Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment on Foreign Screens: Transformations of the Chronotope

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Author: Liudmila I. Saraskina
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DSc in Philology, Leading Researcher, State Institute for Art Studies, Kozitskii Lane 5, 125009 Moscow, Russia.

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4844-4930

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For citation:

Saraskina, L.I. “Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment on Foreign Screens: Transformations of the Сhronotope.” Dostoevsky and World Culture. Philological journal, no. 2 (18), 2022, pp. 192–226. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2022-2-192-226
Received: 29 Apr. 2022
Published: 25 June 2022
Issue: 2022 no. 2 (18)
Department: DOSTOEVSKY ON STAGE
Pages: 192-226
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2022-2-192-226
EDN:

https://elibrary.ru/QGNYJV
UDK: 821.161.0
BBK: 83.3(2=411.2)
Keywords: Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, foreign cinema, transformations of the chronotope, overview of cinema versions, film directors’ decisions, epilogue, fate of the character after the novel.
Abstract: The paper analyses the only preserved foreign silent screen version and twelve foreign sound film versions and adaptations of Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment, produced in Europe, Asia, both Americas, and Australia from 1923 to 2016 — and defined as “faithful”, “based on”, “associated with”, “with reference to” etc. Specific objects of the analysis are the basic attitudes of cinema makers towards literary sources (originals) and the artistic potentials of the common motto of film directors: “This is how I see it”, applied to the process of translating a book into a film. The contents and quality of various screen versions of Crime and Punishment are here explored from the point of view of the transformations of the chronotope. To what time and place is the plot of the novel transferred, when it does not remain in its original ones? What happens with the plot, the characters, and the meaning of the novel, if the events are transferred to another cultural milieu and/or to another historical period? How is the novel’s epilogue (the perspective of Raskolnikov’s renewal and rebirth in the time after the novel) interpreted? An analysis of the screen versions shows that the fate of Raskolnikov remains a painful moment for the cinema worldwide: the central character of the novel is too deeply connected with the last century, he rhymes too much with its tragic fate.

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Reference list of video entries

1. Match-pojnt [Match Point]. Directed by Woody Allen, USA, Great Britain, 2005. (In Russ.)

2. Nina [Nina]. Directed by Heitor Dhalia, Brazil, 2004. (In Russ.)

3. Raskol’nikov [Raskolnikow]. Directed by Robert Wiene, Germany, 1923. (In Russ.)

4. Prestuplenie i nakazanie [Crime and Punishment]. Directed by Josef von Sternberg, USA, 1935. (In Russ.)

5. Prestuplenie i nakazanie [Crime and Punishment]. Directed by Joseph Sargent, USA, 1998. (In Russ.)

6. Prestuplenie i nakazanie [Crime and Punishment]. Directed by Menahem Golan, USA; Poland; Russia, 2002. (In Russ.)

7. Prestuplenie i nakazanie [Crime and Punishment]. Directed by Aki Kaurismäki, Finland, 1983. (In Russ.)

8. Prestuplenie i nakazanie [Crime and Punishment]. Directed by Georges Lampin, France, 1956. (In Russ.)

9. Student [A Student]. Directed by Darezhan Omirbaev, Kazakhstan, 2012. (In Russ.)