Gogol motives on the Carpathian land Romania is one of the most characteristic European states in terms of commitment to its culture, mainly literary, religious and mythological content. Magic itself hardly played a big role here, because in many ways it was generated by people who reliably imprinted it into art. Among them was Mircea Eliade, who enriched national culture and science with special studies in philosophy and religion. Fans of fiction, he is known for a rather peculiar style of prose, rethinking Gogol’s motifs of classical Russian mysticism of the sample of Zagoskin, Odoevsky, Somov in the local manner. In Eliade’s case, the thesis that it is better to read than to retell is quite justified. Perhaps for this reason, the Romanian author is still far from Stephen King in terms of the number of adaptations and popularity in popular culture. The first serious step to correct the situation was made by the legendary Coppola, who filmed a few years ago the work “Youth without youth”. In the homeland of Eliad, films based on his books appeared at the end of the XX century. Among them is “The Virgin Christina”, which left in the fate of the author no less bright bright bright trace than “Lolita” by Nabokov.
More than two decades have passed since its first film adaptation, before the little-known director Alex Matthew set out to refresh the sullen cinematic experience of his predecessor. I must say that the classic film of Viorel Sergovich, despite a fairly decent study of the source material and the presence of some atmosphericity, turned out to be quite restrained in content and disclosure of images. Probably, this could manifest the immaturity of the director, who at that time was just over twenty. More experienced at the time of the creation of the picture, Matthew introduced a new construction of the plot architecture, including a small prologue that is key for the entire film. At the same time, book Romania of the 30s became somewhat modernized, the pale academicity of nonverbal symbolism dissolved in postmodern labyrinths and increased, the general dynamics in the development of action expanded.
The heroes of the film fight against evil, whose shadow fell on the entire family of the Mosk mansion. The source of these troubles was the real events that once happened to their relative named Christina, who became a household name after her death when she was very young. According to legend, the life of this girl was filled with strange and terrible events, but even after years, the fateful mechanism of fate continued its hellish work, spreading near-death fluids around and finding resonance in the souls of descendants. In each of the characters there is a gap, a space for dark forces, turning him into a tool for controlling the mind and will. But there are those who resist the influence of others. The male tandem - the artist Pashkevich and Professor Nazarie, desperately confronts the female trio in the person of Mrs. Mosk, her youngest daughter Simina and, of course, the devilishly close Christina. Far from immediately and not quite clearly there is a feeling that on the surface of the plot there is a much more serious struggle between two principles. And this may well be one of the philosophical experiments of Eliade, who adopted a literary expression.
Against a metaphysical background, the film directed by Matthew looks rather like a successfully implemented in practice attempt to create a strong film based on available data, somewhat out of the general ranks of such fashionable vampire romantic stories. Selection of actors for the main roles corresponds to the source of eighty percent, the rest is compensated by the presence of good visual effects coupled with a high level of performing skills. And what, one asks, are the current performers of the roles of Sanda and Egor worse than the widely advertised Lautner and Stewart? Matthew’s film does not promise the audience miraculous reincarnations of earthly in otherworldly and youthful voluptuousness, but it is already good because it is a factor in a certain rebirth of European horror traditions, which may be followed by the formation of a new model of quality horror films of the Old World.