TV Adaptations of Russian Classics

In writing about the upcoming TV version of Crime and Punishment the Moscow News asks whether all these adaptations of literary classics are a good thing or not.

Over the last four years, the TV adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot, Mikhail Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita, Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago and Nikolai Gogol’s Dead Souls have arrived, among others. The last two were written by Yuri Arabov, an established screenwriter and a long-time collaborator of director Alexan­der Sokurov, which suggests a pretty high quality interpretation.

I’m not 100% sure I get the “problem” with this, but it seems that some people think these adaptations are overly simplistic and vulgar. (If only U.S. TV was facing similar “issues.” Really, we bitch and moan about having too many reality TV shows, whereas in Russia they complain that the TV version of The Master and Margarita didn’t capture the full complexity and beauty of the book? If only.)

One argument that producers brought forward when defending TV adaptation of classics a few years ago, when the trend had just started, was that teenagers who would have never read a book would at least watch a TV series based on it and get acquainted with literature classics in this way. And that argument seems to be valid. The rationale of those who argue that contemporary TV adaptations of classical novels are vulgar and simplistic may be right to a certain degree. But they are definitely missing one important point: literary classics have become part of pop culture and should be viewed in that way, not like something sacred.