Moscow, 1921. Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov (Ewan McGregor) He goes to trial, but instead of the death penalty, he is suddenly placed under house arrest for life at the Metropol Hotel, where he has lived for the last four years. However, instead of a large room, there is now an attic closet from which the servants are vacated, and the entire property is taken over by the state. The reason for this herbivory turned out to be a revolutionary poem attributed to him, which seemed to have once inspired some high-ranking party members. But the execution does not completely disappear from the horizon: if Rostov leaves the hotel zone, the death penalty will still await him. Therefore, for the next decades, the Count had to observe the course of history from within the walls of the Metropolis.
By a strange coincidence, “A Gentleman in Moscow” has already become the second Western series about an eccentric Russian who cannot cross the threshold of a prestigious hotel. “Checkmate,” the 2011 detective story about fictional genius chess player Arkady Balagan suffering from agoraphobia and solving crimes without leaving his reception desk, lasted just one season on the air. It was a season longer than necessary, and A Gentleman in Moscow became the first potentially good Western series about an eccentric Russian who can’t cross the threshold of a prestigious hotel.
Filmed in Manchester by the British in the early 1920s (the producers there include Tom Harper, director of the BBC version of War and Peace), it must be said that it has become much more beautiful – it has the titular man in it. The count and the Rostov surname have every chance of surviving until death from natural causes while existing at the expense of the state (long live our court, the most humane court in the world!). This is because the USSR of the dawn hours does not appear immediately in this story, but rather emerges as an interesting setting. American writer Amor Toles, author of the book “A Gentleman in Moscow,” always went on business trips during his years as an investment analyst, stayed in almost the same hotels, and met almost the same people as if he were living there. Thus, a hero imprisoned within the walls of a giant hotel came to his mind. Thinking that Russia was where there was house arrest, Toles placed his Rostov in the newly built Metropol.
If you search “Gentleman…” on Google, “political fiction” will appear in the list of genres. The statement is strange, but this is exactly how all this should be perceived – as a fairy tale, it does not claim to be historically accurate. Toles openly says that he did not make extensive preparation and when writing he relied more on the fruits of his many years of passion for “Russian literature, culture and history” (Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Mayakovsky, Nijinsky, Malevich and Eisenstein are listed).
So, conceptually, the film adaptation of “A Gentleman in Moscow” suddenly comes close to the TV series “The Great”, with Elle Fanning as the alternate Catherine II – but the comedy doesn’t matter here (there’s nothing very funny, frankly). By the way, it is necessary to recommend that people who are hypersensitive to other people’s skin color be removed from the screen in order to preserve their already tormented psyche: those who cannot get rid of the dark-skinned Count Rostov. It’s probably not worth it for the “Big” to blind-cast the local “Metropolis” (but they probably have more important things to do). Let us remind you of the rest: Proletarians of all countries, unite.
So, if you understand McGregor’s unique mustache (which is roughly in line with Kenneth Branagh’s bushes in the films about Hercule Poirot) and the suspiciously good-natured Bolsheviks speaking with a British accent, much of “The Gentleman…” may resonate. in the hearts of the audience. Count poet Alexander Rostov, who never existed, returns to the revolutionary Moscow of the fictional 1910s and deals with very topical issues in the fictional 1920s. Should I go or should I stay? And if you stay, how will you protect yourself when you suddenly become a stranger in your own country? There are seven more chapters to explore.
Release date: March 29, 2024
Duration: 8 episodes of 50 minutes
Creative: Ben Vanstone
Casting: Ewan McGregor, Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Where to see: Paramount+