Original subtitles

Digital restoration of image and sound performed by MOSFILM Cinema Concern

MOSFILM

F.M.DOSTOYEVSKY

THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV

Written and directed by Ivan PYRYEV

This is Ivan Alexandrovich PRYRYEV’s last work

He died suddenly and could not finish the movie.

It was completed by M.ULIANOV and K.LAVROV

Cast:

Mikhail ULIANOV

Lionella PYRYEVA

Kirill LAVROV

Andrei MYAGKOV

Svetlana KORKOSHKO Valentin NIKULIN

Director of photography Sergei VRONSKY

Production designer Stalen VOLKOV

Composer Isaak SHWARTZ

ARTISTIC ASSOCIATION “LUCH”

EPISODE THREE

- What, was I asleep? - Yes.

Yes, the bell.

I fell asleep and had a dream

that I was driving over the snow.

It seemed I was driving with you.

And the bell keeps ringing, ringing.

Here, come out here, please.

Please.

What is it, gentlemen?

We must have…

In short, it is of the utmost necessity

that we have a word with you.

The old man!

the old man and his blood...!

- I understand! - You understand?

- Damned murderer! - But this is impossible

it is not like that, Mikhail Makarich! Not like that!

But this is delirium! Delirium!

I ask you to allow me to speak alone!

Retired Lieutenant Karamazov, sir,

you are charged with the murder of your father,

Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, which took place this night...

It’s me, the cursed one, I am guilty!

It’s because of me that he killed him...!

- I am the guilty one! - You? You are guilty?

You are violent, you are depraved!

This is entirely out of order!

Mikhail Makarovich, you are ruining the whole thing!

Judge us together! Punish us together!

I’ll go with him now even to execution!

Grushenka! Grusha!

My life, my holy one! I am not guilty of this blood!

I wanted to kill him, wanted, but did not kill!

I am not guilty of my father’s blood!

So you assert that you are not guilty of the death

of your father?

Not guilty.

I’m guilty of other blood,

old Grigory’s blood.

And I weep for it!

You needn’t worry about the old servant, Grigory, he is alive.

He is alive despite the severe beating.

Alive?

Alive?

So he’s alive!

Lord, I thank you for this greatest miracle

which you have done for me, a sinner and evildoer, according to my prayer!

And it is from this same Grigory…

One moment, gentlemen, just one moment!

- I’ll run to her! - Sorry!

Right now it’s quite impossible!

What a pity, gentlemen! What a pity! I wanted to see her!

I wanted to announce to her that this blood has been washed away,

has disappeared, and I am no longer a murderer!

She is my fiancée, gentlemen! Queen of my soul!

Did you hear her cry: ‘I’ll go with you — even to execution’?

And what have I given her,

me, a naked beggar, a clumsy and shameful creature!

She just laid herself at your feet for me.

How can I not adore her?

How can I not long for her?

Oh, gentlemen, forgive me!

But now, now I’m comforted!

You’ve restored, resurrected me.

How can I thank you?

- So you - Just one more minute, excuse me…

One minute.

One minute, please.

It’s all terribly shocking.

Terribly…

A man is not a drumskin, gentlemen!

Have some more water…

You, Nikolai Parfenovich, are, I can see, a most skillful investigator.

But now I will help you myself.

And do not take it amiss, gentlemen,

that I address you so casually and directly.

I quite understand that a horrible suspicion hangs over me. Horrible!

I think, gentlemen, that we can make short work of it!

Because if I know that I am not guilty,

then of course we can make short work of it!

- Can’t we? Can’t we? - So, for the present we shall write down

that you radically deny the accusation brought against you?

It’s a wild idea!

Gentlemen, it’s an utterly wild idea...!

Of violence — guilty; of drinking — guilty.

But of the murder of my old father — not guilty!

I’ll prove it to you and you’ll be convinced.

You’ll laugh at your own suspicion...!

you’ll roar with laughter at your own suspicion.

You seem to have disliked the late Fyodor Pavlovich,

and were in some sort of permanent dispute with him?

Here a quarter of an hour ago you were pleased to say

that you even wanted to kill him. ‘I did not kill him’.

Yes, unfortunately I wanted to kill him, gentlemen.

