| Agony | |
| Director: | Elem Klimov |
| Producer: | Elem Klimov |
| Starring: | Aleksei Petrenko |
| Cinematography: | Leonid Kalashnikov |
| Editing: | Valeria Belova |
| Music: | Alfred Schnittke |
| Studio: | Mosfilm |
| Distributor: | Mosfilm |
| Runtime: | see below |
| Country: | Soviet Union |
| Language: | Russian |
Agony (Russian: Агония|Agoniya; U.S. theatrical/DVD title Rasputin) is a 1981 Soviet biographical film by Elem Klimov, made c.1973-75 and released in Western and Central Europe in 1982 (United States and Soviet Union 1985), after protracted resistance from Soviet authorities.[1] The film is notable for its rich, sometimes baroque style, its sumptuous recreation of episodes from the final year of Imperial Russia and the psychological portraits of Grigori Rasputin and the Imperial family.
The storyline follows the final months of 1916 up to the murder of Rasputin; some events have been telescoped into this time though they actually happened earlier, during the war. Rasputin's effect on people around him is shown as almost hypnotic, and the film avoids taking a moral stance towards him—breaking not only with Soviet history but also with how he was regarded by people near the court at the time, some of whom regarded him as a debilitating figure who disgraced the monarchy and hampered the war effort.[2]
The film went unshown until 1981, when it was screened at the Moscow Film Festival and attracted very favourable reviews. Released in Western Europe, Czechoslovakia,[3] [4] Hungary,[5] Poland[6] [7] in 1982, it was hailed as one of the most original Soviet films of the 1970s. It was screened later in 1985, at the dawn of the Glasnost era.
The versions released in the 1980s, and later on DVD, differ somewhat in length and the final voice-over newsreel shots of the 1917 revolution may have been added in to appease authorities.[8] The original mid-1970s cut does not seem to have survived, and it is unclear how much was rewritten or possibly reshot after 1975.
At least four versions of the film exist, from 73 minutes,[9] 104 minutes, 142 minutes (the North American DVD release from Kino International) and 151 minutes (the 1982 international release).