"Nicholas and Alexandra" was clearly a bid to be another David Lean-style historical epic (it was produced by Sam Spiegel, who had brought several of Lean's films to the screen). But the problem is that it didn't have David Lean directing it, and without his particular knack for setting complex character studies against sweeping backdrops, the thing feels like a lumbering, boring pageant.
It also doesn't help that it came out in a year that gave us films like "A Clockwork Orange," "The Last Picture Show," "Klute," McCabe & Mrs. Miller," "Harold and Maude," and any number of other films that had their fingers on the pulse of a troubled and restless America. "Nicholas and Alexandra" already felt like a film that should have been made ten years earlier before it even opened.
Michael Jayston and Janet Suzman are wooden blank slates as the doomed Russian monarchy who had the misfortune of being the ones in power when the Bolshevik revolution succeeded. They don't successfully bring an ounce of emotion to this story, so we therefore aren't ever made to feel much for them as characters. Instead, we must satisfy ourselves with admiring the luxurious scenery and costumes, of which there are much but which can only take one so far. By the time this film ground into its third hour, I literally thought it would never end.
One would expect a film like "Nicholas and Alexandra" to win Oscars for things like Art Direction and Costume Design (which it did) and be nominated in categories like Best Cinematography and Best Original Dramatic Score (which it was). But someone must draw the line at nominating it for Best Picture and Best Actress. That someone I guess has to be me since it was not the Academy.
Grade: C-
It also doesn't help that it came out in a year that gave us films like "A Clockwork Orange," "The Last Picture Show," "Klute," McCabe & Mrs. Miller," "Harold and Maude," and any number of other films that had their fingers on the pulse of a troubled and restless America. "Nicholas and Alexandra" already felt like a film that should have been made ten years earlier before it even opened.
Michael Jayston and Janet Suzman are wooden blank slates as the doomed Russian monarchy who had the misfortune of being the ones in power when the Bolshevik revolution succeeded. They don't successfully bring an ounce of emotion to this story, so we therefore aren't ever made to feel much for them as characters. Instead, we must satisfy ourselves with admiring the luxurious scenery and costumes, of which there are much but which can only take one so far. By the time this film ground into its third hour, I literally thought it would never end.
One would expect a film like "Nicholas and Alexandra" to win Oscars for things like Art Direction and Costume Design (which it did) and be nominated in categories like Best Cinematography and Best Original Dramatic Score (which it was). But someone must draw the line at nominating it for Best Picture and Best Actress. That someone I guess has to be me since it was not the Academy.
Grade: C-