Film: Morgiana
Release date: 11th October 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 97 mins
Director: Juraj Herz
Starring: Iva Janzurová, Josef Abrhám , Nina Divísková, Petr Cepek, Josef Somr
Genre: Drama
Studio: Second Run
Format: DVD
Country: Czechoslovakia
Morgiana is a tale of two orphaned sisters who, in true fairytale tradition, embody the extreme light and dark sides of human nature. Viktorie is the ill-favoured sister, severely clad in black, while Klára is the kinder and prettier one, the favourite of their father.
The film opens with the funeral of the father. Klára receives the lion’s share of the extensive family estate, while Viktorie is only bequeathed his forest hunting lodge. Jealous, Viktorie consults a tarot reader, who reveals that Klára, characterised as the queen of hearts, stands between the black queen Viktorie and the money and jewels which she desires. Viktorie concocts a plan to kill Klára, using a poison that acts so gradually that it will give Viktorie the opportunity to retreat to her hunting lodge and present an appearance of innocence by the time of her sister’s eventual demise.
As in any fairytale, evil plans backfire upon their perpetrator. Viktorie accidentally administers poison to her beloved cat, and the supplier of the poison sees an opportunity to blackmail Viktorie with threats of exposing her wicked intentions towards her sister. In the end, Viktorie’s poisonous plan becomes her own undoing…
The film uses the established fairytale motif of orphans, with the classic good/evil dichotomy of their characters, the roses and sunshine which surround the one and the dark shadowy world inhabited by the other. The symbolic visual language of fairytale is amalgamated with other, disparate elements for even more exaggerated effect. The bouffant curves of Viktorie’s black wig, her lips thinly outlined in the colour of dried blood, and the outsized bows at the waist of her dresses suggest a particularly menacing geisha. The blackmailing poisoner’s flower-embellished clothes in art nouveau colours of violet and green suggest the absinthe-soaked dissipation of fin de siècle Paris. Klára, by contrast, is perennially dressed in white. But her amiability seems tinged with a touch of imbecility. In a scene at breakfast, her inordinate laughter at the thought that the egg she is eating could have become a chicken makes you feel some sympathy for Viktorie.
Cinematographer Jaroslav Kučera used experimental methods to evoke the evil, madness and hallucinations which plague the characters. In several scenes, the camera is shot from the point of view of Viktorie’s Siamese cat, Morgiana, who is a dispassionate witness to Klára’s poisoning and her mistress’ frenzied plotting. A fish eye lens is used for a number of scenes set by cliffs towering over the sea, giving a dizzying sense of vertigo, either in the literal sense or to convey the febrile turmoil of an unhinged mind. When Klára succumbs to the hallucinogenic effects of the poison, the use of kaleidoscopic, whirling, multi-coloured visuals gives a sensation of nauseating disorientation.
The film’s location and era have an oddly unidentifiable character, which can be traced to its source material. Morgiana was based upon a book by a Russian writer, Aleksandr Grin, whose romantic tales of dashing heroes, sea captains, aristocrats and innocent heroines were mostly set in a fictional world of his own devising, popularly referred to by his fans as “Grinlandia”. Director Juraj Herz was not, however, allowed to create a faithful adaptation of Grin’s story. In the book, it transpires that the two sisters are merely different aspects of a single person, and the darker aspect of the woman is destroyed while the virtuous aspect survives. The communist censors were unable to condone a film which took a split personality as its subject matter. Although the same actress portrays Viktorie and Klára, Herz was compelled to film only part of Grin’s story, so that the revelation of the book’s story never takes place. Morgiana was created in the years following the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, in the wake of the liberalisation of the political climate during the Prague Spring of 1968. During the period of Normalisation which followed the Russian invasion, censors cracked down hard upon filmmakers. Morgiana was not favourably received – it was felt that the film’s romanticism was overshadowed by its frightening and eerie qualities – and the film was banished to the vaults for two years following its completion. Ironically, the fact that Morgiana was based upon a Russian writer’s work later gained the film political support in the Soviet Union, and Herz was able to regain some favour.
Herz has said that the curtailing influence of the censors resulted in him approaching Morgiana almost as an exercise in filmmaking rather than a project in which he could take pride, using the film to explore technical challenges, such as the scenes where actress Iva Janzurová plays opposite herself as both Viktorie and Klára. It’s true that retaining the original plot of Grin’s story would have been dramatically far more satisfying, and would have given a beautifully dark twist to the animosity at the heart of the story, but, for all that, it’s still immensely enjoyable.
Morgiana’s overblown, Gothic melodrama with its hints of Ken Russell-style decadence and trippily distorted visual sequences is tremendous fun to watch. Egged on by Luboš Fišer’s bombastic score, you can’t help but root for Janzurová’s magnificently witchy villainess. KR
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