"The Duelist" turned out unexpectedly engaging to me. Dark, bloody, yet beautiful. The dark side of honor and the dark side of beauty. Not historically accurate, yet very, very immersive. Most technical details are plain false. But that aura of Russian Grand Society feels so much true, so natural!The best definition I could find for this movie is "Noir, transferred into the XIX-th century, Saint-Petersburg, Russia". There's much in common, really. Blood, death, wounds, tortures, nudity... plenty of this. As well as desperation, infamy, cruelty, scheming, femme fatale. Everything you can find in a typical noir. Only the place would be the capital of Russian Empire. Vast palaces, dirty streets, crowded soirees, the shade of the Royal Family, officers, nobles... and the duels!A rare gem of late Russian cinema, really. Truly underrated.

I don't have nothing to add. It is absolutely amazing movie.

Set in 19th century Imperial Russia, this quite violent Russian film stars Pyotr Fyodorov, who gives a powerful performance as the mysterious Yakovlev. He's only been in the city of St. Petersburg for several months but has already killed 5 men as a duelist (comparable in a way to a Wild West gunslinger). Only slowly do we learn of his motivations, and it's only towards the very end of the movie that all is revealed.To note, I thought some of the plot elements could be rather obtuse and difficult to follow at times. The settings and cinematography are exquisite and I really got the sense that I was right there in 19th century Russia.All in all, if you don't mind the violence or some of the cloudy plot elements, this movie can be a reasonably decent watch, especially if you like dark and intense foreign dramas.

Saw it at TIFF 2016. The sets and costumes are great and the story is engrossing, but be warned that this film is *extremely* violent in places. "Onegin" this is not!Also, when they are speaking German, there is a Soviet-style voice-over instead of subtitles, so you can't actually hear what the actors are saying.Overall, it was a very interesting experience!I recommend seeing it if you are at all interested in Russian culture, but sadly this film is likely to be too lowbrow to meet the approval of the art-house crowd.