A Gentle Creature

The last film Stanislav Barabáš made before he emigrated was an exceptionally accomplished TV adaptation of Dostoyevsky's novella A Gentle Creature – the psychological drama of an unequal marriage between an old pawnbroker and a young girl. Barabáš's directing, Stanislav Szomolányi's restless camerawork, Zdeněk Liška's score and the outstanding performances of Ctibor Filčík and Magda Vášáryová combine to form a work that won the grand prize at the 1968 Monte Carlo TV Festival. Barabáš managed to capture the young woman's gradually rising level of psychological stress with a minimum of dialogue. Magda Vášáryová speaks volumes with a look, a subtle gesture, an inconspicuous facial expression. "The truth is that I've always been interested in man's place in the world, but also our country's place in relation to other countries, above all those that have somehow ruled over us or influenced us, held us back or spoken for us. The novella I adapted I understood as a truthful statement on the Russian people, on the Russian character. I reckoned the best way to talk about the Russians was through their greatest thinker, through Dostoyevsky," said Barabáš. (Art Film Fest)