I wanted to.

I understand that in that case there is horrible evidence against me:

I told everyone I would kill him, and suddenly he is killed.

Who else could kill him but me in that case? Right?

If not me, then who, who?

Tell me, gentlemen,

where and how was he killed?

With what and how was he killed?

I want to know, I even demand it of you!

We found him lying on his back, on the floor of his study

with his head smashed in.

How horrible, gentlemen!

Horrible…

Oh, Lord,

Our Lady!

What a sin!

What a sin!

Stop it, Maximovich.

You’ve nagged the life out of me! You keep whining…

I am afraid of the authorities, Agrafena Alexandrovna.

Terribly afraid! Very much!

Well? You snatched the pestle

- and what happened next? - I killed him!

Smashed him on the head and split his skull. That’s your version, is it!

- Ours, and what is yours? - My version is this.

This is what happened, gentlemen. Whether it was someone’s tears,

or God heard my mother’s prayers,

or a bright spirit kissed me, I don’t know.

But the devil was overcome!

I dashed away from the window and ran to the fence...

Father caught sight of me then for the first time,

cried out, and jumped back from the window. I remember that very well.

And I ran through the garden to the fence...

It was here that Grigory caught up with me,

caught hold of my leg. So I

hit him.

But I see right now you’re laughing at me, gentlemen!

Why would you draw such a conclusion?

You don’t believe a word of it, that’s why!

You are scoffers, gentlemen!

Do you recognize this object?

Father’s inscribed envelope

that had contained

the three thousand prepared for Grushenka. May I?

Yes. See? Three thousand.

- Do you see it? - We do.

But it was empty and lying on the floor.

So you knew where the package was?

I never knew: I’ve never seen it before.

I’m seeing it now for the first time.

I just heard about it from Smerdyakov.

He’s the only one who knew where the old man kept the envelope.

- I didn’t know... - Very well.

But where did you get so much money at once?

- The money was mine. - How can that be yours?

- But by your own admission - The money was mine!

- Where did you get it? - From around my neck.

From this very neck of mine.

It was sewn up in a rag and hanging on my neck.

But who did you... appropriate it from?

Were you about to say ‘steal’?

Yes, I consider it the same as if I’d stolen it.

But not from my father, gentlemen, not from my father, but from…

You’re even unworthy to know of that.

Excuse me!

From my former fiancée Katerina Ivanovna Verkhovtsev.

- Do you know her? - Of course, sir, good heavens.

A month ago, she handed me three thousand to

send to Moscow and I…

It was precisely at that moment of my life

when I had just fallen in love with the other one.

I carried her off here, to Mokroye.

And squandered half of that cursed three thousand.

- And where is the other half? - The other half

I sewed into an amulet hanging on my neck.

It’s almost miraculous.

- It’s almost miraculous! - Yes.

Very interesting.

Write it down.

How exactly did you intend

to use this separate fifteen hundred?

Eh…

It was the old man, the dead man,

he kept troubling Agrafena Alexandrovna, and I was jealous.

So I kept thinking each day:

what if she suddenly says to me,

‘I love you, take me away to the end of the earth.’

And all I have is some small change! It’s all over for me. Right?

And so I slyly counted out half of the three thousand and sewed it up.

And then, when I had sewn it up, I went and got drunk on the other half.

It took a scoundrel to do that, sir!

In my opinion it is even sensible that you did not squander it all.

Oh, God, you horrify me with your lack of understanding!

I kept saying to myself every day that I am a thief.

A thief!

And only yesterday did I decide to tear the amulet off my neck,

at that moment I became a final and dishonest man.

A thief for the rest of my life!

Why did you decide to do it precisely last evening?

Because I had condemned myself to death,

at dawn.

It is just nerves.

Your overwrought nerves, that’s all, sir.

Why would you not, for instance, go

and return the fifteen hundred to that person

and then, having talked things over with her,

why not ask her for the sum needed?

Oh, what baseness a combination of human feelings

can sink to.

To go to her, to announce my betrayal to her,

and for that betrayal to ask money from her, from Katya?

It would stink so much!

Are you out of your mind, prosecutor?

This amulet, that you wore on your neck — was it big?

- No, not big. - What size was it, for instance?

