A film adaptation based on a classic literary work is a challenge that many of today’s leading directors have accepted. Beyond the need to capture the essential details of narrative thread and atmosphere, the most difficult challenge is to adopt a style specific to one’s own artistic vision. In other words, what is the formula through which the writer’s and the director’s vision can make a functional pact to condense into a homogeneous perception of the literary core? From this point of view, the work of directors Noah Cohen & Alex Squires dedicated to the screen adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s novella – The Death of Ivan Ilyich – is certainly a success. And this success is even more impressive because the famous literary work excels in… its lack of a consistent narrative thread. Practically, Ivan Ilyich has entered the canon of universal literary characters as one of the forerunners of the “anti-hero” typology, whose life and death fall into the pattern of the most “banal” perspective on human destiny, overwhelmed, in fact, by existential absurdity. Thus, an important stake of the short film is precisely this attempt to capture the routine of an existence whose “platitude” is indistinguishable from the life of any other individual, for whom death is nothing but a metaphysical farce, devoid of the heroic meaning invented by classical literature. As simple as such a task may seem on the surface, it is just as complicated to put it into practice in a cinematic narrative free of distracting redundancies or the constant temptation to break out of the prescribed pattern to deliver an unexpected finale.
Fortunately, Noah Cohen & Alex Squires fully prove the artistic maturity that such an initiative implies, condensing with impressive sensitivity and precision the fin-de-siècle atmosphere of this both tragic and absurd reconsideration of human destiny. Thus, beyond the obvious quality of the baroque solemnity of the image, the work of the actors and the precision of the scenography make a great contribution, homogenizing a tender and visceral artistic experience that reflects a social microcosm supported by a critical and cynical perspective. ‘The Death of Ivan Ilyich‘ is a professionally made short film that won us over and deserves its place in the category of successful book-to-screen adaptations.
For the quality and professionalism with which the filmmakers deliver a memorable experience based on one of the great universal literary masterpieces, ‘The Death of Ivan Ilyich’ was awarded with the 2nd Film of the Month distinction in the July 2024 edition of TMFF.
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