If you could remake 'Nicholas and Alexandra'....

[rskkiya]

DOMOVOI

Good idea... but I might suggest Wingnuts rather than M/I...the computers generation of thousands of extras and some sets might save money...

I'm still keen on Ralph Feinnes --- more dignified and slightly feminine  --- just like Nicholas.

R.

[Janet_Ashton]

But no matter what, I don't think there's any way the Bosheviks who killed the family and their servants were not evil, those particular ones had to be.

Interesting, because I think you posted in another thread that you rather liked Felix Y. ;-) What makes that murderer likeable and these ones evil?
I guess you'll probably say that these ones killed children and Felix didn't - but somehow to me the distinction isn't totally clear....

Janet

[DOMOVOII]

A restoration team might have better use of the money than a CGI team, talented though they are. Peter Jackson's Orc Army I sure cold have funded a large part of a roof, for instance, and that provides your USP, or unique selling point-"Shot on location". Considering the restrictions that would have faced the crew from the 71 film, our production could be filmed in situ.

Oh and another casting came to me, Dame Maggie Smith for GDss Maria Pavlovna, though she'd steal the picture as usual. Ioann Gruffydd's for Felix (see him as Lancelot in the new King Arthur) Ella would have to be Miranda Richardson, beautiful and talented.

One last point, it would be nice to portray N&A rather than major figures of historical import, but with more of a "soap" feel. Humanizing the family in a way the 71 didn't.

[jackie3]

For me the film could play-out better through the reminiscences of MF, this would enable the film to establish it's own sense of period without having to make outright statements " I love it here", "Yes I love it too in Livadia...in the Crimea" which are overdone.

Interesting. Personally I would have the story begin in flashback, like something out the Princess Bride with a grandfather telling his grandchild a story about "the Czar". A lot of Russian folktales begin like that. Thats how I would open it up as a fairy tale gone wrong.
I would go into the meeting of N&A as children, through their life (concentrating on their family life and the isolation from the world that prevented them from seeing what was going on) and death and beyond death including the Bolsheviks attempts to disfigure/dispose of the body and the Soviet denials it ever took place at all. And then flash foward to the present with the skeletons being dug up and perhaps a cut to a religious procession at the new Cathredral built there in their honor and then to the still presently unrestored Alexander Palace (in contrast to its former glory shown throughout the film) where we see their ghosts (figuratively or literally) still linger in the rooms - Olga reading by a window, Alexis playing with Joy, Tatiana posing in front of a mirror rhe latest fashions, Anastasia in a tree, Maria dreaming off in her own little world, Nicholas posting photos in an album, Alix in the Mauve Room writing letters. An ordinary family back home again (in a way). Then fade to the credits where I would have actual photos of the real IF contrasted with the people who played them.

[Annie]

Interesting, because I think you posted in another thread that you rather liked Felix Y. ;-) What makes that murderer likeable and these ones evil?
I guess you'll probably say that these ones killed children and Felix didn't - but somehow to me the distinction isn't totally clear....

Janet

Felix is an enigma, a very strange situation. Here was a guy who could not shoot a rabbit, yet he shot a man? It was totally out of character. He was no murderer, or a cruel person.  It was almost as if he were chosen to play the role in the drama by forces not his own. I think he thought that too. It's one of the biggest contradictions of all. Just like Rasputin himself- was he an angel or a devil? Was there some deeper meaning to it all? We will never know, but the speculation possibilities are endless. But I don't think there is any comparison between Felix and the Bolsheviks who killed many innocent people.

[Vive_HIH_Aleksey]

I agree with everything everyone has said, and have one thing to add.

I would have a first-class composer write the score, and it would have to be as emotionally compelling as Titanic. But I wouldn't necessarily commision Horner. Goldenthal and Goldsmith and of course the master Williams are all excellent with emotional scores. Goldenthal's Interview With The Vampire is masterful at conveying sorrow and melancholy, Goldsmith's Secret of NIMH is absolutely spectacular in the emotional sense, and Williams of course has tons of emotional scores under his belt. E.T. is his most thrilling, but I think the most emotional would be Schindler's List and The Patriot, but that is an offhand guess.

Of course I wouldn't limit myself to well-known names. I didn't know Howard Shore till I heard Lord of the Rings.

[Vive_HIH_Aleksey]

hey LOL she was great in Evita HAHA.

LOL Ben Affleck. If he were in the movie it would surely be up for Razzies hahaha.

[Janet_Ashton]

Felix is an enigma, a very strange situation. Here was a guy who could not shoot a rabbit, yet he shot a man? It was totally out of character. He was no murderer, or a cruel person.  It was almost as if he were chosen to play the role in the drama by forces not his own.  

