I would like to endorse some of the above comments and add a few points not yet touched upon. Firstly the idyll setting of a country estate set amongst lush fields gently sloping down to a bend in a river gave an impressive backdrop to some wonderful cinematography. The brilliant acting, already mentioned, where every player was 'note perfect', complimented this setting to provide a top notch film.
If I hadn't already known it was Chekov, I would have guessed about ten minutes in as it has all the hallmarks of his style. The fact that it is little known is in all probability due to Chekov reworking many of the themes in later works. The mix and match of family relationships reappeared as The Seagull and to some extent Three Sisters. The minor nobility gradually falling into genteel decay reappeared as The Cherry Orchard.
Near the beginning of the film some of the characters are chasing each other through the grounds of the estate in in a state of what can only be described as pure bliss. Later we are to learn how hollow many of these people are and their happiness is shallow. As more guests arrive for the festivities and the evening meal a young boy is brought along by some neighbours. As his character develops he plays some pranks on the adults but whilst he is a child behaving like a child, the adults prove themselves to be immensely more immature in their pomposity and childish ways. Chekov plays a trick on us here by introducing a mechanical piano during the festivities. Platonov's new wife Sophia, who is regarded as a bit of a dullard by the others, has an attack of the vapours when she sees it playing by itself and takes centre stage whilst she is revived by the family. Chekov's little joke is that the mechanical piano of the title refers to the assembled group of characters. We are led to believe that at some time in the past, ancestors had done something to earn their nobility but as generations have gone by, the descendants have become increasingly desultory and just keep repeating the same actions like the mechanism of the mechanical piano without any sense of purpose in their lives. The evening meal degenerates into a number of petty squabbles and empty gestures as befits the people they have become.
After a failed suicide attempt following the reawakening of feelings for an old flame, Platonov's beautiful but somewhat dull wife, who was never quite sure of her position in the group, provides him with the answer that all the others can't see. On a personal level it is better to have respect for each other whilst doing something lowly but significant rather than lofty but irrelevant.
Platinov's old flame we finally see asleep, in the cold, with her husband in an open carriage without horses. A future that is going nowhere.
At first I was a bit puzzled by the final shot of the innocence of the young boy sleeping. Now I realise it was an open question of "Wil everything be as it always was" with the mechanical piano repeating the same familiar tune ad-infinitum or will the new generation do something to stop the decay of a social class rotting from within.
If I hadn't already known it was Chekov, I would have guessed about ten minutes in as it has all the hallmarks of his style. The fact that it is little known is in all probability due to Chekov reworking many of the themes in later works. The mix and match of family relationships reappeared as The Seagull and to some extent Three Sisters. The minor nobility gradually falling into genteel decay reappeared as The Cherry Orchard.
Near the beginning of the film some of the characters are chasing each other through the grounds of the estate in in a state of what can only be described as pure bliss. Later we are to learn how hollow many of these people are and their happiness is shallow. As more guests arrive for the festivities and the evening meal a young boy is brought along by some neighbours. As his character develops he plays some pranks on the adults but whilst he is a child behaving like a child, the adults prove themselves to be immensely more immature in their pomposity and childish ways. Chekov plays a trick on us here by introducing a mechanical piano during the festivities. Platonov's new wife Sophia, who is regarded as a bit of a dullard by the others, has an attack of the vapours when she sees it playing by itself and takes centre stage whilst she is revived by the family. Chekov's little joke is that the mechanical piano of the title refers to the assembled group of characters. We are led to believe that at some time in the past, ancestors had done something to earn their nobility but as generations have gone by, the descendants have become increasingly desultory and just keep repeating the same actions like the mechanism of the mechanical piano without any sense of purpose in their lives. The evening meal degenerates into a number of petty squabbles and empty gestures as befits the people they have become.
After a failed suicide attempt following the reawakening of feelings for an old flame, Platonov's beautiful but somewhat dull wife, who was never quite sure of her position in the group, provides him with the answer that all the others can't see. On a personal level it is better to have respect for each other whilst doing something lowly but significant rather than lofty but irrelevant.
Platinov's old flame we finally see asleep, in the cold, with her husband in an open carriage without horses. A future that is going nowhere.
At first I was a bit puzzled by the final shot of the innocence of the young boy sleeping. Now I realise it was an open question of "Wil everything be as it always was" with the mechanical piano repeating the same familiar tune ad-infinitum or will the new generation do something to stop the decay of a social class rotting from within.