Fold a hundred-rouble bill in half — that’s the size for you.

Where and when did you take it off your neck?

As I was going home, I tore it off my neck and took out the money.

- In the dark? - Should I have had a candle?

- Without scissors, in the street? - And why scissors?

It was a worn-out rag, it tore at once!

- What did you do with it then? - With what?

- The rag. - I dropped it right there.

- Where, exactly? - In the square!

Devil knows where in the square!

- And where did you get the rag? - I don’t remember.

Maybe I tore some piece of my linen.

What sort of rag was it, cotton or linen?

- Devil knows what it was. - Where did you get the needle?

- What? - The needle.

You see, gentlemen,

sometimes I dream a dream in my sleep...

I often dream it that someone is chasing me,

someone I’m terribly afraid of.

He is chasing me, looking for me, and I’m hiding from him,

hiding in a humiliating way, and moreover he knows perfectly well

where I’m hiding.

But he seems to pretend

not to know where I am on purpose,

in order to torment me longer,

in order to revel in my fear.

That’s what you are doing now!

It’s just the same.

This time it’s not a dream! Realism, gentlemen, the realism of actual life!

I’m the wolf, you’re the hunters —

so hunt the wolf down.

I must ask you to take out all your belongings and put them on the table.

And the money above all.

Well, the money… Whatever you say.

I am obliged to conduct a most thorough examination of your clothes.

It will be necessary to take off your clothes.

What? Undress? Pah, the devil! You can search me like this.

Utterly impossible. You must take your clothes off.

As you will.

only, please, not here —

- behind the curtains. - Behind the curtains, of course.

This way.

Wait, wait…

What’s this?

- Blood. - Yes, blood.

Fine!

Gentlemen!

Gentlemen.

I’m lost, I can see that.

But she! What you’re going to do with her now?

Mitya!

Can I say farewell?

Certainly. But in the presence.

Farewell, Agrafena Alexandrovna.

Believe God and me:

I am not guilty of the blood of my father.

I do believe you, darling, I do.

Remember, Mitenka,

I am yours and will be yours,

I will go with you forever,

wherever they doom you to go.

Forgive me

for my love.

Forgive me

that I’ve ruined you with my love!

Where shall I sit, chief?

In the wagon. Where else?

Follow him.

PROVINCIAL JAIL

Here he comes!

Brother,

tomorrow will be a horrible and great day for you.

What are you talking about?

- Is it about the trial? - Yes, the trial.

Have you talked with that lawyer?

I have…

He doesn’t believe a pennyworth of what I say, smooth Petersburg swindler.

I asked him, in that case, why have you come to defend me?

To hell with them.

Grusha,

Grusha is killing me.

Why should she take such suffering on herself?

- Did you see her? - I did.

She told me she was here today.

I revere her, Alexei, revere her!

Will they let us be married?

Do they let convicts marry?

- Do they? - I don’t know.

If not, I’ll die of jealousy. I’ll die…

Why does Rakitin come here?

What does he want?

He wants to write an article about my case

and thus launch his career in literature.

He thinks I am a scoundrel.

He is clever.

Rakitin knows a lot, talks sense.

But he does not love God.

He does not.

How is it possible without God, I ask.

Whom will the man love?

Whom will he fear? To whom will he sing hymns?

That means everything is permitted, one can do anything.

Didn’t you know?’ Rakitka said.

And he laughs.

Everything is permitted to the intelligent man, he said.

The intelligent man knows how to catch crayfish.

But you killed and fouled it up and now you’re rotting in prison!

He said that to me. The swine!

I used to slap the likes of him in the mug

and now I listen to him.

You fouled it up, like a fool, he said, for the sake of three thousand

but I’ll grab a hundred and fifty thousand, marry a certain widow,

and buy a stone house in Petersburg

and start a newspaper there.

- A swine, a pure swine! - Brother,

you surprise me.

Tomorrow is the day of the trial but you are chatting about God knows what!

So what with the trial?

I’m not afraid of it now, Alyoshka.

I was before.

Within these peeling walls I’ve thought a lot,

there’s so much strength in me now

that it seems I can overcome everything,

all sufferings, all torment.

Only in order to tell myself: I live,

I exist! I see the sun.

