MOVIE REVIEW : Skolimowski’s ‘Torrents’ an Homage to Romanticism

“Torrents of Spring,” Jerzy Skolimowski’s exquisite adaptation of Turgenev’s 1872 novel (at the Cineplex Odeon, Century City), is as drenchingly romantic as its title.

Indeed, if you’re not a sucker for 19th-Century romanticism at its most full-blown and unbridled, forget it, because you may well find it laughable. The point is that Skolimowski, the acclaimed director of “The Shout” and “Moonlighting” and many other films, has not only been true to his source but has also brought to it affection, an acute perception and his usual stunningly expressive style.

The film opens and closes with the same image, which is indicative of the film’s visual splendor throughout: a coach-and-four silhouetted on the water as it is being ferried into Venice. It belongs to a somber, solitary middle-aged Russian nobleman, Dimitri Sanin (Timothy Hutton), whose visit to the city of canals triggers memories of his grand tour of Europe in 1840. (As a Polish emigre who has worked in English for over 20 years, Skolimowski has always been attracted to alienated characters.)

Chance prevents the handsome young Sanin from departing from Mainz, Germany, for Berlin and on to St. Petersburg. He quickly proposes marriage to a demure, dark-haired beauty, Gemma (Valeria Golino, Tom Cruise’s girlfriend in “Rain Man”), whose mother is the proprietress of a patisserie whose elegance belies its poor business.

Just as you’re thinking how the dashing Sanin and the gorgeous Gemma are the perfect match--he even gets into a duel over what he considers a slight to her--it becomes necessary for Sanin to travel to Wiesbaden to try to sell his ancestral estate to a fellow Russian, Maria Polozova (Nastassja Kinski), who has made a marriage of convenience to Sanin’s childhood friend, the now-portly and complacent Prince Polozov (William Forsythe).

Through the impact which Sanin and Maria have on each other, we discover neither is what he and she had seemed. Sanin is actually a weakling, and Skolimowski and co-writer Arcangelo Bonaccorso have given Turgenev’s confident, ruthless seductress a desolating self-knowledge. Their Maria knows that she can inspire grand passion but has never been able to experience it herself.

“Torrents of Spring” is a real stretch for Hutton, who deftly suggests rather than affects a Russian accent, and clearly trusts Skolimowski completely. The same is true for Kinski, who must portray a bold, calculating yet vulnerable woman. In key moments, Skolimowski--not Turgenev--works up as much extravagant emotion as a Rudolph Valentino or Theda Bara silent. It’s entirely appropriate to the characters, their times and station in life, but which for some viewers will inevitably seem over the top. Yet Skolimowski’s compassion for both Sanin and Maria is steadfast and detached.

Skolimowski tells us more about Maria than Turgenev did. Born illegitimate, she was not recognized by her noble father until she became the sole heir to his immense fortune at the age of 13. She is, in fact, a shrewd peasant, an amoral nouveau riche who dresses as tastelessly as Stella Dallas. (One does wish that Kinski hadn’t been burdened with such a mass of unflattering golden curls).

The film’s rich, muted hues, its lush period-perfect costumes and settings (much of the film was shot on location in Czechoslovakia) and its tempestuous score all contribute to its ability to transport us a vanished world of privilege, luxury and formality. “Torrents of Spring” (Times-rated Mature for adult situations) ends on one of those notes of compounded irony so cherished by Skolimowski.

‘TORRENTS OF SPRING’

A Miramax release of an Italo-French co-production in association with Curzon Films Distributors Ltd. Executive producer Mario Cotone. Producer Angelo Rizzoli. Director Jerzy Skolimowski. Screenplay Skolimowski, Arcangelo Bonaccorso; based on the novel by Ivan Turgenev. Camera Dante Spinotti, Witold Sobocinski. Music Stanley Myers. Production designer Francesco Bronzi. Costumes Sibylle Ulsamer. 2nd-unit director Andrzej Kostenko. Film editor Cesare D’Amico. With Timothy Hutton, Nastassja Kinski, Valeria Golino, William Forsythe, Urbano Barberini, Francesca De Sapio, Jacques Herlin.

Running time: 1 hour, 38 minutes.

Times-rated: Mature.