Crime and Punishment

Lev Kulidzhanov's 1970 Soviet film brings Dostoevsky's novel to the screen in two parts. Raskolnikov, a former student who cannot pay his rent, commits a murder; as the investigation proceeds he is caught between hiding his guilt and the pressure to confess. The adaptation is unusually faithful to the novel. Kulidzhanov does not speed up the plot, and faces and duration take the place of the interior monologues; scenes wait in order to convey what the character is thinking. Georgi Taratorkin plays Raskolnikov and Innokenty Smoktunovsky the examining magistrate Porfiry. Their conversations are the strongest passages; neither knows what the other knows, and that uncertainty is held for a long time. The black and white photography makes Petersburg narrow and airless. Who it's for: those who like Soviet literary adaptation and Dostoevsky. Who it's not for: viewers looking for a short film; the two parts together run past three hours and the pace is deliberately slow.