And if I don’t see it there, in the mines, underground, still I know it is.

And the whole of life is there —

in knowing that the sun is. Alyoshka. The whole life!

Rakitin wouldn’t understand this.

All he cares about is buying a house and letting tenants in.

- Brother Ivan? - What about him?

Ivan is a sphinx.

He’s silent, nourishing his idea.

Ivan does not have God.

He has his idea.

I think he’s a freemason.

I asked him, I hoped to drink from the waters of his source.

He’s silent!

Only once did he say something.

What did he say?

Our papa, was a little pig, he said,

but his thinking was right.

That’s what he came back with.

It’s even neater than Rakitin!

When did he come? What else did he say?

Ivan suggests that I escape. To America with Grusha.

I can’t live without Grusha.

I won’t stand the local rabble,

they’re not my people, not of my soul!

I love Russia, Alyoshka,

I love the Russian God, though I myself am a scoundrel!

- Who came up with America? - Ivan came up with it.

Don’t tell him I told you. It’s a secret.

He’s terribly insistent. He wants it to the point of hysterics.

Why did he ask you by no means to tell me?

He’s afraid. Afraid that you’ll stand before me as my conscience.

I won’t have the courage to go without your consent.

You are everything to me.

You are my supreme judgment.

Can it be, brother, can it be that you have no hope of acquittal?

Visitation time is up!

Alyosha, it’s time for you to go!

Embrace me.

And cross me for tomorrow’s cross.

And Ivan

suggests I escape,

but he believes I killed father!

Did you ask him about it?

What for…

I can see it in his eyes.

Well, good-bye!

Stop, Alexei. Wait!

Tell me the complete truth, as before the Lord God!

Do you, you yourself, believe that I killed father or not?

- No, don’t, what are you… - Don’t lie!

Never for a single moment have I believed that you are the murderer!

Thank you!

Thank you…

Now you’ve revived me.

Thank you.

Well, go, go!

God bless you! Well, go.

Ah, it’s only you.

- Are you coming to see her? - Yes.

- I don’t recommend it; she’s ‘agitated. - No, no! Are you coming from him?

Yes, I was just there, in prison.

Come in, Alyosha, and you, Ivan Fyodorovich, you must,

you must come back. Do you hear me?

She was eavesdropping!

Allow me to keep my coat on.

I won’t stay more than a minute.

Neither will I. I am in a hurry.

Well, what did he ask you to tell me, Alexei Fyodorovich?

Nothing today.

But yesterday…

Yesterday he asked to tell you

that you should spare yourself

and not give any evidence in court of what happened between you

that fateful evening as he put it.

Whom should I spare? Him, or myself?

- Both yourself and him. - So!

You do not know me yet, Alexei Fyodorovich.

Perhaps you will want to trample me underfoot

after tomorrow’s questioning.

You will testify honestly, by all means honestly!

Women are often dishonest.

Just an hour ago I was thinking

how afraid I am to touch that monster... like a viper.

But no!

He’s still a human being for me!

But is he a murderer?

Is he the murderer?

I’ve been to see Smerdyakov...

It was you, you who convinced me that Dmitry is a parricide.

- You! - Enough!

Enough! I’m going.

Where are you going, Ivan Fyodorovich?

Ivan Fyodorovich!

Go after him, Alyosha! He’s mad.

He has a fever, a nervous fever! Run!

Catch up with him! Catch up with him!

Ivan! Wait! Wait!

What do you want?

She told you to run after me because I’m crazy.

- I know it all by heart. - She’s mistaken, of course.

But you are ill, Ivan. You look very ill.

And do you know, Alexei, just how one loses one’s mind?

No, I don’t know.

And can one observe oneself losing one’s mind?

I think it must be impossible.

She’ll be thinking all night now how to act at the trial tomorrow.

- As a savior, or as a destroyer? - You... you mean Katerina Ivanovna?

She takes me for a nanny, she wants me to coo over her and direct her!

But she loves you, Ivan, she loves you.

Maybe. Only I don’t fancy her.

Why, then, do you sometimes say things to her that give her hope?

I cannot act as I ought to, can’t break it off with her.

If I break off with her now, she will destroy the scoundrel in court tomorrow!

