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The Last Station Full Production Notes
Countess Sofya, wife and muse to her husband Leo Tolstoy, suspects that his faithful disciple tricked him into signing a will leaving all his work and property to a Russian company.
After almost fifty years of marriage, the Countess Sofya, Leo Tolstoy's devoted wife, passionate lover, muse, and collaborator, suddenly finds her world turned upside down. In the name of his newly created religion, the great Russian novelist has renounced his noble title, his property and even his family in favor of poverty, vegetarianism and even celibacy.
Sofya is consumed by righteous outrage when she discovers that Tolstoy's trusted disciple, Vladimir Chertkov, whom she despises, may have secretly convinced her husband to sign a new will. The document would give the rights to his works to the Russian people rather than his own family. Using every bit of cunning, every trick of seduction in her considerable arsenal, she fights fiercely for what she believes is rightfully hers.
The more extreme her behavior becomes, however, the more easily Chertkov is able to persuade Tolstoy of the damage she will do to his glorious legacy. The conflict becomes so intense, that Tolstoy, at 82 years old, the world's biggest media celebrity, runs away from home in the middle of the night, and his wife rents a train and follows him across Russia.
Into this minefield wanders Tolstoy's worshipful new assistant, naive Valentin Bulgakov. He becomes a pawn, first of the scheming Chertkov and then of the wounded, vengeful Sofya as each plots to undermine the others' gains. Complicating Valentin's life even further is the overwhelming passion he feels for Masha, a free-thinking adherent of Tolstoy's ideals whose unconventional attitudes toward sex and love both compel and confuse him. Infatuated with Tolstoy's notions of ideal love, but mystified by the Tolstoys' rich and turbulent marriage, Valentin is ill-equipped to deal with the complications of love in the real world.
About The Production
The Last Station is a tragi-comedy about love and marriage set during the final year in the life of the great Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy. Written and directed by Michael Hoffman (A Midsummer Night's Dream, One Fine Day, Soapdish, Restoration), it is a true story that explores the universal themes of love, family, jealousy, betrayal, idealism, and self discovery.
Produced by Chris Curling (Zephyr Films), Jens Meurer (Egoli Tossell Film) and Bonnie Arnold, in partnership with Andrei Konchalovsky, the movie focuses on two contrasting love stories - the extraordinary relationship between Tolstoy and his wife of 48 years, the immensely passionate Sofya, and the burgeoning love between Tolstoy's idealistic young private secretary, Valentin, and the free-thinking Masha, a teacher equally committed to the writer's values.
Shot on location in the picturesque German regions of Sachsen-Anhalt, Saxony, Thuringia Brandenburg, the movie boasts a top-class ensemble of stars. The cast is led by Christopher Plummer (The Insider) as Tolstoy, Academy Award winner Helen Mirren (The Queen) as Sofya, James McAvoy (Atonement) as Tolstoy's private secretary Valentin, Academy Award nominee Paul Giamatti (Sideways) as the committed Tolstoyan Chertkov, Anne-Marie Duff (The Magdalene Sisters) as the writer's loyal daughter Sasha, and Kerry Condon (Rome) as Valentin's beloved Masha.
Michael Hoffman begins by declaring that, “The Last Station gives us a very unusual opportunity to go beyond the standard biopic, in order to create a vivid, moving picture about the difficulty of living with love and the impossibility of living without it. It's not a film about Tolstoy. It's a film about the challenges of love.”
Explains producer Chris Curling. “It's about the love of old people seen through the eyes of a young person embarking on his first love. Those are things that everyone goes through. And that's why I think The Last Station will have universal resonance. We've all been there.
The Adaptation
It's rare for authors to be pleased with adaptations of their novels, but author Jay Parini was pleased with Michael's screenplay. “Mike has captured the inherent drama of the story. Drama is all about conflict, and the last year of Tolstoy's life was one conflict after another. You can't beat the conflict between Sofya and Chertkov. They are like night and day, and their battle mirrors Tolstoy's own psychological split. What is great is that Mike's script deeply understands that The Last Station is all about psychological strife and the endless fight of the spiritual versus the material.”
Actress Helen Mirren was magnetized by the grand passion conjured by the screenplay. “Michael has written a superb script and he's making a marvelous film. You don't often get to read wonderful scripts and this really is a wonderful script.
Producer Chris Curling says, “The most important thing Mike did was place Valentin at the centre of the movie. That liberated him as a writer to create a compelling human drama rather than a straight biopic. The film has to hook the 99 per cent of the audience who haven't read Anna Karenina or War and Peace and won't know who on earth Tolstoy is. But they will still be gripped by the emotions Mike conjures up in The Last Station.”
