MOVIE REVIEW : MESMERIZING RICHNESS OF ‘RASPUTIN’

Rasputin, the notorious self-proclaimed holy man whose hold on the Russian royal family helped bring about the Russian Revolution, has been portrayed on the screen at least seven times previously. But it seems safe to say that his story has never been so well told as by noted Russian director Elem Klimov (husband of the late, highly acclaimed director Larissa Shepitko) and his writers Semyon Lunghin and Ilya Nusinov.

Their “Rasputin” (at the Goldwyn Pavilion) is as mesmerizing as its subject, rich in the kind of atmosphere and detail necessary in bringing alive such a bizarre yet riveting saga with complete conviction. Clearly, “Rasputin” is the result of careful research transformed by powerful creative imagination.

Yet even more important--indeed, essential--is the need to believe utterly in the actor playing Rasputin, and Alexei Petrenko is so convincing as to be downright scary. His Rasputin is a tall, rangy man with a pockmarked face and long, greasy hair. Yet as physically unappealing as his Rasputin is, Petrenko has a galvanic gaze and an awesome presence that make it entirely credible that he would captivate St. Petersburg society with his gifts for prophecy, healing--and sexual conquest. Petrenko does not portray Rasputin as a fake but as a bemused brute overcome by vague, megalomaniacal ambitions who exploits his power over others.

Rasputin’s growing acclaim in St. Petersburg coincided with the czarina’s desperate search for treatment for her pain-wracked, frequently comatose hemophiliac son, heir to the throne, and with the czar’s inept handling of Russia’s poorly equipped army, which by 1916 had suffered some 3 million casualties in the war. The thrall in which the “mad monk” held the royal family soon would hasten the downfall of the 300-year-old Romanov dynasty and pave the way for the revolution.

Originally titled “Agonia,” “Rasputin” proceeds as a straightforward narrative yet achieves a heightened, deeply involving effect through its makers’ attention to subtleties and nuances amid lush period settings conveying a sense of absolute authenticity.

The highly sensual “Rasputin” shares an intoxicating, peculiarly Russian headiness with the surreal works of Andrei Tarkovsky. One inspired moment follows another: As the czar’s advisers pressure him to get rid of Rasputin, he heads for the czarina’s chambers, apparently to do just that, when he opens a door only to witness Rasputin successfully bring his only son to consciousness. The expression on the face of the czar (Anatoly Romashin) is all we need to know that he is a father first, a ruler second. (Ironically, it was the film’s depiction of the czar as well-meaning but ineffectual rather than downright evil that held up the film’s release for a decade. It became available only with the new leadership of Mikhail S. Gorbachev.)

Then there’s the embarrassing moment when the czarist officers, hastily summoned to an elaborate reception, have to ask who should be arrested: Rasputin, for having dared to rip the bodice of a society lady, or her husband for having tried to defend his wife’s honor? There’s an incredible scene in a barn in which one of Rasputin’s cronies, a diminutive healer called “The Tibetan Owl,” is leading a group of aristocrats in a series of breathing exercises, telling them that “Dung vapors have a beneficial effect on nerve endings.” Rasputin’s own quarters, the walls of which are covered with priceless icons, has an antechamber which at all times is crowded with his female followers--including one who, for whatever reason, wears a false scrawny mandarin’s beard! Clearly, the times were decadent.

As often recounted as it is, Rasputin’s end won’t be revealed here, just in case a younger generation of moviegoers isn’t familiar with it. Yet even in his final rendezvous, so often shown on screen, there is a detail that typifies the uniqueness--and captivating quirkiness--of this “Rasputin” (Times-rated Mature for adult themes). As Prince Felix Yussopov (A. Romantzov), the “mad monk’s” host, serves him his final meal, we hear on the prince’s Victrola the astonishingly familiar but wholly unexpected refrain, “Look away! Look away, Dixieland!”

‘RASPUTIN’ (‘Agonia’)

An International Film Exchange release of a Mosfilm Studios production. Director Elem Klimov. Screenplay Semyon Lunghin, Ilya Nusinov. Camera Leonid Kalashnikov. Music Alfred Shnitke. Art director Sergei Voronkov. With Alexei Petrenko, Anatoly Romashin, Velta Linne, Alice Freindlikh, A. Romantzov. In Russian, with English subtitles.

Running time: 1 hour, 44 minutes.

Times-rated: Mature.