The Master and Margarita (Мастер и Маргарита) is a Russian film made by director Yuri Kara, based on the novel of the same name by the Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov.
Contents
Background
Although the film was made in 1994 (or 1993), it was not released until April 4, 2011, and played only in Russia. Despite its large budget and a well-known cast, the producers decided not to release it because they found the director's cut to be unacceptable. The soundtrack, recorded by Alfred Schnittke, was released on CD.
When journalist Valeriy Kitshin of the Rossiyskaya Gazeta saw the film in a private screening at the Moscow International Film Festival in 2005, he tried to convince the producers to release it. However, Sergey Shilovsky, the grandson of Mikhail Bulgakov's third wife Elena Sergeevna, claimed to have the copyright on Bulgakov's literary inheritance, and asked for payment. Shilovsky eventually sold the rights to producer Scott Steindorff of Stone Village Productions, who commissioned Caroline Thompson to write the script.
A bootleg low-quality version, 200 minutes long, was leaked on the internet in December 2006.
On November 15, 2010, the Russian film distributor Luxor announced that they had bought the rights to the film. It was released on April 4, 2011. Luxor shortened the film to 123 minutes from the original director's cut, which was 207 minutes long. The theatrical version was released on DVD and Blu-ray on May 3, 2011.
Plot
The film is an adaptation of the novel The Master and Margarita by Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov. Three storylines are interwoven. The first is a satire of the 1930s, the period during which Joseph Stalin is in power in the Soviet Union. The devil Woland comes to Moscow to have his annual spring ball of the full moon. He and his companions challenge corrupt bureaucrats and profiteers. The second story, set in Jerusalem, describes the inner struggle of Pontius Pilate before, during, and after the conviction and execution of Jesus. The third part tells the love story between a nameless writer in Moscow in the 1930s and his lover, Margarita. He has written a novel on Pontius Pilate, a subject which was taboo in the officially anti-religious atheistic Soviet Union.
Soundtrack
The "bolero" in the soundtrack references Maurice Ravel's Bolero.
Cast
Anastasiya Vertinskaya as Margarita
Viktor Rakov as the Master
Valentin Gaft as Woland
Sergey Garmash as Ivan Bezdomny
Mikhail Ulyanov as Pontius Pilate
Aleksandr Filippenko as Korovyev
Viktor Pavlov as Behemoth
Nikolai Burlyayev as Yeshua Ha-Nozri
Lev Durov as Matthew Levi
Igor Vernik as Judas
Vyacheslav Shalevich as Caiaphas
Vladimir Steklov as Azazello
Aleksandra Zakharova as Hella
Mikhail Danilov as Berlioz (voiced by Sergei Yursky)
Leonid Kuravlyov as Bosoy
Vladimir Kashpur as Sokov
Vadim Zakharchenko as Poplavsky
Sergei Nikonenko as Likhodeyev
Boryslav Brondukov as Varenukha
Yevgeny Vesnik as the psychiatrist
Igor Kvasha as Dr Stravinsky
Spartak Mishulin as Archibald Archibaldovich
Roman Tkachuk as the doorman
Soundtrack
Meister und Margarita I - 1:47
Voland - 2:26
Foxtrot - 1:04
Tango - 0:59
Marche Funebre - 1:12
Boléro (Maurice Ravel) - 15:00
Meister und Margarita II - 1:50
All tracks composed by Alfred Schnittke, except the Boléro.