The Idiot

Today I attempted to watch Akira Kurosawa's The Idiot, which is an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel. I've never seen this film, nor have I read the book. I lasted about 45 minutes.

I'm not saying the film is bad (though it's far from Kurosawa's best) and I'm not saying the source material isn't worthy of a film adaptation. I don't know that. However, I can tell this is a film that will take multiple viewings to understand, let alone get through, without having read the book.

Admittedly, I'm feeling ill-equipped to say much about the film, which could not sustain my interest for more than a few minutes at a time after the 45-minute mark. I hung in there, but kept finding myself looking out the living room window. The narrative jumps around, the edits are awkward, the music is intrusive, and Kurosawa uses numerous title cards and narration to expedite the plot.

At 166 minutes, The Idiot seems to go on forever. I understand Kurosawa attempted a much, much longer cut, adding another 100 minutes to the run time, but the studio would not allow that. I can't imagine 265 minutes of this. I don't know. Maybe the film works in the longer version. Unfortunately, no print of the longer version exists, so we can't know.

The Idiot is part of the Criterion Eclipse Series called Postwar Kurosawa. When I went through my great Kurosawa collecting binge a few years back, this was one of the last pickups. Although I Live In Fear really worked for me, The Idiot just didn't.

I don't feel particularly bad about this one, though. This isn't the film Kurosawa intended — this cut is the result of studio interference and forced cuts he really did not want to make. If I'm going to bail on a film, at least it's not a masterpiece, and at least it's not what the director intended anyway.

For more info on this one, go here.