At War with Himself
- Episode aired Mar 27, 2011
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
6
YOUR RATING
Photos
Rory Kinnear
- Young Tolstoy
- (voice)
David Calder
- Older Tolstoy
- (voice)
Zoia Belyakova
- Self - Historian
- (as Professor Zoia Belyakova)
Anthony Briggs
- Self - Tolstoy Translator and Biographer
- (as Professor Anthony Briggs)
Donna Orwin
- Self - Editor 'Tolstoy Studies Journal'
- (as Professor Donna Orwin)
Olga Slivitskaya
- Self - St Petersburg State University
- (as Professor Olga Slivitskaya)
Sofja Tolstaja
- Self
- (archive footage)
Lev Tolstoy
- Self
- (archive footage)
- (as Leo Tolstoy)
Storyline
Featured review
Dramatization of a Thoroughly Dissatisfied Personality
In this first episode of a two-part biography of Leo Tolstoy, Alan Yentob travels to the depths of Russia to discover his origins and education.
Born into bourgeois luxury and perpetually endowed with financial security, the young Tolstoy seems to have been a thoroughly unattractive personality. He did not do very well at school or during his university days; on occasions he was kept in solitary confinement for excessive misbehavior. When he did bother to study, he found that it was more advantageous for him to plan his own courses rather than to follow the pre-ordained material determined for him by his teachers.
When he left university, he led the life of a drifter - picking up and putting down women, drinking to excess and generally living off his family money. He wanted to be a writer but lacked both the application and ambition to do so. It was only when financial necessity drove him to write that he eventually knuckled down and began to reveal his true talents as a chronicler of nineteenth century Russian life.
Yentob doesn't spare us any details of Tolstoy's rather sordid past, but suggests that any faults he might have had were due to the excesses of youth rather than anything else. Such experiences in effect sharpened his talent as a writer, as he got to know the seamier side of life as well as understanding more about his bourgeois upbringing.
Briskly directed with location-shots interspersed with several reminiscences from biographers, academics, and members of Tolstoy's family, this was a fine introduction to the writer's life.
Born into bourgeois luxury and perpetually endowed with financial security, the young Tolstoy seems to have been a thoroughly unattractive personality. He did not do very well at school or during his university days; on occasions he was kept in solitary confinement for excessive misbehavior. When he did bother to study, he found that it was more advantageous for him to plan his own courses rather than to follow the pre-ordained material determined for him by his teachers.
When he left university, he led the life of a drifter - picking up and putting down women, drinking to excess and generally living off his family money. He wanted to be a writer but lacked both the application and ambition to do so. It was only when financial necessity drove him to write that he eventually knuckled down and began to reveal his true talents as a chronicler of nineteenth century Russian life.
Yentob doesn't spare us any details of Tolstoy's rather sordid past, but suggests that any faults he might have had were due to the excesses of youth rather than anything else. Such experiences in effect sharpened his talent as a writer, as he got to know the seamier side of life as well as understanding more about his bourgeois upbringing.
Briskly directed with location-shots interspersed with several reminiscences from biographers, academics, and members of Tolstoy's family, this was a fine introduction to the writer's life.
helpful•20
- l_rawjalaurence
- Mar 20, 2016
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What is the broadcast (satellite or terrestrial TV) release date of At War with Himself (2011) in Australia?
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