Raskolnikov (BFI Southbank)

# Raskolnikow + intro

A must see – The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari director Robert Wiene’s film is arguably the least known masterpiece of German expressionism.

• Director
  Robert Wiene
• With
  Grigorij Chmara, Maria Kryshanowskaja, Michail Tarschanow, Vera Toma
• Germany 1923. 142min
• Digital
• With live viola, piano and percussion from Hugo Max

It’s the German expressionist film that few people have seen – an adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment by the Moscow Arts Theatre, in which Stanislavsky’s naturalistic acting style meets André Andrejew stunning set design in the expressionist mode. The angular painted sets and atmospheric lighting amplify the mounting psychosis of poor former student Rasklonikow, who tries to justify an act of murder for the greater good. Wiene wisely allows space for the extraordinary central performance by Grigorij Chmara.

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