I'll join the chorus in singing praises to this version of Dostoyevsky's 'Idiot'. No sense in repeating what others might have said.
One great drawback which can completely ruin the experience is the subtitles. The quality of translation is simply disastrous. I am a native Russian speaker, and I am completely appalled at the total lack of professionalism. It's as if it's done by a semi-literate person with a huge attention deficit disorder. Chunks of the dialog are simply ignored or at best get so simplified, one can only envision how Fyodor Mikhailovich is turning in his grave. Bottom line, the subtitles are a total disgrace. This is nothing new - I have no idea whom they employ these days, I wish I could look them in the eye and tell them everything I think about the job they are doing. It's a shame that a rare cultural gem becomes so dull thanks to the horrible translation. Once again these Russians DVD producers demonstrate that they absolutely don't care about the rest of the world. What can be greater than self-imposed cultural isolation? Even when they care to put subtitles in the DVD release, 90% of the time they are barely comprehensible and the remaining 10% demonstrate a very sloppy translation job.
None of the problems exist if you speak Russian. An excellent production on many levels indeed. I understand that even a non-Russian speaker can appreciate this somewhat, and judging by the comments here, many did, but believe me, you were robbed.
One great drawback which can completely ruin the experience is the subtitles. The quality of translation is simply disastrous. I am a native Russian speaker, and I am completely appalled at the total lack of professionalism. It's as if it's done by a semi-literate person with a huge attention deficit disorder. Chunks of the dialog are simply ignored or at best get so simplified, one can only envision how Fyodor Mikhailovich is turning in his grave. Bottom line, the subtitles are a total disgrace. This is nothing new - I have no idea whom they employ these days, I wish I could look them in the eye and tell them everything I think about the job they are doing. It's a shame that a rare cultural gem becomes so dull thanks to the horrible translation. Once again these Russians DVD producers demonstrate that they absolutely don't care about the rest of the world. What can be greater than self-imposed cultural isolation? Even when they care to put subtitles in the DVD release, 90% of the time they are barely comprehensible and the remaining 10% demonstrate a very sloppy translation job.
None of the problems exist if you speak Russian. An excellent production on many levels indeed. I understand that even a non-Russian speaker can appreciate this somewhat, and judging by the comments here, many did, but believe me, you were robbed.