Word: writer
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Last Station begins in 1910, when the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy is in his waning days but still greatly celebrated, as a novelist and the touchstone of a community of "Tolstoyans," passive resisters living virtuous lives based on his ideals. The words "Some even regard him as a living saint" appear on the screen, which is generally bad news for the living saint, especially if he's got a wife around to point out all the ways in which her husband is actually flesh and blood who never takes out the garbage...
...sure of Tolstoy's preferences. Throughout the movie, he wavers between Chertkov's will and Sofya's, but he never displays complete conviction toward either. As he waffles, our perspective shifts accordingly. Is this a writer who believes in power to the people and doesn't want to be nagged by his selfish wife in his last days? Or a confused old man, susceptible to flattery and not up to his own standards of mental agility...
...Staff writer Ryan J. Meehan can be reached at rmeehan@fas.harvard.edu...
...Staff writer William N. White can be reached at wwhite@fas.harvard.edu...
...Staff writer Timothy J. Walsh can be reached at twalsh@fas.harvard.edu