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"MARLEEN GORRIS, OPUS 6", **** 2000. Based on Vladimir Nabokov's The Luzhin Defense (Penguin Modern Classics) and directed by the Dutch born director Marleen Gorris. Italy, in the late 1920's. Aleksandr Luzhin, a chess genius, must take part in the world tournament. He meets there the Russian Natalia Katkov and falls in love with her. Will she able to fight the inner demons of the grand master ? If there is only one reason to see THE LUZHIN DEFENCE, it's without a doubt John Turturro's performance. Perfect. Then, even if you don't know the rules of the chess game, you'll like this movie anyway because Marleen Gorris was more interested in creating a psychological tension than outlining the secrets of a new brilliant combination. Highly recommended.

"Beautifully filmed -- but leaves questions", This beautifully filmed movie is an adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's novel by the same name. The sets/locations are gorgeous, and the acting quite adequate.

The story concerns the mental disintegration of a chess master, Luzhin. He is portrayed as a kind and sincere person, though perhaps too naïve. As the story progresses Luzhin becomes involved in a critical chess match. The stresses prove too much, leading to his mental breakdown and destruction.

Those who have not read Nabokov's novel will probably find the film both entertaining and enlightening, as well as a glimpse into the world of professional chess.

But those who have read Nabokov's novel might be disappointed. For the movie simplifies too much. Nabokov had a talent for providing a comic touch to essentially very dark subjects. The movie takes a different approach: it lightens the topic by concentrating all evil into a single character, an unscrupulous trainer/agent. This produces two-dimensional cardboard characters.

Nabokov's book explores the deeper question whether total immersion into abstract mental activities might be deleterious to the human psyche. A neglected child, Luzhin immersed himself in the rational and secure world of chess. Was the withrawal from the world of social interaction the root cause of Luzhin's problems -- or was there a deeper reason yet?

The writer G. K. Chesterton conjectured that:
"Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom. I am not, as will be seen, in any sense attacking logic: I only say that this danger does lie in logic, not in imagination. Artistic paternity is as wholesome as physical paternity."

After viewing the film I recommend reading the novel -- and forming your own conclusions.


"Insanity and chess", John T. plays the chess genius with sincerity and compassion. The poor man could not function in real life. But then most true genius is on another plain of existence. He needed a constant companion. His background probably explains a lot about the adult. I wish the movie had gone into more detail about his troubled childhood. Well done, but a little too long. Enjoy!

"Unique", I thought this was an odd movie. Luzhin in a champion chess player. He's at a tournament and he meets Natalia. They are smitten with each other and he proposes marriage. To say they are in love doesn't seem right. Her mother becomes upset at the idea of them together and says in so many words. Natalia always wants to take care of animals and people since she was a little girl.

He's very strange and no explanation is given. I'm thinking he has Asperger Syndrome. Flashbacks to his childhood shows him as a boy that doesn't talk much. He doesn't fit in at school and is told by the headmaster he needs to go someplace more suitable.

Let's just say this doesn't end well. I bet the novel by Vladimir Nabokov is better than this movie. If this sounds interesting, I suggest to read the book instead.

"Beautiful movie adaptation of a heart-rending story", Having read Vladimir Nabokov's novel "The Defence", on which this film is based, many years ago, I was fascinated to see how the director would rise to a very challenging task. I was not disappointed: although the story is interpreted in a noticeably different way, it becomes a moving and remarkably unsentimental study of a strange, uniquely talented man and the young woman who suddenly and inexplicably falls in love with him.

There are certain technical constraints. In the novel, Nabokov spends a lot of time depicting Luzhin's internal states of mind. The chess-related flights of fantasy have mostly been eliminated, but John Turturro - who gives a magnificent performance throughout - successfully conveys Luzhin's bumbling, inconsequential attempts to comply with the social requirements of the situations he encounters. Very occasionally, one of the actors reminds one of a historic chess player - at times Turturro, unshaven and distracted, has overtones of Tal, and Fabio Sartor's suave Turati combines Capablanca's elegance with flashes of Kasparov's self-assurance.

The chess specifics are, sadly, not very accurate. Even in the 1930s, the world championship was never decided by a single game played between the winners of two sections of a tournament! Real grandmasters do not usually slam their clocks hard enough to break them, nor are they often surprised by snap checkmates in the endgame (although it has happened). But these compromises can be excused as artistic license, with the aim of making the story more exciting for non-players.