Because she hates him! There are nothing but lies here, lie upon lie!

But in what way can she destroy our brother?

What testimony can she give?

She has hold of a document, in Mitenka’s own hand,

which proves mathematically that he killed Aesop.

- That can’t be. - I’ve read it myself.

There can be no such document!

Because it was not he who murdered father.

Then who is the murderer, in your opinion, Alexei Fyodorovich?

You know who.

Who? You mean Smerdyakov?

- You know who. - Who? Who?

Say it, damn it!

I know only one thing, Ivan, it was not you who killed father.

Not you! What do you mean by ‘not you’?

It was not you who killed father, Ivan, not you!

You are raving, brother.

- I know very well it was not me - No.

You’ve told yourself several times that you were the murderer.

When did I say so?

- When? - I don’t know.

But it seems to me

that for some reason you are accusing yourself.

Alexei Fyodorovich,

I cannot bear prophets and epileptics!

You know that only too well.

I ask you to leave me this instant, at this very crossroads.

And do not ever come to my place!

Do you hear? Never!

Brother…

- Who is it? - Open up, it’s me, Karamazov!

Just a moment.

Pavel Fyodorovich is very, very sick.

Is he in bed?

Not sick in bed, but as if he's not in his right mind.

- Even ordered to take the tea away. - What, is he violent or something?

Oh, no, it’s the opposite, he’s very quiet.

But you really are sick.

I won’t keep you long.

Is there anywhere to sit?

Why do you stare and say nothing?

I’ve come with just one question:

did Katerina Ivanovna come to see you?

What is it?

Nothing.

What nothing?

So she came, so what do you care?

When was it?

I even forgot to remember about her.

You seem to be sick yourself,

your face is all pinched!

Never mind my health, answer the question.

And your eyes have become yellow.

Are you suffering greatly or what?

Get up, stinking scoundrel, and answer me!

Did she come or did she not?

Why do you keep worrying?

Is it because the trial starts tomorrow?

But nothing will happen to you.

Go home, don’t fear anything.

I don’t understand you, what could I have to fear?

You don’t understand…

Why would an intelligent man want to put on such an act?

Go home.

It was not you that killed him.

I know it was not me.

You know?

Well, it was you who killed him in that case.

You’re still talking about that?

About our talk by the gates?

You are crazy.

Crazy.

You killed him, you are the main killer.

And I was just your minion, your faithful servant Licharda.

And I performed the deed according to your word.

Performed?

Was it you that killed him?

You mean you really didn’t know anything?

You know what:

I’m afraid you’re a dream,

a ghost!

There’s no ghost, besides the two of us

and some third one.

Who? What third one?

Where is he? Where?

Don’t look for it, you won’t find it.

That third one is God, Providence itself.

It’s a lie! It’s a lie that you killed him!

Just a moment

Here, sir.

What is it?

Take a look, if you please.

Your fingers are trembling.

It’s all there,

all three thousand. Have it, sir.

Can it possibly be that you didn’t know till now?

No, I didn’t.

I kept thinking it was Dmitri.

Ah! Brother!

Brother…

Listen:

did you kill him alone? Or with him?

Just only with you.

It’s so stuffy….

I keep trembling.

I can’t get a word out.

You used to be brave once:

you used to say ‘Everything is permitted’.

And now you’ve got so frightened.

Would you like some tea?

- I’ll tell them to bring it. - What?

I don’t want any tea.

Tell me: how did you do it? Tell everything.

You should at least take your coat off, or you’ll get all sweaty.

Ah, yes.

Speak, please, speak!

About how it was done, sir?

It was done in the most natural manner, sir.

According to those same words of yours.

We’ll get to my words later!

Just tell me in detail how you did it.

The details, above all, the details. Step by step.

You left,

and then I fell into the cellar.

In a falling fit, or were you shamming?

Of course I was shamming.

All right, all right, go on!

They put me on that cot, behind the partition.

I kept moaning, only softly

I kept expecting Dmitri Fyodorovich.

Expecting what, that he’d visit you?

Why would he visit me?

I expected him to come to the house, to the master.

And what if he didn’t come?

Then nothing would happen.

- I wouldn’t dare without him. - All right, all right, don’t hurry.

