A historical drama that illustrates Russian author Leo Tolstoy's (Christopher Plummer) fight to balance fame and wealth with his commitment to a life devoid of material things. Tolstoy's life was very tumultuous, infuriating and proplematic. Leo Tolstoy, the world-renowned writer rejects private property and defends passive resistance, some consider him a living saint. He focused his attention on the dissemination of his new doctrine and, together with his friend Vladimir Chertkov (Paul Giamatti), founded the Tolstoian movement worldwide. Previously, in 1851, after running up heavy gambling debts, he went with his older brother to the Caucasus and joined the army. Tolstoy served as a young artillery officer during the Crimean War and was in Sevastopol during the 11-month-long siege of Sevastopol in 1854-55, including the Battle of the Chernaya. During the war he was recognised for his courage and promoted to lieutenant. He was appalled by the number of deaths involved in warfare, and left the army after the end of the Crimean War In the 1870s, Tolstoy experienced a profound moral crisis, followed by what he regarded as an equally profound spiritual awakening, as outlined in his non-fiction work Confession (1882). His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him to become a fervent Christian anarchist and pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You (1894), had a profound impact on such pivotal 20th-century figures as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr and Ludwig Wittgenstein. He also became a dedicated advocate of Georgism, the economic philosophy of Henry George, which he incorporated into his writing, particularly in his novel Resurrection (1899).
An interesting and thought-provoking drama dealing with the thunderous relationships between the intoxicating Countess Sofya Andreevna Tolstoy -Dame Helen Mirren- wife and muse to Leo Tolstoy -Christopher Plummer-, as she uses every trick of seduction on her husband's loyal disciple, whom she believes was the person responsible for Tolstoy signing a new will that leaves his work and property to the Russian people; this places a strain between those in the movement, especially Chertov and the Tolstoys' daughter Sasha -Anne-Marie Duff-, and the Countess. And dealing with the Tolstoyan Movement, whose basic tenets are brotherly love and world peace through pacifism, and a denouncement of material wealth and physical love, his chief follower is Vladimir Chertkov -finely played by Paul Giamatti-, who does whatever he requires to advance the cause, Chertkov hires a young man named Valentin Bulgakov- starring James McAvoy- to be Tolstoy's personal secretary in carrying out this work. The motion picture was well written and directed by Michael Hoffman.
There're several biographical remarks about Tolstoy and his wife Sonya: The death of his brother Nikolay in 1860 had an impact on Tolstoy, and led him to a desire to marry. On 23 September 1862, Tolstoy married Sophia Andreevna Behrs, who was sixteen years his junior and the daughter of a court physician. She was called Sonya, the Russian diminutive of Sofia, by her family and friends. They lived in Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy was born in the house, where he wrote both War and Peace and Anna Karenina, he is buried nearby. Tolstoy called Yasnaya Polyana his "inaccessible literary stronghold". The marriage had 13 children, eight of whom survived childhood:The marriage was marked from the outset by sexual passion and emotional insensitivity when Tolstoy, on the eve of their marriage, gave her his diaries detailing his extensive sexual past and the fact that one of the serfs on his estate had borne him a son. Even so, their early married life was happy and allowed Tolstoy much freedom and the support system to compose War and Peace and Anna Karenina with Sonya acting as his secretary, editor, and financial manager. Sonya was copying and hand-writing his epic works time after time. Tolstoy would continue editing War and Peace and had to have clean final drafts to be delivered to the publisher. Tolstoy's relationship with his wife deteriorated as his beliefs became increasingly radical. This saw him seeking to reject his inherited and earned wealth, including the renunciation of the copyrights on his earlier works. Some of the members of the Tolstoy family left Russia in the aftermath of the 1905 Russian Revolution and the subsequent establishment of the Soviet Union, and many of Leo Tolstoy's relatives and descendants today live in other countries. In 1914, the Russian Senate granted Sofia the copyright to all of her husband's works. Sofia died 5 years later in her beloved home. Vladimir Chertkov remained a devout Tolstian for the rest of his life, being born in Moscow in 1936. Valentin Bulgakov left Russia and moved to Prague, became well known in Europe as a writer and activist of the peace movement, died in 1966.
An interesting and thought-provoking drama dealing with the thunderous relationships between the intoxicating Countess Sofya Andreevna Tolstoy -Dame Helen Mirren- wife and muse to Leo Tolstoy -Christopher Plummer-, as she uses every trick of seduction on her husband's loyal disciple, whom she believes was the person responsible for Tolstoy signing a new will that leaves his work and property to the Russian people; this places a strain between those in the movement, especially Chertov and the Tolstoys' daughter Sasha -Anne-Marie Duff-, and the Countess. And dealing with the Tolstoyan Movement, whose basic tenets are brotherly love and world peace through pacifism, and a denouncement of material wealth and physical love, his chief follower is Vladimir Chertkov -finely played by Paul Giamatti-, who does whatever he requires to advance the cause, Chertkov hires a young man named Valentin Bulgakov- starring James McAvoy- to be Tolstoy's personal secretary in carrying out this work. The motion picture was well written and directed by Michael Hoffman.
There're several biographical remarks about Tolstoy and his wife Sonya: The death of his brother Nikolay in 1860 had an impact on Tolstoy, and led him to a desire to marry. On 23 September 1862, Tolstoy married Sophia Andreevna Behrs, who was sixteen years his junior and the daughter of a court physician. She was called Sonya, the Russian diminutive of Sofia, by her family and friends. They lived in Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy was born in the house, where he wrote both War and Peace and Anna Karenina, he is buried nearby. Tolstoy called Yasnaya Polyana his "inaccessible literary stronghold". The marriage had 13 children, eight of whom survived childhood:The marriage was marked from the outset by sexual passion and emotional insensitivity when Tolstoy, on the eve of their marriage, gave her his diaries detailing his extensive sexual past and the fact that one of the serfs on his estate had borne him a son. Even so, their early married life was happy and allowed Tolstoy much freedom and the support system to compose War and Peace and Anna Karenina with Sonya acting as his secretary, editor, and financial manager. Sonya was copying and hand-writing his epic works time after time. Tolstoy would continue editing War and Peace and had to have clean final drafts to be delivered to the publisher. Tolstoy's relationship with his wife deteriorated as his beliefs became increasingly radical. This saw him seeking to reject his inherited and earned wealth, including the renunciation of the copyrights on his earlier works. Some of the members of the Tolstoy family left Russia in the aftermath of the 1905 Russian Revolution and the subsequent establishment of the Soviet Union, and many of Leo Tolstoy's relatives and descendants today live in other countries. In 1914, the Russian Senate granted Sofia the copyright to all of her husband's works. Sofia died 5 years later in her beloved home. Vladimir Chertkov remained a devout Tolstian for the rest of his life, being born in Moscow in 1936. Valentin Bulgakov left Russia and moved to Prague, became well known in Europe as a writer and activist of the peace movement, died in 1966.