Three Sisters [Blu-ray]

Director: Laurence Olivier, John Sichel Laurence Olivier

Overview

Based on the Anton Chekhov play by the same name, this is the story of three daughters whose father, a military officer, dies--leaving them alone to fight for their own survival.

Product Details

Release Date:	06/13/2017
UPC:	0738329215408
Original Release:	1970
Rating:	G
Source:	Kino Classics
Region Code:	A
Language:	English
Time:	3:12:00

Special Features

Interview with Alan Bates; Interview with Edie Landau; Gallery of Trailers for the American Film Theatre

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Laurence Olivier	Ivan Chebutikin
Alan Bates	Col. Vershinin
Derek Jacobi	Andrei Prosorov
Jeanne Watts	Olga
Joan Plowright	Masha
Louise Purnell	Irina
Sheila Reid	Natasha
Kenneth Mackintosh	Kulighin
Daphne Heard	Anfissa
Harry Lomax	Ferrapont
Judy Wilson	Serving Maid
Mary Griffiths	Housemaid
Ronald Pickup	Tusenbach
Frank Wylie	Maj. Vassili Vassilich Solloni
Richard Kay	Lt. Fedotik
David Belcher	Lt. Bode
George Selway	Orderly
David Munro	Officer
Alan Adams	Officer
Robert Walker Jr.	Officer
Louise Pumell	Irina Prosorov
Leonid Gallis	Kulygin
William Walton	Composer
Gary Hughes	Composer

Technical Credits

Moura Budberg

John Goldstone	Producer
Laurence Olivier	Director,Producer
John Sichel	Director
Timothy Burrill	Producer
James Katz	Producer
Moura Budberg	Screenwriter
Ely Landau	Producer
Alan Clore	Executive Producer

Editorial Reviews

It's valuable to have a screen record of Anton Chekhov's celebrated drama of dreams delayed and crushed, especially with a first-rate British cast under the direction of Laurence Olivier. After a rather stiffly played first act, the drama seems to catch fire -- no pun intended -- during the nighttime scene in which most of the male characters return from helping to put out a conflagration in the village. The third act, in the garden with the soldiers about to depart amid the impending duel between Vassili and the baron, concludes the film on a strong note. As a director, Olivier may have had only modest resources at his disposal to "open up" the action (there is one montage of scenes dreamt by Irina that take place outside the house and offer a transition from Act II to Act III), but compared to his Shakespeare trilogy (Henry V, Hamlet, and Richard III), this feels less like a drama re-imagined for the screen and too much like a photographed play. The performances are finely tuned, but none catch fire, but for one: Joan Plowright's smoldering Masha. Her exchanges with Alan Bates' Vershinin are eloquent expressions of repressed desire, and her weary sighs at the failings of almost everyone around her offer the only shades of wit in the proceedings. And she does have one scene with her real-life husband as the volatile doctor in the third act, which also sets off sparks.