If he killed him, he’d take the money and go off with it!

What would you get out of it then?

But he never would have found the money.

I only instructed them that the money was under the mattress.

The package was in the corner behind the icons.

Wait...

I’m getting confused.

So it was Dmitri

who killed him after all?

And you just took the money?

No, the chief murderer is you alone, sir.

It’s you who are the most lawful murderer!

Why, why am I the murderer, damn you?

Did I want it? Did I tell you so?

You said nothing, that’s for sure.

You did not want yourself and could not.

You wanted someone else to kill him.

Why in hell should I have wanted it?

What do you mean, why? What about the inheritance?

After your parent’s murder,

you, each of you would get forty thousand.

And if Dmitry Fyodorovich is sentenced

you’ll get another twenty each.

Listen, you wretched, despicable man!

If I haven’t killed you so far,

it’s only because I’m keeping you to answer in court tomorrow.

God knows I really had a secret desire

that my father... ...die,

but I swear to you that I was not as guilty as you think.

I did not put you up to it at all!

No, no, I did not!

But, anyway,

I shall give evidence against myself tomorrow, in court.

I shall tell everything, everything!

But you, too, monster, must confess to the court!

You must!

We shall go together!

And if you won’t go, I alone shall confess anyway! Alone!

None of that will be, sir.

And you will not go.

It will be too shameful for you, sir.

Moreover, I will say right out that

I never told you any such thing,

that you invented all that against me

since you’ve considered me like a fly all your life.

But I am your brother.

I am Karamazov, just like you.

You?

You are my brother?

You are my brother?

What is with you?

Didn’t you know?

We have the same father, you and me.

And I have the same patronymic

as you.

You are scum! Nonentity!

You are a lackey! A stinking lackey!

You don’t believe me?

Ah, forget about it.

Take the money with you.

But why are you giving it back to me?

I’ve got no use at all for it,

no use at all…

There was such a former dream, sir,

that I could begin a life on such money in Moscow.

Or even more so

abroad.

I did have such a dream.

Because you taught me:

there is no God and everything is permitted.

So now you’ve come to believe in God,

since you’re giving back the money?

No, not yet.

I haven’t come to believe, sir.

Why are you giving it back then?

Enough... it’s no use.

You yourself kept saying then

that everything was permitted, allowed.

And now you even want to go and give evidence against yourself.

Only there will be nothing of the sort!

- You won’t go. - I will go, by all means.

It can’t be.

You’re too intelligent.

Do have the money.

I’ll show it to the court tomorrow!

No one there will believe you.

I repeat to you, despicable man,

that if I haven’t killed you, it’s only because

I need you for tomorrow.

Well, so kill me, sir. Kill me now!

You won’t dare do that,

you won’t dare do anything,

you former brave man, sir!

I hate you!

I hate everybody, I hate your little monk and Mitenka!

I hate all of Russia!

Wait...

What is it?

Show it to me one more time.

My dream.

Farewell, sir!

Until tomorrow!

And shouldn’t I go to the prosecutor right now at once

and tell him everything?

No, tomorrow, tomorrow... Everything will be tomorrow.

Why didn’t you go to the prosecutor?

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

Everything will be tomorrow.

You!

You’ve come again!

Where am I supposed to be?

There’s a snowstorm outside, it’s freezing.

No, no, I’m not afraid of you.

You are my dream, you are my illness!

My dirt! I will overcome you.

Damned sponger!

Sponger? C’est charmant.

What am I on earth if not a sponger?

I’m glad we can be so informal with each other.

Fool.

What, should I call you ‘sir’ or something?

You are the embodiment of myself,

of my thoughts and feelings, but only the most loathsome and stupid of them.

Only I don’t know how to destroy you.

I am now going to wet a towel with cold water

and put it to my head,

and maybe you’ll evaporate.

You are especially disappointed today.

- Shut up, fool! - I understand, the great decision.

You go to defend your brother in court tomorrow,

and you nobly sacrifice yourself.

- Shut up, lackey! - Ah, mais c’est bête enfin!

He considers me a dream and he throws things at a dream!

Just like a woman!

You’re angry with me

that I have not appeared to you in some sort of red glow

in thunder and lightning, with scorched wings,

but have presented myself in such a modest form.