Michael adds that in writing The Last Station, he felt it was crucial to mingle the tones and interweave comedy and tragedy. “Before writing the screenplay, I went back and re-read all of Chekhov's major plays. Chekhov is one of my favourite writers, and I'm very grateful to him because he helped me understand the tone. I wanted to write a tragic-comedy about marriage; I wanted to create a story where tragedy and comedy live really close to each other.”
Tolstoy's novels. It poses the essential question: whose truth is most valid? Is it Sofya's or Chertkov's?
Love and Marriage
“It's a great story about relationships and a wonderful juxtaposition of old love and new love.” Michael continues, “The core of the movie is this battle between idealism and reality. All of us start life with an idea of what love should be, which contrasts sharply with the reality of love in the real world. Tolstoy was seen as a living saint. He is revered as the ultimate authority on love, but he can't sort things out in his own living room and bedroom. This is a fascinating problem.”
“The Last Station is the story of two love affairs,” says producer Chris Curling. “Tolstoy and Sofya are an old couple who have obviously had the most incredible life together. They have been working partners and had thirteen children together. And yet they've got to a stage where their politics are so different that despite the magnetic attraction between them, they can't live with each other.
Sofya had given her life to Tolstoy's work,” explains Helen Mirren. “She copied War and Peace out six times - think of the work! She was very much involved in all his work, so the novels belonged to her, too. Nowadays in a similar situation where a couple get divorced and the wife has been supportive throughout the marriage, by law the husband has to give her half of what he owns because she's helped him achieve that. It's exactly the same with Sofya and Tolstoy. She is simply fighting for what she is owed.”
“Valentin enters their story infatuated with the ideal of fleshless, spiritual love. He gradually realizes that all we can hope for is the messiness of love in the real world,” reveals Michael. “It's intensely moving to watch the Tolstoys' love through the eyes of Valentin, who is himself falling in love for the first time and realizing there is more to life than idealism and politics,” remarks Chris. “He comes to see that the only way you can make love work is by entering into it wholeheartedly. He is witnessing the perils of relationships played out by Tolstoy and Sofya, and through him we can feel their pain.”
“He sees that there is great turmoil in his mentor's life and huge discord with his wife, and yet all Tolstoy's work is about the supremacy of love,” explains James McAvoy. “Valentin finds it very hard to reconcile the two. The inconsistencies make it difficult for Valentin to follow this idealized image he had built up in his head.”
The other main strand in Valentin's story is his tortuous love affair with Masha. “In many ways, the film is about the impossibility of love,” says James. “He's initially drawn to Masha for the same reason he's drawn to Tolstoy: the ability to cut through all the nonsense in life. Valentin and Masha share this great passion for Tolstoy's ideals and for each other. But all sorts of obstacles are put in the way of their love.
The film is strong on the theme of sexual politics. “It's one of the things that make The Last Station seem very modern,” says producer Bonnie Arnold, “In public, Tolstoy was revered. He was the first real media celebrity, and yet one on one, Tolstoy and Soyfa were absolute equals. She said, `you're not only a writer - you're a husband and father, too.' That was very bold of her.”
“The film is all about love - young love and old love,” explains Helen. “It shows the practicalities and the disasters that love can involve. I have a few favourite lines as Sofya. At one point, for example, Tolstoy says to her, `why do you have to make it so difficult?', and she replies, `why should it be easy? I'm the work of your life and you're the work of mine - that's what love is.' That's a great line.”
Casting the Film
”I had an extraordinary company of actors to work with,” enthuses Michael. “Christopher Plummer brings a great warmth, intelligence, and sophistication to the role of Tolstoy. He has a tremendous sense of poetry and a tireless curiousity. A lot of actors of his age feel as though they've done it all, but Christopher is still so hungry to create.”
Casting the role of Tolstoy seemed like a scary prospect, admitted producer Jens Meuer. “But Christopher is just so right for the role - he combines tremendous gravitas with a wonderful lightness. He doesn't declare, `this is a great thespian playing a great writer'. He simply makes it very real. It is never an imitation or a parody.”
He has great presence on screen, which is ideal because Tolstoy dominated the room,” says Chris. “But the most incredible thing is that when you're watching The Last Station, you forget it's Christopher Plummer. As an actor, he never draws attention to himself - he simply embodies the character. He's a real film actor - he does it all with the most subtle looks. It's all in his face. He just draws you in.”
