Anton Chekhov Movies

A bizarre wager drives two men to the brink of madness in this Russian drama based in part on a story by Anton Chekhov. Viktor (Viktor Verzhbitsky) is a wealthy and powerful businessman, and Maxim (Vladimir Zherebtsov) is one of his most devoted and ambitious employees. One evening, Viktor invites a number of friends and employees to his mansion for a party, and he suddenly offers an unusual challenge to Maxim. If Maxim can spend fifteen years alone in a guest cottage on Viktor's estate, Viktor will pay him an award of $15 million, but if Maxim leaves before the fifteen years are up, he'll work at no charge for Viktor for the rest of his days. Not wanting to displease Viktor, Maxim agrees to the bet, but the gamble soon brings out the worst in both men -- constant isolation drives Maxim to the edge of madness, while Viktor becomes possessed with his malign desire to win the contest. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Screenwriter Richard Alfieri and director Arthur Allan Siedelman adapt Anton Chekhov's classic stage play The Three Sisters to the screen in this film starring Mary Stuart Masterson, Maria Bello, and Erika Christensen as the titular siblings. Upon departing from Charleston, SC, to further their education at a prestigious Manhattan college, sisters Marcia (Bello), Olga (Masterson), and Irene (Christensen) soon become lost in fantasies of what their lives may have been to the point where they are unable to affect change in their real lives. As the three sisters gradually open up to each other and their brother, Andrew (Alessandro Nivola), the specter of their deceased father soon lifts, leaving the nostalgic siblings to realize that the only way to confront the brutal realities of life is through honesty and understanding. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Veteran Sri Lankan writer/director Lester James Peries' Mansion by the Lake is loosely based on Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. In the late '80s, after living in London for many years, Sujata (Malini Fonseka), her brother Gunapala (Sanath Gunathilaka), and her daughter Aruni (Paboda Sandeepani) return to the countryside of Sri Lanka, where the family estate her sister Sita (Vasanthi Chaturani) has been taking care of is about to be auctioned off by the bank. While her husband was gravely ill, Sujata took out a loan, signing papers that gave the bank control of the property. Returning to the mansion brings back memories both pleasant and painful. Sujata is particularly traumatized by the memory of the drowning death of her young son. The boy's tutor, Keerthi (Senaka Wijesinghe) arrives to pay his respects, and also to see Aruni, with whom he shared an attraction when they were teens. Keerthi is now a strident political activist, a very dangerous occupation in turbulent times. To save their land, the family tries to borrow money from a senile elderly relative, Aunt Catherine (Iranganie Serasinghe), and contacts Lucas (Ravindra Randeniya), a former employee who has since made a fortune. As their hopes of keeping their legacy dim, they begin to suspect that Lucas is actually plotting against them. Mansion by the Lake was shown at the 2003 New York Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Renowned Greek filmmaker Michael Cacoyannis wrote and directed this adaptation of the classic final drama by playwright Anton Chekhov, set in 1900. Lyubov Ranevskaya (Charlotte Rampling) left Russia to escape troubling memories of the death of her son. Now her family is riddled with debt and Lyubov and her teenaged daughter Anya (Tushka Bergen) have come home to the family estate, looking for a way to pay their bills. Much to their dismay, the Ranevskayas are forced to sell their land to Lopakhin (Owen Teale), a crude businessman who intends to build a housing development in what was once the family's cherry orchard. The international cast also includes Alan Bates as Lyubov's brother Gaev, Katrin Cartlidge as Lyubov's ward Varya, and Michael Gough and Frances de la Tour as the family's servants. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In the late 1980s, noted theatrical director Andre Gregory assembled a group of friends and actors and began rehearsing a new translation of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya by David Mamet, not with any specific performance in mind but as a way of exploring the beauty and precise construction of Chekhov's play. Louis Malle, a friend of Gregory's, became interested in the project and spent two weeks filming Gregory's actors as they performed Uncle Vanya without an audience in a run-down theater near New York's Times Square. In these performances, the line between theater and real life is blurred as conversations between actors -- juggling take-out cups of coffee and wearing street clothes -- slowly grow into a superb performance of Chekhov's classic, with Wallace Shawn as Vanya, Julianne Moore as Yelena, Brooke Smith as Sonya, and Larry Pine as Dr. Astrov. With a certain sad irony, this marvelously realized adaptation of a play about people wondering what they've done with their lives proved to be Louis Malle's final film; he died of cancer in 1995. