One of the finest screen adaptations of Dostoevsky was made by Ivan Pyryev in 1958

One of the finest screen adaptations of Dostoevsky was made by Ivan Pyryev in 1958. Alas, the unfinished two-part film "The Idiot" was not duly appreciated in its day. The general mood after its release was such that Pyryev abandoned the idea of shooting the second part.

Today, decades on, we are able to compare a great many films based on Dostoevsky. Few can match "Nastasya Filippovna" for sheer power. Some condescendingly call it filmed theatre, but that is quite wrong: it is a peerless adaptation. Undoubtedly, the film was far ahead of the demands of its time, which is why it never won the fame it deserved. As early as the 1960s it ought to have become a classic of cinema, but it yielded in popularity to simpler fare, made for mass consumption.

What a performance! The utter self-abandon of Yuri Yakovlev as Prince Myshkin and Yulia Borisova as Nastasya Filippovna, living through the whole psychological depth of the novel. Having seen it once, you can no longer picture Dostoevsky's heroine other than with the exquisite features of Yulia Borisova, nor associate Yakovlev with anyone but Myshkin, rather than with Ippolit.

"Nastasya Filippovna" of 1958 is that rare case when a book found a second life on celluloid without losing the warm glow of its paper pages.

To all admirers of Dostoevsky, to all who have not read Dostoevsky and never intended to, to all who prefer Tolstoy to him, I wholeheartedly recommend making the acquaintance of precisely this work by Yulia Borisova and Yuri Yakovlev. For this film alone they deserve eternal remembrance in the halls of cinematic glory the world over.