”Helen Mirren is magnetic in this role - she takes no prisoners as Sofya,” says Michael. “She has such subtlety as an actress and audiences are immediately drawn to her integrity. She's moving and funny, but she's also very brave. She never shirks from anything. That inspires everyone else. If she isn't backing off, then no one else can afford to, either. That's a great quality. She's never ingratiating, never self-pitying, and always maintains her dignity as Sofya.”
“James McAvoy offers many remarkable qualities as Valentin,” Michael observes. “He has great purity, and audiences willingly give themselves over to him as an everyman. In The Last King of Scotland, they were quite happy to be led by him, and it's the same here. Audiences completely trust him. Not many actors have that characteristic. James also listens so well - he's always absolutely present and in the moment.”
“I'd worked with James before on Penelope, and I knew he'd be ideal for this role,” adds Chris Curling. “He's a consummate professional - he's so focused and disciplined. We see the action through Valentin's eyes - he provides the emotional centre of the film.”
Michael continues, “Paul Giamatti is so charismatic. He can play a kind of villain, and yet you still love him. He is also able to find comedy in the midst of the most serious situations.”
“Paul is such an effortless actor,” says Chris Curling. “Chertkov is committed, idealistic and at the same time, a devious narcissist. You can see all those qualities in Paul's performance.”
On the Director
Chris Curling is just as keen to underscore Michael's gifts as a director. “He used to act himself, and his greatest skill lies in working with actors. He prioritizes that above all else and gets great performances out of his cast. That's why we go to the cinema - to see great performances like these.”
“Mike is the most European American director I've ever come across,” Jens believes. “He brings great understanding, passion and respect for what we have here in Europe. He has brought together an international cast and crew to create a film that crosses all borders.” “It's impossible to show genius in a movie - you'd need a six-part mini-series for that,” says Christopher Plummer. “So what Mike does so cleverly is concentrate on just one aspect of the writer. He shows us the emotional canvas of Tolstoy's life by focusing on his marriage. That reveals so much to us about Tolstoy the man.”
“Mike and I first talked about this movie several years ago, even before I went to Uganda to shoot The Last King of Scotland,” recalled James McAvoy. “I remained attached to The Last Stationfor all these years because it was a great opportunity to act in such a well-written script.” The actor and director immediately found a common bond through football. “Mike is a huge Manchester United fan. One night, they were playing Celtic and we instantly bonded over that!” Anne-Marie says she was drawn to the project by Michael's screenplay. “The screenplay is very appealing to actors because it's like a play. It reads like Chekhov or Gorky. It has an ensemble of people who are all so well rounded and believable. All the characters flutter like moths around the flame of Tolstoy and his wife. It's wonderful to portray that.”
Filming in Germany
The producers were delighted by the experience of shooting in Germany. The German countryside also possessed exactly the right Middle European sense of authenticity.
Helen Mirren on Sofya Tolstoy
Helen immediately felt an affinity with her character. “It's in my blood,” she smiles. “My great great grandmother was a Russian countess. That side of my family was Russian aristocracy and the other was English working-class. So I'm a good contradiction!” The present-day Tolstoy family are very grateful to Sofya because she fought very hard to keep the estate in the family - and to this day it is still there.
The actress was drawn to Sofya because, “the moment I read it, I thought, `this is one of the great women's roles in film. So often women's roles could be described as `long-suffering', but Sofya is the opposite of long-suffering! She doesn't suffer anyone for any length of time. She is a wonderfully tempestuous and passionate person. She's also very funny. It's a fabulous role. Whatever scene she's in, Sofya simply dominates. That's very nice to play. She just comes in, hijacks a situation and takes it over with passion and charm.”
That passion manifests itself in the epic tug of war with Chertkov over Tolstoy's bequest. Helen explains that, “Tolstoy and Sofya are coming to the end of their life and their 48-yearold marriage. They're caught in a battle for what will happen to his inheritance - his copyright, his estate and his money. The present-day Tolstoy family are very grateful to Sofya because she fought very hard to keep the estate in the family - and to this day it is still there.
Christopher Plummer on Leo Tolstoy
Christopher was delighted to be able to tackle a part of such complexity. “I jumped at the chance. I have a history of playing real-life figures such as Rudyard Kipling and the Duke of Wellington, and I always love the challenge. I enjoy the research, and if they put enough makeup on, it does the work for you!”