How could such a banal devil

come to such a great man?

How stupid you are! You are very stupid and banal.

You’re abusing me again.

You’d better light a fire.

My rheumatism’s come back.

The devil with rheumatism?

Why not?

If I sometimes become incarnate

I accept the consequences.

Satan sum et nihil humanum a me alienum puto.

- Not too bad. - I’m glad I’ve finally pleased you.

Wait, where did I catch this rheumatism?

- Oh, it was there. - There?

There? Where?

There, at our place.

I was hurrying to a diplomatic reception given by

a former lady from St.Peterburg.

How foolish you are!

You want to convince me with your rheumatism

that you exist, but I will never

do you hear me? never believe it!

Not for a hundredth part do I believe in you!

But for a thousandth part you do believe?

Not for one moment, scoundrel! Not for a second!

That’s a pity.

There lived once on your Earth a thinker and philosopher.

Who denied everything: laws, conscience, faith

and above all eternal life.

He died.

And thought he’d go straight into darkness and death

but no — there was the future life before him!

He was amazed and indignant:

This goes against my convictions.

Wait! Caught you!

That anecdote, I made it up myself in high school.

Caught you! Caught you!

It is I who have caught you.

I deliberately told you your own anecdote,

so that you would finally lose faith in me.

Lies! The purpose of your appearance is

to convince me that you are!

Precisely. But hesitation, anxiety,

the struggle between belief and disbelief —

all that is such a torment for a conscientious man

like yourself that it’s better to hang oneself.

I’m leading you alternately between belief and disbelief.

I say, perhaps, you yourself do not believe in God?

How shall I put it? Seriously I…

Is there God or is there no God?

I don’t know, dear, honestly don’t know.

You don’t know, but you see God! You see, but you don’t believe!

No, no! You are not in yourself.

You are me, me! Me!

Me! Me!

We have the same philosophy, the same convictions.

Listen, the time has come to destroy the idea of God in mankind!

That’s where the business should start!

Once mankind has renounced God

man will be exalted with the spirit of titanic pride

and the man-god will appear.

And of course, in this new rank

man will jump lightheartedly

over any former moral obstacle!

There is no law for God!

Everything will be permitted, and that’s that!

Leave me!

You’re throbbing in my brain like a persistent nightmare!

It’s not me, it’s your brother knocking.

He has come with the most interesting news.

Open, open to him!

Brother!

Alyosha, I told you not to come! What do you want?

Smerdyakov hanged himself an hour ago.

The jury, the defense

and the prosecutor

are informed that the witness citizen Smerdyakov

can’t attend the trial due to his sudden demise.

There is the due police certificate.

Hearing of witnesses in the case

of the murder of the retired titular councilor

Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov is resumed.

Witness Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov is invited.

Tell us, witness, did your brother ever tell you,

that he intended to kill his father?

- He never said it directly. - And how, then?

Indirectly?

He once spoke to me that

in an extreme moment he could, perhaps, even kill him.

And did you believe it when you heard it?

I did not.

I was always convinced that at the fatal moment some higher feeling

would always save him, as it did indeed save him.

Because it was not he who killed my father.

What led you to a final conviction of your brother’s innocence?

I cannot fail to believe him.

I know he won’t lie to me.

- I saw by his face. - Only by his face?

That’s all the proof you have?

I have no other proof.

Thank you.

Thank you, Alyoshka.

Witness Katerina Ivanovna Verkhovtsev

is invited.

Can you tell us, Katerina Ivanovna

what was your relationship with the defendant?

I had been engaged to be married to him

before

he himself left me.

Did you give him any money

to be sent by mail?

I gave him three thousand roubles on condition

that he send it within a month.

I sensed that he very much needed money that minute.

There was no need for him to torment himself so much because of this debt.

If he had come to me then,

I would immediately have calmed his anxiety.

Besides

I myself once received

an even greater financial favor from him

and I accepted it.

Do you recall any threats

against his father on his part?

I do not recall any threats. At least in my presence.

Could esteemed Katerina Ivanovna tell us —

if it is proper —

what is that “fatal day” which the defendant

mentions in his testimony in connection with your name?

Of course it is proper.

