It would be hard for a film version to do justice to the book "Azazel": in my opinion the best of the Fandorin series, although "Death of Achilles" ranks a close second. The period costumes are enjoyable, as are the characterizations of Brilling, Bezhetskaya, Liza and especially Lady Adair. The actor portraying Fandorin, unfortunately, falls a little short of the mark--however, a larger than life character is hard to cast correctly.For once, the film follows the book (thank you, Mr. Akunin, for the script). Those who complain about the length of the film need to realize that this was originally a TV serial, each segment running 48 minutes as most serials do on Russian TV.Not the best it could have been, but definitely a warm-up for IMO, the best Russian serial of all time: "The Idiot"----a must see for anyone. Fortunately, the Idiot has subtitles in English, but the language is so beautiful (the 19th century idiom is delightful), one must listen carefully to appreciate.It will be interesting to see what Hollyweird does with "Azazel" in 2009. Milla Jovovich as Bezhetskaya: inspired casting choice!

Investigating a trivial suicide, young detective runs into a worldwide conspiracy... The plot unfolds steadily during the whole movie, and you would never guess who pulls the strings. The cast is top notch. Non an Oscar class, but still a very entertaining and well directed movie. I would just like to invite visitors to see pictures from the movie and watch a detailed trailer at RussArt.com. Pictures: http://russart.com/?moviepictures&mid=38 Trailer: http://russart.com/?movietrailer&mid=38 Those who read Russian can find more materials useful: press articles, reviews, etc.

Based on Boris Akunin's novel 'Azazel' (English title 'The Winter Queen') set in Moscow in 1876. Boris Akunin is the pen name of Grigory Chkhartishvili, who was born in the republic of Georgia in 1956; he is a philologist, critic, essayist, and translator from Japanese. I recently read and enjoyed "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion" by Yukio Mishima translated by Chkhartishvili.Chkhartishvili published his first detective stories (using the pen name Boris Akunin) in 1998 and in a very short time has become one of the most widely read authors in Russia. He has written nine Erast Fandorin novels to date, and is working on two other series as well. I am an avid fan of all three Akunin's series: about Erast Fandorin; about the Nun - PI Pelagiya (three books), and the newest one - about Nicolas Fandorin, the grandson of Erast.Akunin enjoys almost legendary popularity in Russia. He lives in Moscow. In 'Azazel', the first and IMO, the best in Erast Fandorin series, a young police officer - Erast Fandorin - works on his first case - an odd suicide of a rich young man which leads Fandorin to the global and very dangerous conspiracy.The film is an interesting and very enjoyable adaptation of an excellent book. The script was written by Akunin himself and adapts very well to the screen. The film was made in Nikita Mikhalkov's Studio by Mikhalkov's long time collaborator's Aleksandr Adabashyan. Visually, "Azazel" is absolute delight, literally letting the images of Old Moscow become one of the film's main characters and attractions. The acting was good (Marina Neelova as Lady Ester was excellent; and the rest of cast all seemed to enjoy working in this project).

the book might be good, but the movie is quite disappointing.the acting is really bad. especially the main character is really annoying. since the movie was too long, there was almost no suspense for a detective story. sometimes it looks like a comedy, but unfortunately a bad one. the story is quite predictable. all in all, it is a waste of time. if you want to see a well done russian detective story, watch the old episodes of "adventures of sherlock homes".