Azazel (film)

Infobox Film
name = Azazel

|thumb|DVD cover
image_size = 150px
caption =
director = Aleksandr Adabashyan
producer =
writer = Boris Akunin
narrator =
starring = Ilya Noskov
Kirill Pirogov
Sergej Bezrukov
Oleg Basilashvili
Marina Neelova
Ewa Szykulska
music = Vladimir Dashkevich
cinematography = Mikhail Agranovich
editing =
distributor =
released =
runtime = 204 mins
country = Russia
language = Russian
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0312403

"Azazel" (2002) ( _ru. Азазель) is a made-for-television Russian version of Boris Akunin's introductory 'Erast Fandorin' novel The Winter Queen. The movie added to the fame of the original novel.

One of the quotes on the book's cover describes it as "Think Tolstoy writing James Bond with the logical rigor of Sherlock Holmes". This might be an exaggeration, but the story is enjoyable and well paced, albeit the plot is predictable and obviously developed along the way. The central character is fairly rounded with plenty of scope for development in the later stories and the pre-Revolutionary Russian backdrop is well realized and evocative.

Plot summary

This historical detective story features a dashing young police inspector, Erast Fandorin. Fandorin’s adventures take place in the Russian Empire of the late 19th century, and he regularly finds himself at the center of key historical events, including development of Masonic and Revolutionary movements.

The hero is a young man, newly enlisted in the police force of the 1870's. This is a world with no forensic science, a rigid social structure and rigid proprieties, and police investigation techniques which respect the intuition of the intelligent amateur or newcomer. Fandorin is inexperienced, naive, downwardly mobile (the family fortune having evaporated), but cultured, intelligent, diligent, and desperately enthusiastic. He doesn't so much want to impress as want to succeed ... by a process of blind self-confidence and a youthful self-delusion that he is acting logically and scientifically. Fandorin is invited to investigate the suicide of a rich student. The young man has blown his brains out in public. How can this be suicide? Fandorin quickly exposes the murderous intrigue which has led to the death ... and opens up a can of worms which will have him crossing Europe in search of a mastermind ... or maybe even the godfathers behind a terrorist plot.

The story also contains some humor, and the humor fits in nicely, creating affection for Fandorin and increasing our interest in him and the solution to what initially seems like a cut and dry suicide case.

English language version

The famous Dutch film director Paul Verhoeven is set to film an English-language theatrical film remake of "Azazel", with Dan Stevens set to star as Fandorin and the leading female role to be played by Milla Jovovich. This movie is expected in 2008.

External links

*imdb title|id=0312403|title=Azazel (2002)
*imdb title|id=0937380|title=Azazel (2009)
* [http://russart.com/?movietrailer&mid=38 Trailer] and [http://russart.com/?moviepictures&mid=38 Screenshots]
* [http://erastimes.8m.net/spb_eng.htm Photo guide to Fandorin's places in St. Petersburg, then the capital of the Russian Empire]