Oliver Assayas’ topical drama The Wizard of the Kremlin, revolving around a scheming Russian spin doctor who smooths Vladimir Putin’s ascent to power in the 1990s, world premieres in Venice this evening.
Paul Dano plays the titular role of Vadim Baranov, a former avant-garde artist and reality TV show producer, who becomes the unofficial advisor to ex-KGB agent Putin as rises up the political chain.Dano is joined by Jude Law as Putin; Alicia Vikander as Baranov’s beautiful wife Ksenia, who oscillates between a desire for bohemian freedom and wealth and influence, and Will Keen as real-life late oligarch Boris Berezovsky, a former ally of the Russian leader who became an exiled critic. Jeffrey Wright and Tom Sturridge also feature in the cast.
The team attended the film’s press conference this lunchtime to discuss the film.
Jude Law was asked whether he felt any fear of repercussions from the Russian leader about playing him: “I hope not naively, but I know I didn’t, I didn’t fear repercussions. I felt confident in the hands of Olivia and the script, and that this was a story that was going to be told intelligently and with nuance and consideration. We weren’t looking for controversy for controversy’s sake. And more importantly, I think it was key to for me to remember that it’s a character within a much broader story. We weren’t trying to define anything about anyone.”
He added that one of the challenges was portraying a man he didn’t know a lot about because Putin doesn’t tend to give much away about his personality: “The tricky side to me was that the public face we see gives very, very little away. There has been a term for him and that: ‘the man without a face’. There’s a mask. So I was conflicted as an actor because understandable Olivier would want me to portray this or that in a scene with a certain emotion and I felt the conflict of trying to show very little.”
Russia’s war against Ukraine hang over the conference. The panel was asked whether Russia rules the world today. Olivier Assayas said: “The answer is no, but I understand the question. The film is very much about how modern politics, 21st Century politics, was invented, and part of that evil raised from the rise to power of Vladimir Putin in Russia. So we made a movie about what politics has become and the very scary and dangerous situation we all feel we are in, and we took a case which was the specific story of Vladimir Putin, but I think it applies to a lot of authoritarian leaders. I think it’s more generally about the transformation of politics during our lifetimes.”
He continued: “I think politics have changed in a major way, especially for people from my generation. What’s going on right now is not only terrifying, but it’s even more terrifying by the fact that we haven’t really found the answer. I haven’t seen the reaction to that emerging.”
Paul Dano was asked whether he recognized any good in his character: “I don’t think you have to look for a positive, but I do think you have to be willing to discover the point of view of the character. And I think if you were to just label a character like Baranov as bad, it would be a massive over oversimplification, which does more harm than than good. Looking into the gray can be scary but better than letting us go further into black and white.”
As an American, Geoffrey Wright said the film made him think about America’s own place in history and the dangers of contemporary authoritarianism: “The thing that I that I really appreciate about the framing, is that there’s a specific Russian history. There’s a specific American history that is in contrast to that. We have had impulses toward fascism, impulses toward autocracy and all manner of sins. But what we also have had, from the very beginning, even within the timeframe of the original sins of America, even within that grotesqueness, we had an idea that we could be better, this idea that we could aspire towards some type of utopian perfectibility. If that is lost, as it is now, then we become the thing we see in this film.”
The feature has been adapted by Assayas and award-winning writer Emmanuel Carrère from Giuliano da Empoli’s eponymous 2022 novel inspired by the career of Putin’s real long-term adviser and spin doctor Vladislav Surkov.
Pic is produced by Oliver Delbosc (Curiosa Films) and Sidonie Dumas (Gaumont) in coproduction with France 2 Cinéma with the participation of France Télévisions and Disney+. Gaumont is handling French distribution and international sales.
The post Jude Law Says He Didn’t Feel Anxiety Portraying Vladimir Putin In ‘The Wizard Of The Kremlin’: “I Hope Not Naively, I Didn’t Fear Repercussions” — Venice appeared first on Deadline.
