(2015, 88 min)
Country: U.S.
Director: Ralf Pleger
Studio: EuroArts Music International
Language: English
SYNOPSIS: Part documentary, part experimental narrative, The Tchaikovsky Files: Confessions of a Composer brings the Russian musical maverick to the present - radically. Based on Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's diaries and letters, director Ralf Pleger discovers an entirely new side and sketches an entirely different profile of the man whose mind and talent brought us Swan Lake. The film focuses on what it meant for Tchaikovsky, a homosexual man, to have to live his life in a homophob environment - considerations that are all the more relevant and topical in light of recent developments in Putin‘s Russia.
REVIEW:
The film radically transfers Peter Tchaikovsky into the present time and draws an emotional psychological portrait. Tchaikovsky's fate, being at the mercy of a homophobic environment as a gay man, comes up for current discussion. Additionally, renowned international artists and experts reveal their very personal approach to Tchaikovsky and his music. With consequent cinematic artifice Tchaikovsky's adventures are translated into the here and now. The composer’s struggle with his homosexuality, the serious consequences of his crisis, the fusion of life and work and the mysterious circumstances of his death are retold within modern scenarios. Not only Tchaikovsky’s fate, but also his artistic legacy is confronted with the present. The contemporary relevance of his case is taken into account as well as the – often underestimated – avant-garde quality of his music.
-- Notes by the director, Ralf Pleger
