Word: oblomov
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...OBLOMOV Directed by Nikita Mikhalkov...
...Oblomov is not a surprise. If the Soviets cannot make a decent adaptation of one of their own literary treasures, who can? And it is a delight, faithful to the soulfully comic spirit of Goncharov's novel-about a man who would rather sleep than fight the modern world-yet gracefully free-spirited in using cinema shorthand to keep the story moving...
That is not the easiest thing to do, since Oblomov spends the first half of the film either in bed or resisting efforts to get him up and moving again. The absentee owner of an estate that is going to pot (as he is), he first nodded off in the midst of a career in the tsarist bureaucracy, and all attempts to interest him in alternative occupations cause him to pull the covers more tightly over his head. Oblomov has seen the future-industrialization, go-getterism-and decided it doesn't work...
Alas for his peace and quiet, he has a boyhood chum named Stoltz, a hustler determined to remobilize his old pal. He personally dices vegetables in order to provide Oblomov with an energizing diet...
...brings the slugabed books and periodicals to force him to take an interest in the world. Stoltz even finds a woman who falls in love with Oblomov-and why not? He's so much sweeter and gentler than his tirelessly activist friend; and, as seen in the permanently puzzled eyes of Oleg Tabakov, Oblomov's ennui has a strange integrity. In his way, Tabakov is as mysteriously compelling as Garbo...