DUELYANY / THE DUELIST (2016)

From Russian writer/director Aleksey Mizgiryov a plush, old-fashioned revenge fable among Tsarist nobility, honor-bound to answer insult with injurious duels.  Not exactly good filmmaking (he has some pretty odd ideas on camera placement & editing), but its magpie collection of faux Alexander Dumas tropes (the plot lands somewhere between COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO and MAN IN THE IRON MASK*) is a fun watch.  Clever, too, in a facile manner.  (Easy to imagine 20th/Fox having a go in the ’40s with Tyrone Power, George Sanders and Gene Tierney in the leading roles.  But with OTT gore tastefully positioned out of frame!)  Pyotr Fyodorov is a tower of masochistic manliness as an unwitting pawn in a lethal game of kill-the-creditor, unaware he’s being led by the nose as Moscow’s go-to substitute duelist, paid to take out nobles by a mystery party who actually holds the key to the Duelist's past as escaped prisoner/disgraced ex-noble.  Yikes!  Big handsome production, DA!  But those glaring CGI cityscapes can really drag you out of the moment.  The old technique of mattes fitted up with glass painted backgrounds had their weaknesses, but rarely looked quite this ugly; and added rather than subtracted to a heightened storybook atmosphere that helped sell ‘rhymed’ narratives of circular payback, selfless sacrifice and just desserts.  Still, plenty going on in under two hours and nicely cast with memorable faces (and chests!) to keep confusion to a minimum.  As current ‘pop’ Russian entertainment goes, this will do.  (As NOTED before; our Family Friendly Label does not necessarily mean a kiddie pic.  Here, sex and violence at a PG-13 level.  Smart Phone users are directed to the Full Site for more info on LABELS.  Scroll down to the View Web Version link.)

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  Lots of variations on these peer-sanctioned murders.  Naturally, Russian Roulette in the mix, but the One Bullet/Two Pistols/Choose Your Weapon game even better.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *Of the many iterations, best MONTE CRISTO remains Robert Donat’s 1934 beauty and best IRON MASK is Douglas Fairbanks’ glorious/moving late silent of 1929. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2012/06/count-of-monte-cristo-1934.html