Matilda (4 Stars)

This is a controversial love story about the romance between the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, and the ballerina Matilda Kschessinska. "Matilda" is one possible transliteration of her name from Russian. She is more often called Mathilde or Matylda.

There were attempts to ban the film in Russia, which led to its release being delayed for months. Nicholas II has been made a saint by the Russian Orthodox church, so the church calls the portrayal of his affair with a common woman blasphemous. I don't know much about the Orthodox church and its practises, but does that mean people actually pray to this man? That's inconceivable. The Catholic church at least picks its saints on the grounds of their good character. Even disregarding his affair with Matilda, which is well documented by letters and diaries, historians call him Russia's most incompetent leader. His political and military blunders led to Russia losing its place as a world power, as well as the deaths of millions of Russian soldiers. The Russian revolution of 1917 is portrayed by idealists as fuelled by ideology, but it would never have taken place if Russia had been led by a Tsar who was popular to his people. The Russian people didn't think Nicolas II was a tyrant, they thought he was a fool.

I had a few problems watching the film that were due to my lack of knowledge of Russian history. There were many people in the film who were mentioned by their first name, but I had no idea who they were. For instance, at the beginning of the film we meet Nicholas and Andrei, who seemed to be close friends, but I didn't realise until the end of the film that they were cousins. Several of the other characters who looked to me like court officials might also have been relatives. I don't know.

Another problem for me was the film's chronology. The film ends in 1896, the year when Nicholas was crowned and married -- in the same ceremony? -- but when did the affair with Matilda begin? In the film it all seems to happen fast, so I would have guessed six months, but I read up on the subject afterwards and found that the affair lasted six years, from 1890 to 1896. Nicholas was officially engaged to Alix of Hesse in 1894, but they had been promised to one another since 1880, when they were still children. The delay in the engagement was due to objections of the Orthodox church; they weren't allowed to marry because Alix was a Protestant. As time dragged on, attempts were made to marry Alix to other princes, but she was always considered Nicholas' future wife. In 1894 she finally converted to the Orthodox church, which meant nothing could stop the marriage.

Nothing except for Nicholas' love for Matilda.

According to the film, Nicholas fell in love with Matilda at a ballet performance where Matilda had a wardrobe malfunction. Her upper garment wasn't laced correctly and came open while she was dancing, so she danced with one of her breasts bared. The film portrays this as the result of a prank by another ballerina, but do we know for certain Matilda didn't do it deliberately? I can understand this in the context of the 19th Century. There were no rock or pop stars in that day. The ballerinas were the superstars, and Matilda was the Miley Cyrus of her day. Matilda wanted a scandal. A ballet performance in front of the Russian royal family was the perfect opportunity to expose herself on stage, and she was overjoyed with the reaction. Nicholas was slobbering like a dog, and he couldn't stay away from her dressing room. She also had an effect on Andrei, but she turned him down, not giving him a second chance until after Nicholas' marriage to Alix.

Who was Matilda? The film shows the relationship as two young people in love, but I doubt it was really about romance. For Nicholas it was about lust, for Matilda it was about power. Nicholas was a man who couldn't tell the difference between love and lust. That's not so rare, is it? Matilda was a woman who wanted to use her physical beauty to become the next Tsarina of Russia. In the film the relationship ends when Nicholas decides to marry Alix, as was his duty. Is this because Nicholas rejected her, as the film suggests? I doubt it. He would gladly have kept Matilda as a mistress, but this wasn't good enough for her; she wanted a crown on her head. She went on to marry Andrei, who had also lusted for her ever since her bare breasted performance, but only after having an affair with the cousin of Nicholas' father. After losing Nicholas she wanted to marry the highest ranking person available.

The film is lavish, an excellent period piece. I definitely want to see it again, and I strongly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. As far as I know, it's historically accurate, but read between the lines.