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This Australian drama has been adapted from Chekov's Uncle Vanya. It is set in post WW I Australia at a time when the Aussies were getting ready to break away from England. After his father's death, Jack Dickens sacrificed his literary aspirations to run the family farm. He lives in the old farm house with his aged mother and his plain, soft-spoken niece Sally, who was abandoned by her father Alexander Voysey after her mother, Jack's sister, passed away. Sally suffers unrequited love for Max Askey, the local doctor. Jack sends monthly payments to his brother-law Alexander, an aspiring London literary critic. After secretly dishonoring himself in London, Alexander returns to Australia with his lovely and much younger wife, Deborah. Alexander is a wind-bag and it is plain that Deborah is unhappily married. Jack and the doctor are attracted by the comely woman and vie for her attention at the expense of long suffering and ignored Sally. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Fresh from the success of Henry V and Dead Again, British actor/director Kenneth Branagh recharged his creative batteries with a 23-minute short subject. Swan Song is a faithful adaptation of a one-act play by Anton Chekhov. John Gielgud stars as an aging actor who, while sitting alone in a darkened theatre, ruminates on his checkered past and his uncertain (and perhaps unlikely) future. Richard Briers costars as Gielgud's sounding board. Filmed on location at London's Criterion Theatre, Swan Song was nominated for a "best short subject" Academy Award. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Oci Ciornie was an international co-production tailored for Marcello Mastroianni. It received good reviews in Italy and France, and Mastroianni was awarded "Best Actor" at the Cannes Film Festival. However, some in Russia felt that director Mikhalkov (who previously received wide acclaim for another Chekhov adaptation, (An Unfinished Piece for the Player Piano) tried too hard to cater to foreign tastes rather than to convey Chekhov's mood. So this film conveys more of a foreign idea what Chekhov is about rather than a Russian one. In the story, Romano (Marcello Mastroianni) is living the life of a "kept" man in that he is the penniless husband of a rich aristocratic woman who supports him. Whenever life at home becomes too difficult for him, he goes off to some spa or other for a "rest cure." In addition to resting, the clownish fellow flirts shamelessly with the women he finds at these resorts. During one of his restorative excursions, he meets a shy Russian woman named Anna, whom he is much taken with. When she leaves to return to her life at home, he resolves to follow her and woo her there. With a great deal of buffoonery and ingenuity (such as pretending to be a manufacturer of a special kind of glass), he gets a visa to travel into Russia. There, he finds her unhappily married to a minor official, and before he leaves for Europe he promises to return and marry her. When he gets back home, he finds that his aristocratic wife is experiencing a genuine crisis (her family has lost its money), and he soon forgets about Anna and his promises to her. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This depressing drama is taken from a short story by Anton Chekhov. The McCarthy family of County Galway in Ireland are poor until the father's favorite son comes home with a small fortune. They become members of the landed gentry until it is discovered the money has been forged. A second son's ruthless wife seeks vengeance, an act that leads to the family's downfall. As poor laborers, they are reduced to working on the land they once owned, building a stone wall. Ireland is portrayed as colorless and oppressive, with the characters weighed down by their burdens to the point that no merriment is evident in their miserable lives. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This is an uneven and slow-paced drama with a good performance by lead Slobodan Perovic as a lonely, arrogant doctor. The doctor lives in a Russian village far off the beaten path of civilization. He prefers hanging out by himself in his home, in his office, or on the way to either place. He also takes pensive strolls through the nearby woods. Sometimes a little girl goes with him on the nature treks, but otherwise the doctor is left to his own thoughts, without companionship. The upshot is that his life is pretty boring. Then he meets a political prisoner in a mental institution and as they converse, the doctor begins to have serious doubts about the kind of life he has been living. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide