An Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano, adapted from Anton Chekhov and directed by Nikita Mikhalkov - 10 out of 10

An Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano, adapted from Anton Chekhov and directed by Nikita Mikhalkov

10 out of 10

An Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano does not figure on the New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list - https://www.listchallenges.com/new-york-times-best-1000-movies-ever-made/list/24 - and appears to have been largely ignored, in spite of the fact that it looks like a classic – it was here, in our land, though that may also be due in large part to the strange name and the fact that the then soviet Union, where they made this glorious film – and not much else of value we could argue falsely and sardonically – was one of the few sources of entertainment behind the Iron curtain, where we could not exactly say well, let us watch some Hollywood fare (wait a minute, maybe that was a good thing, considering the avalanche of Avengers, Cats that asphyxiate audiences now) tonight, for a change…

The Unfinished Piece is based on Anton Chekhov, the genius that gave the world some of the best literature we could read, such as The Seagull - http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-seagull-by-anton-chekhov-with.html - and we can see the inspiration in the craftsmanship with which the characters are created and rendered on the big screen, by a team of illustrious, though Soviet, artists, directed by Nikita Mikhalkov, who plays the doctor Nikolay Triletskiy, from Aleksandr Kalyagin as Mikhail Vassilyevich Platonov, a disabused teacher, that has some support in his simple, but loving, gritty, enduring wife, a woman that can infuriate him with her soups (borsches), but also alleviate his torments and bring him on track again, after one of his apparently frequent breakdowns and descends into lamentations, criticisms of the laziness of others(pertinent, but no less annoying for the incriminated parties), regret for the Unfinished Piece in his life – the magnificent title and the sublime dialogue is referring to the things that lack in the existence of the personages and that of the viewers who are invited to think seriously, meditate over their lives and the purpose it could serve, chances they could make after this transcendent Work of Art…

Mikhail Platonov – leaving aside the third name that Russians so often, if not always use – had been in love with Sophia Yegorovna and now they meet at this mansion, where a group of men and women will discuss matters of great significance, but also indulge in foolish games – they plan on riding a poor pig and one of the rather insolent servants brings one from the village – and during the interaction many mirthful and sad moments will succeed each other, such as the moment when the former lovers see each other after many years and then, at a later stage, the teacher recalls the feelings that one student and a girl shared, then she decides that they would separate, he takes her to the railway station, watches the lights of the train grow dimmer, then returns for a long time to the same station, without the chance to see her returning, drinks a lot and then becomes a modest, insignificant man – someone in the room thinks the story recalls one of the Russian writers, though we know this is what had happened between Sophia and a much younger Misha…

At one moment, during a heavy rain that has started, a man from the neighborhood comes to the big house, looking for the doctor and when he sees him, he says that he has become because his wife is very sick, he has an equipage nearby and is ready to ride with the doctor, who, alas, says that maybe he will come tomorrow, or at the latest the day after tomorrow, for he is busy now – they still have to listen to music from the Mechanical Piano, dance and play some games – but this declaration of intent makes Mikhail very angry and he protests and states that he is the only doctor in the area and that woman needs him and this is outrageous, he had studied at university and does not help the people who are desperate for him…

Having said that, we do have the chance to hear the sad, frustrated doctor later on, as he describes his life of disappointments, waiting for people to call for him at the most impossible hours, as he waits for cases of dysentery – was it? – and he thinks continuously of diarrhea and he is offended by the long, repeated journeys he has to take along bumpy roads, where he is shaken out of his mind and it is evident that though perhaps not as disabused as Mikhail – who still looks like he does have a tremendous ally in the woman who says that she loves him more than anybody ever could and proves it to a large if not full extent when she keeps running after him, even after he had insulted her, attacked her sour soups and everything else apparently.

The young wife is rather simple – though Fyodor Dostoyevsky said something like ‘he would rather be a sausage maker that believes in god without a doubt or question and she goes to church every single day, to light a candle, sure that the almighty is up there, watching over everything and protecting her and humanity in general…’, words to that effect Insha’Allah – the question being if she is a simpleton, though even in that case, she is surely redeemed by the rare, fantastic, divine worship and admiration she evidently feels for her husband, that she criticizes when he embarrasses both of them, attacking all those present at the gathering – mostly with good reason, contrary to what one says, that he has no servants to punish, so he has decided to lash the guests and hosts – the doctor for his lack of responsibility and humanity ultimately, others for their laziness and the fact that one does not do anything, after he had studied at university, he has returned and ever since, he has  o project, no contribution and could conceivably do  nothing for the rest of his life…

Neokonchennaya pyesa dlya mekhanicheskogo pianino as Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano sounds in Russian is a marvelous, phenomenal film, though one of those forgotten gems that have not attracted much attention – on the IMDB site, there are only 4 (four!) critics and 12 users that have expressed some thoughts about the movie