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TCHAIKOVSKY'S WIFE

The life and sexuality of the great classical music composer

On 18 July 1877 Pëtr Il'ic Tchaikovsky marries Antonina Ivanovna Miljukova, one of his former pupils whose memory he had forgotten, remembered thanks to a passionate letter in which the young woman declared all her love from her to the composer. Theirs is a cover marriage: in fact Tchaikovsky accepts the union only to try to silence the rumors of his alleged homosexuality, thus deciding to change his life and at the same time denying himself, until he reaches the final decision to separate from Antonina, never officially divorcing. A choice that the young girl will never be able to accept, due to her stubborn obsession with the man she thought she loved, and which will gradually lead her to her deepest madness. Antonina in fact will die, alone, in an asylum. We are in Russia in the second half of the 19th century, a period where women still have a subordinate role within society; the whole film is seen and read from Antonina's gaze of her, clouded by mad love for a husband who does not love her, indeed, who despises her, to the point of reaching complete estrangement.

CREDITS

INTO THE GROOVE

Opening night – The screening is preceded by the live concert a/v Sequenze Parallele

Director: Kirill Serebrennikov

Photography: Vladislav Opelyants Editing: Yuriy Karikh Screenplay: Kirill Serebrennikov Sound: Daniil Orlov Production: Ilya Stewart, Carole Baraton Genre: Biography Year: 2022 Country: Russia, France and Switzerland Duration: 143' Language: Russian (o.v. sub. It)

ITALIAN PREMIERE

Kirill Serebrennikov is a theater, television and film director; since 2012 he has been the director of the Gogol Center in Moscow, where, since 2008, he has opened an experimental course for actors and directors. In 2016 Word of God was presented in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival, and received the Francois Chalais award. In 2018 he shoots Summer, a biography on Russian rock legends Viktor Tsoi and Mike Naumenko; the film officially entered the main competition of the Cannes Film Festival. With Tchaikovsky's Wife, Serebrennikov became the only Russian director to participate in the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.