"Not a murderer not a cruel person" well describes the particular Bolsheviks we are discussing here too though - that is, the Bolsheviks who shot Nicholas II.

I think he thought that too. It's one of the biggest contradictions of all. Just like Rasputin himself- was he an angel or a devil? Was there some deeper meaning to it all? We will never know, but the speculation possibilities are endless. But I don't think there is any comparison between Felix and the Bolsheviks who killed many innocent people.

*These* Bolsheviks did not. Like Felix they killed individuals who they conceived as a danger to the future of the country, and it was their situation and upgringing that led them to think that way - just like Felix's.
Rasputin in my opinion was no angel or devil, just a fairly normal person whose biggest tragedy is that no-one looks at him as anything other than an adjunct to Nicholas and Alexandra. Was he bad? Must be, he "deceived" them (according to some). Was he good? Must be; he helped Alexei (according to others). I'd like to see a calm and non-melodramatic look at the man and his life...

Janet

[Annie]

So a sickly young boy and some girls who'd never been away from their parents were a 'threat?' I don't believe the family were the only ones killed by these men. They were with the Reds, they likely killed and pillaged a lot more than we know.

Putting Felix Y. in the same category with those thugs is like saying Lynndie England is as bad as those terrorists who beheaded the guy online. It's no comparison.

Felix was no murderer, and there are even some who believe he was not the one who actually killed him. Those who knew him best knew he was not the killer type, and were shocked. I would post quotes by Ella and Paleogue' from the time, but I want to wait until I have the exact writing so I won't paraphrase incorrectly.

Also I don't think we should be spoiling this fun idea thread with deep political discussion and speculation about intentions. I'm sure there is another part of the board this can be taken to. I've been wanting to start a Felix and Rasputin thread, maybe I'll do it in the Yussupov folder.

For now, back to the movie!

[Dashkova]

How much do you know about "Reds" and who they were, how is this defined, what were their backgrounds, why were they swept up into the revolutionary tide, and what it meant (or did not) mean to them?

Your post reads like the typical Imperial "enthusiast" -- all fluff, little substance, and not familiar at all with the era in question, outside of the palaces, anyway.

Your descriptions of "Red" behavior and mindset simply isn't accurate, if you are dealing with a large group, not individuals.

[Annie]

Oh for God's sake  

I can't believe anyone is even defending them. I really can't. Let's have a discussion about it in the Revolution thread and let the movie thread go back to fun, please. I'm sorry I was ever involved in any of the controversial stuff.

[Dashkova]

You can't believe it because you obviously don't know any better!

But certainly, return to movie talk, even if it is about a poor adaptation of a very good book. (Even Massie and his family got up and walked out at the premiere)

If you delve into the "controversial" aspects, you can be sure others will respond!

[Janet_Ashton]

So a sickly young boy and some girls who'd never been away from their parents were a 'threat?'  !

Their personal vulnerability is immaterial here. To these men, they were a threat; potential monarchist leaders: figureheads for the murderous White Army or for the horrible regime their father personified - and clung to tenaciously. Which unfortunately is excatly what HAS happened; they have become the figureheads of the regime but because of the murder rather than in spite of it.

Felix was no murderer, and there are even some who believe he was not the one who actually killed him. Those who knew him best knew he was not the killer type, and were shocked. I would post quotes by Ella and Paleogue' from the time, but I want to wait until I have the exact writing so I won't paraphrase incorrectly.  

Ella I believe wrote to him congratulating him on the act of patriotism as she saw it.

Janet

[Annie]

I have been reading everything on the subject I could get my hands on for the last 30 years. I admit I find the Romanovs a lot more interesting and appealing than the revolutionaries so I have not read as much on them, but the two go hand in hand, I've seen many reports and first hand accounts by "reds." Sorry, you kill 5 innocent kids and hack up their bodies, you're a bad, bad person, regardless of political affiliation.

As I said before, this would be better discussed in the "Russian Revolution" forum. I'm not saying I don't want to discuss it, only that I don't think this is the right place and it's dragging down a thread that was supposed to be fun!

[Dashkova]

You won't ever get the whole picture of Russia, nor even understand the Romanovs and the empire they ruled over if you keep your head in Imperial clouds.  I know this from first-hand experience.

You might want to bear in mind that those of us who also enjoy discussing other aspects of Russian life don't venture to threads like this unless groups or individuals outside the palaces are painted with an exceptionally broad brush.  And I expect I and others would be back whenever this occurs.