Everything else is beautifully done - the period sets, clothes and manners, the interplay of sporting dedication with business ambition and even romance, burgeoning suddenly in the most unexpected place and time. I would have been amazed to be told that a rendering of "The Defence" would feature sex scenes, but they are perfectly woven into the logic of the story. There is a certain vagueness, too, that mirrors real life - at least as seen by Nabokov. Natalia's mother, who seems dead set against her beloved daughter having anything to do with "that" (as she calls Luzhin after their first meeting), rallies round in time for the wedding. And as for Valentinov, Luzhin's former manager who unceremoniously dumped him when he went through a bad patch, what does he really want now?

Like so many of Nabokov's tales, "The Luzhin Defence" hovers ambiguously on the border between everyday reality and fantasy. If you accept it on its own terms, though, it is an absorbing experience.

Read this reviews before You buy...

"Chess fans will love this!", I am an obsessive chess player myself, and I can watch this movie over and over, and find something new everytime. I really enjoy some of the moments in the movie such as when Luzhin is describing one of his games to his father in law, and he says "I played a *quiet* move". I love to say this phrase when describing a game that I played to one of my fellow chess playing .... It is so funny to me how the father in law barely understands how the pieces move, and Luzhin is describing some incredibly complex position, that probably only a fellow grandmaster could understand. I enjoy how Luzhin is not terribly likeable as a babbling, chain smoking, neurotic, one trick pony, but you can still understand why this woman loves him. I think that the final chess position on the board at the end is very clever, and most chess fans would appreciate the beauty of it. I also enjoyed the giant chess board that was near the hotel, and how the players were slamming their clocks, similiar to in Searching for Bobby Fischer. There are so many little things that a chess player will love in this movie! You can watch it again and again! If you didn't like it the first time, watch it again! You might need some time for the genius to soak in!

"One Of The Best Movies In Chess Ever Made", Very good plot, magnificent scenic views, superb acting of both John Turturro & Emily Watson, very worthwhile to watch, great movie overall!

"Opening Move for Pushkin�s Duel", I have not read the book upon which this movie is based, so I had no expectations that needed to be met or dashed. Knowledge of chess is not required to enjoy this film, when explanations enhance a scene they are provided. John Turturro and Emily Watson are wonderful and the setting at Lake Como is gorgeous. The title, "The Luzhin Defence", is applicable not only to an endgame strategy devised, but also represents what the character of Luzhin employs every day of his life to survive.

Chess is a fabulously complex game that no player has ever claimed to have mastered. Brilliant champions like Kasparov explain their endless fascination with the game is precisely because it is a challenge that can never be met with finality. If you pick up any basic chess book, the possible directions that are available to the two players, especially at the game's start are measured exponentially. Great players must be able to predict a variety of futures as the result of any given move they or their opponent may choose. This is demonstrated with a bit of sleight of hand of the director during one match in the film to great effect.

Luzhin is a man who is shaped both by his genius and the dysfunctional family he is the product of. Chess simultaneously defines his life, offers him shelter from those around him, and leads him to an addiction to the game that starts as eccentric and progresses to destructive. This is not a story of yet another person of extraordinary talent who also is socially dysfunctional because of his genius. His childhood and his early life are what he must form a defence against. Chess becomes a scapegoat for all the problems he sees around him as a youth. He does not have talent; rather he sees the harm he appears to inflict by constantly defeating his father at the game. His mentor and coach become no more than the means by which he is exploited.

His relationship with Emily Watson's character is appropriate as she too is considered wildly unconventional by the standards of her parents, although primarily by her mother. She is also the target of constant criticism, her life a sequence of interferences by her mother, an overbearing anti-Semitic nuisance of a person.

The close of the film initially left me disappointed. However after letting a day pass it actually becomes poignant if you are willing to stretch a bit for it. Director Marleen Gorris does s very good job of portraying the story on the screen. How much justice she does the book, as I mentioned I can not say.

"Turturro and Watson "Shine"", Obsession comes in many flavors, and exists for a variety of reasons; for some it may be nothing more than a compulsive disorder, but for others it may be an avenue of survival. Lack of nurturing, combined with an inability to negotiate even the simplest necessities of daily life or the basic social requirements, may compel even a genius to enthusiastically embrace that which provides a personal comfort zone. And in extreme cases, the object of that satisfaction may become a manifested obsession, driving that individual on until what began as a means of survival becomes the very impetus of his undoing, and as we discover in "The Luzhin Defence," directed by Marleen Gorris, a high level of intelligence will not insure a satisfactory resolution to the problem, and in fact, may actually exacerbate the situation. Obsession, it seems, has no prejudice or preference; moreover, it gives no quarter.

