‘Tchaikovsky’s Wife’ Film Review: Cannes’ Only Russian Film Is Bold and Cold
thewrap.comwildly entertaining rock ‘n’ roll fantasia “Leto.”The two films both show that Serebrennikov has strong ideas about how to use music, but otherwise they’re worlds apart. “Tchaikovsky’s Wife” begins with Miliukova (Alyona Mikhaylova) dressed in widow’s black and trying to choose the right words for her funeral wreath; but when she arrives in the room where her husband’s corpse is laid out, Tchaikovsky (Odin Biron, full of quiet Peter Sarsgaard smarm) rouses himself, stands up and asks, “Why is the wife here?
Who invited her?”The scene is enough to tell you that this will be Miliukova’s story, and that it won’t be a straight period piece, even though it re-creates 1893 St.
Petersburg, 1872 Moscow and points in between in details that are both muddy and lustrous. It finds chaos in the streets and darkness in upscale parlors.It’s in one of those parlors that Miliukova meets Tchaikovsky and tells him she wants to attend his musical conservatory. “Why?” he says. “You’re better off getting married.” And sure enough, Miliukova decides that she needs to be married – to the dashing and troubled Tchaikovsky, who has nagging stomach pains that probably aren’t helped by the fact that he must live his life as a gay man completely in the closet, or at least in the homes of his close circle of like-minded companions.Miliukova is apparently oblivious to this detail, telling Tchaikovsky at their second meeting, “Ever since I first saw you, I’ve wanted one thing: to throw my arms around your neck and miss you.
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