What Christopher relished above all was bringing out Tolstoy's contradictory nature. “He's such a hypocrite,” laughs the actor. “He says he'll free the peasants, while living the life of an aristocrat! He says he will help the tsar liberate the serfs, and yet still sits down at the dinner table attended by servants!
He's very much a contemporary character,” the actor muses. “For instance, he treated marriage in a very modern way. He didn't employ the tradition of the aristocratic boys' club who keep women down. Tolstoy revered women and was always guided by passion.
“Sofya is a very modern character, too. She helped Tolstoy no end with his work. She proofread and copied out his novels. She did a massive amount for him. So at the end of the film, I think he's callous towards her when he says he wants to leave her nothing and give it all to the people. It appears that she will get a raw deal. You want to say to him, `wait a minute, she worked so hard to help you!'”
James McAvoy on Valentin Bulgakov
James was instantly taken by the character of Valentin. “He's a watcher, an innocent, a virgin, and an idealistic academic, in love with the idea of Tolstoy.”
“It's about the danger of deifying leaders. Of course, that had immense resonance when the Russian Revolution happened seven years after the writer's death. Tolstoy wouldn't have stood for the Revolution, but you could say that his work paved the way for it. Valentin and Chertkov demonstrate the two very different ways Tolstoy's work influenced people.”
“Tolstoy greatly appreciates frankness,” continues James. “He is fascinated by the eternal search for the truth. When he transcribed the Bible, he simplified the Gospels hoping to get to the heart of the matter more quickly. He sees that love of the truth reflected in Valentin. That's what brings them together. But he falls out of love with the writer's ideas because he begins to realize that Tolstoy's life contradicts his teachings.”
Paul Giamatti on Vladimir Chertkov
Paul begins by underlining that even before accepting the role, he was a huge fan of Jay Parini's source novel, and was excited by the idea of playing Chertkov. “He's something of a fanatic, and was wildly committed to the Tolstoyan cause,” observes the actor. “He's one of those incredibly dedicated guys who doesn't have a lot of imagination. He's a devoted disciple who becomes more doctrinaire than his leader. He'll do whatever he has to in order to save humanity.”
For all that, Paul adds, “there is a school of thought that Chertkov was very much a force for good. He certainly did some amazing things - for instance, he started a publishing company that made religious literature available to people for the first time in Russian. He also had a very interesting background, which might explain what became of him. He was reportedly the illegitimate son of the Tsar and came from a very wealthy, aristocratic background.
“Chertkov's conversion came because he thought it was wrong for people to have things too easy. He was gripped by self-loathing, a feeling that he was unworthy to be living a privileged life. When he met Tolstoy, he had a real Road to Damascus moment - he had a complete epiphany. He immediately identified with Tolstoy and thought, `this is the way I must lead my life'.”
But there was also a very manipulative side of him. “The way Chertkov treats Valentin is sick and twisted!” exclaims Paul. “He uses Valentin because he thinks he's innocent, malleable, won't question anything and will be a good tool. But he's completely wrong. The problem is, Chertkov is a complete narcissist who only sees the world through his own prism.”
Anne-Marie Duff on Sasha Tolstoy
Anne-Marie has always been a fan of Tolstoy's novels. “I'd read them all before, and they're simply brilliant. If you pick up another novelist afterwards, you feel you've been robbed. He's a god-like figure in Russia, and that is one of the really interesting aspects this film explores. It's clear to me why Sasha was so devoted to her father.”
The character of Sasha fascinated Anne-Marie. “She is completely besotted by her father and spends her whole life devoted to him. She loves his philosophy and is absorbed by his work. Later in life, she created a Tolstoyan community in upstate New York. She is so close to him - there is no one else in her life. He is her utter hero. But the downside is, she has no relationship at all with her mother.”
Kerry Condon on Masha
“Masha is feisty, strong, and independent,” asserts the actress. “She's not a typical love interest at all - and that really appealed to me.”
“She's very sure of herself, confident, and not easily led. She comes from a very wealthy family, but has rejected all that to follow Tolstoy. People from well-to-do backgrounds tend to have that innate confidence. She's bohemian and drawn to Tolstoy's idealism. She does not think things should be imposed on people by the Church. Rather, Masha believes that Tolstoy's philosophy is a fair and kind way of doing things.”
The actress can see why there is such a strong attraction between Valentin and Masha. “Like her, he is in it for all the right reasons. He hasn't been corrupted by it. He's also very shy, and she likes that because for all her confidence, Masha is also very shy. Shy recognizes that part of herself in him.”
 Production notes provided by Sony Pictures Classics. |
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