Anton Chekhov's The Duel

Year: 2010
Director: Dover Koshashvili


Based on Chekhov’s 1891 Novella, Anton Chekhov’s The Duel is the story of Laevsky (Adam Scott), an idle civil servant who spends his days drinking, sleeping and playing cards, much to the annoyance of colleague Von Koren (Tobias Menzies). Laevsky is a man who has tired of his mistress Nadya (Fiona Glascott) and wishes to leave her. He has received important news regarding her husband but fears to tell her, worried it will seal his fate with her forever.

It shares similarities with two other European novels also written in the late 1800s: The Kill by Emil Zola, and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. All three works share a similar concern with questions of marriage, social impropriety and the idle rich’s destructive pursuit of pleasure. Unlike those other novels, however, in which those who commit social transgressions are punished, in The Duel it seems all that’s needed is a jolt or catalyst to make the characters see the error of their ways. But does it lead to a positive new perspective or does it merely allow for the acceptance of their fate?

Koshashvili’s adaptation is a very self-assured work, taking full advantage of Paul Sarossy’s stunning cinematography. The seaside town of Caucasus is brought to life in their capable hands and they make excellent use of the screen space, filling it without cluttering it, drawing our eye to important details but never forcing it. Andrew Scott is excellent as the wayward Laevsky. He plays Laevsky’s mounting hysteria at the thought of marrying Nadya perfectly, never resorting to cliché.

This is a slow burn and the pacing may frustrate some. Yet it perfectly reflects the characters’ inner turmoil - as their frustration grows, so too does the film lead to its climax. Here the duel doesn’t simply refer to a physical battle – it is a war between our conflicting desires: love and lust; civilisation and violence; responsibility and pleasure. Which side wins and for how long is left for us to question.

Anton Chekhov’s The Duel is now showing at Tower Cinemas Newcastle.