At an Italian resort in the 1920's, Alexander Luzhin (John Turturro) is one of many who have gathered there for a chess tournament, the winner of which will be the World Champion. Luzhin is a Master of the game, but he is vulnerable in that chess has long since ceased to be a game to him; rather, it is his obsession, that one thing discovered in childhood that saw him though his total ineptness in seemingly all areas of life, and enabled him to cope with the subtle disenfranchisements of his immediate family. So Luzhin is a genius with an Achilles heel, a flaw which perhaps only one other person knows about and understands, and furthermore realizes can be exploited for his own personal gain at this very tournament. That man is Valentinov (Stuart Wilson), Luzhin's former mentor, who after an absence of some years has suddenly reappeared and made himself known to Luzhin.

Valentinov is an unwelcomed, disconcerting presence to Luzhin, and once again life threatens to overwhelm him. Not only is he about to face a formidable opponent in the tournament, Turati (Fabio Sartor), against whom in a previous match he emerged with a draw after fourteen hours, but he is also attempting to resolve a new element in his life-- his feelings for a young woman he's just met at the resort, Natalia (Emily Watson). And, genius though he may be, dark clouds are gathering above him that just may push Luzhin even deeper into the obsession that has been the saving grace, as well the curse, of his entire life.

To tell Luzhin's story, Gorris effectively uses flashbacks to gradually reveal the elements of his childhood that very quickly led to his obsession with chess. And as his background is established, it affords the insights that allow the audience to more fully understand who Luzhin is and how he got to this point in his life. For the scenes of his childhood, Gorris textures them with an appropriately dark atmosphere and a subtle sense of foreboding that carries on into, and underlies, the present, more pastoral setting of the resort. The transitions through which she weaves the past together with the present are nicely handled, and with the pace Gorris sets it makes for a riveting, yet unrushed presentation that works extremely well. She also underplays the menace produced by the presence of Valentinov, concentrating on the drama rather than the suspense, which ultimately serves to heighten the overall impact of the film, making Luzhin's tragedy all the more believable and unsettling.

The single element that makes this film so memorable, however, is the affecting performance of John Turturro. For this film to work, Luzhin must be absolutely believable; one false or feigned moment would be disastrous, as it would take the viewer out of the story immediately. It doesn't happen, however, and the film does work, because the Luzhin Turturro creates is impeccably honest and true-to-life. He captures Luzhin's genius, as well as his inadequacies, and presents his character in terms that are exceptionally telling and very real. It's a performance equal to, if not surpassing, Geoffrey Rush's portrayal of David Helfgott in "Shine." And when you compare his work here with other characters he's created, from Sid Lidz in "Unstrung Heroes" to Pete in "O Brother Where Art Thou?" to Al Fountain in "Box of Moonlight," you realize what an incredible range Turturro has as an actor, and what a remarkable artist he truly is.

As Natalia, Emily Watson is excellent, as well, turning in a fairly reserved performance through which she develops and presents her character quite nicely. Though she has to be somewhat outgoing to relate to Luzhin, Watson manages to do it in an introspective way that is entirely effective. Most importantly, because of the detail she brings to her performance, it makes her accelerated relationship with Luzhin believable and lends total credibility to the story. You have but to look into Watson's eyes to know that the feelings she's conveying are real. It's a terrific bit of work from a talented and gifted actor.

The supporting cast includes Geraldine James (Vera), Christopher Thompson (Stassard), Peter Blythe (Ilya), Orla Brady (Anna), Mark Tandy (Luzhin's Father), Kelly Hunter (Luzhin's Mother), Alexander Hunting (Young Luzhin) and Luigi Petrucci (Santucci). Well crafted and delivered, "The Luzhin Defence" is an emotionally involving film, presented with a restrained compassion that evokes a sense of sorrow and perhaps a reflection upon man's inhumanity to man. We don't need a movie, of course, to tell us that there is cruelty in the world; but we are well served by the medium of the cinema when it reminds us of something we should never forget, inasmuch as we all have the ability to effect positive change, and to make a difference in the lives of those around us.

"The Luzhin Defence", I was wonderfully surprised by this brilliant cinematic masterpiece. Though I shouldn't have been, given the integrity and expertise of the actors and director. The shot work, cinematography, screenplay and editing are all masterful, poetic. The performances given by Turturro and Watson are seamless and profound. Marleen Gorris has the vision of a truly great director, exemplified also by her other movies, all of which show her knowledge of the things that can happen between and within people. The movie as a whole has so many layers of depth, and is so true to the tone of Nabakov's novel that it stands as an accomplishment even apart from the book. For anyone who plays chess, loves Russian novels or would like to see a romance that REALLY explores love at its most moving and true, this is a movie you HAVE to see.