an especially bad fault here where the vertical silver lace on each front edge makes it obvious there should be no gap between them. Either the tailor didn’t fully understand the cut of the garment they were making, and therefore couldn’t work out how to make it fit, or they didn’t have enough fittings.
Thanks for that input! We don’t catch these things because like I said, we don’t know uniforms :)
I love Alan Rickman, but all I have to say is “Blech” (and yes, I watched this back in the day). :)