We would tend to be wary of a Russian film released in 2024 which grossed 10 million euros in two weeks of release on national soil and attracted nearly 6 million spectators. From an adaptation of Master and Margueritea crazy novel by Mikhail Bulgakov (born in Kyiv), directed by Mikhail Lokshin, a filmmaker exiled in Los Angeles and on Putin’s blacklist, obviously less so. Using this multi-censored masterpiece (completed in 1937, it would not be published in full in Russia until the 1980s) to evoke the violence and absurdity of contemporary Russia, where any criticism of of the war in Ukraine is repressed and where cultural production is sifted to identify potential offenders, is an unbeatable idea – but devilishly audacious, the book being super-sprawling. Lokchine nevertheless proves up to the challenge in this monster of almost three hours, confined here to the parallel aisles of VOD (even if several one-off screenings take place in theaters and in several festivals).
Mise en abyme of creation
By distancing himself a little from the novel, adapted into an even more fragmented story, the filmmaker has not chosen the easy way out but very quickly gains in vertigo and density. The most memorable passages from the book (the death of Berlioz, the black magic show, the Satanic ball
Swiss
