Luzhin crime and punishment
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As Pushkin's doomed duelist said "Let's start, if you are willing." These lines are declared by an over swaggering Aleksandr Ivanovich Luzhin, who marches into the grand hall late (because all the best players make their opponent wait) proclaiming "there's a big victory coming! A big, big victory!", before tossing his cane away and blowing cigarette smoke into his rival's face as some sort of an intimidation tactic. At first, much like Jules' memorized bible passage from Pulp Fiction, quoting Pushkin before a chess match seems like some "cold blooded s*** to say to a m**** f**** before you pop a cap in their a**, and it is totally that (I plan on adding it to my oratory repertoire before starting... well, anything really), but perhaps also Luzhin "hasn't given much thought to what it meant."
Chess & Cinema is a new blog where I review and analyze films about chess. The 2000 drama, The Luzhin Defence, is the first edition of what will be an ongoing series and is a complete spoiler filled review.
SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!
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Do-Gooder
Occupation
Member of the Russian Mafia
Undercover FSB Agent
Associate of Semyon
Powers / Skills
Strategy
Vast gunmanship
Hand-to-hand combat skills
Hobby
Being undercover
Having sex with lesbian prostitutes
Spending time with his employer Kirill Semyonovich
Hanging out with his mob associates, particularly with fellow gangsters Kirill Semyonovich and Seymon
Conversating with his mob boss and his father Semyon
Goals
Send the gangsters off to jail. (both succeeded)
Friends / Allies
Anna "Anya
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The Luzhin Defence
2000 British film
The Luzhin Defence is a 2000 romantic drama film directed by Marleen Gorris, starring John Turturro and Emily Watson. The film centres on a mentally tormented chess grandmaster and the young woman he meets while competing at a world-class tournament in Italy. The screenplay was based on the novel The Defense (or The Luzhin Defence) by Vladimir Nabokov.
Emily Watson received best actress nominations [1] at the British Independent Film Awards and the London Film Critics Circle Awards.
Plot
It is the early 1920s and Aleksandr Ivanovich 'Sascha' Luzhin (Turturro), a gifted but tormented chess player, arrives in a Northern Italian city to compete in an international chess competition. Prior to the tournament he meets Natalia Katkov (Watson) and he falls in love with her almost immediately. She in turn finds his manner to be appealing and they begin to see each other in spite of her mother's disapproval.
Competing alongside Luzhin in the championship is Dottore Salvatore Turati (Fabio Sartor), who is approached by
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