It was a year ago.

A huge shortage of government money

was discovered in the battalion where my father was the commander

and where Dmitry Fyodorovich then served.

I was imperative to save the honor of my father and the whole family.

It must be said that at the time Dmitry Fyodorivich was not exactly

seeking my attention. No!

Not that. It was rather a game of ambitions.

I met all his attempts at closer contact

with disdain.

But that time I was determined not to stop short of anything.

Late at night I came

to Dmitry Fyodorovich’s palce.

I came to ask for money.

Dmitry Fyodorovich could have used

my desperate situation

to the utmost.

But he exhibited complete generosity.

He immediately handed me a bank note for five thousand roubles.

It was, as I learnt later,

all he had, his last possession.

He bowed deeply to me, with a most respectful bow

and let me go.

And later on

I wrote a letter

to Dmitry Fyodorovich myself

asking him to become my husband.

That’s all.

Thank you.

Any more questions to miss Verkhovtsev?

- I don’t have any. - Take your seat, please.

Witness Agrafena Alexandrovna Svetlova.

What have you to say

about the murder of Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov?

What can I say?

It’s all my fault.

I laughed at them both.

That’s what caused it all.

What was your relationship

with the merchant Samsonov?

That’s nobody’s business!

He was my benefactor.

He took me in barefoot

when my parents threw me out of the house.

In court you should answer the questions directly and clearly.

I am answering.

Did you see the envelope with the three thousand

that the late Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov had prepared for you?

I have not seen it

I had only heard from the villain that there was such an envelope.

When you said ‘the villain’ just now, whom did you mean?

Why, the lackey, Smerdyakov,

who killed his master and hanged himself last night.

What grounds have you for such a definite accusation?

None.

I’m sure he killed, that’s all.

At the time of the arrest in the village of Mokroye you shouted

"I am guilty of it all".

Meaning that at that moment you were certain

that none other than Dmitry Karamazov was the patricide.

I don’t remember what my feelings were then.

Everyone was shouting that he had killed his father,

so I felt that I was guilty.

But as soon as he said he was not guilty,

I believed him at once.

And shall always believe him!

He’s not the sort of man who would lie.

It was that man-stealer who ruined him!

- She alone is the cause of everything! - Who are you hinting at?

At the young lady, here.

She has little true shame in her, that’s what.

Witness Svetlova, take your seat.

Karamazov Ivan Fyodorovich.

Well, anything else?

You are perhaps still a bit unwell?

Don’t worry, Your Honor, I’m well enough.

I have

something curious

to tell you.

You mean you have

some specific information to present?

No.

I don’t. Nothing special.

Nothing.

Ivan!

Not you!

Not you!

I’m like that peasant girl, Your Honor.

You know how it goes:

‘I’ll jump if I want,

and I won’t if I don’t.’

- Brother… - What do you mean to say by that?

Here.

Here is the money on account of which my father was murdered.

How could this money possibly end up in your possession?

I got it from Smerdyakov, the murderer, yesterday.

It was he who killed father, not Dmitry.

He killed him, and killed him on my instructions!

Who doesn’t wish for his father’s death?

Are you in your right mind?

The thing is that I am precisely in my right mind... my vile mind!

The same as you!

And all these mugs!

A murdered father, and they pretend to be frightened!

They pull faces to each other!

Liars! Everyone wants his father dead.

Viper devours viper.

If there were no parricide,

they’d all get angry and go home in a foul temper.

Circuses…

Bread and circuses!

Give me a drink.

For Christ’s sake

give me some water.

Water!

He’s sick! He’s sick!

- Let him be! - Ivan…

Calm yourselves,

I’m not mad,

I’m simply a murderer.

One really cannot expect eloquence from a murderer.

Witness, your words are incomprehensible and impossible!

Calm yourself and tell us if you really have anything to tell.

How can you confirm such a confession?

That’s the trouble, I have no witnesses

except one, perhaps.

Who is your witness?

He’s got a tail, Your Honor.

he’s a wretched, paltry devil.

He’s sure to be sitting under the table with the material evidence.

Where else would he be sitting?

Free the monster Mitka!

Take me, take!

Take! Take!

Your whole set-up is so foolish!

Why, why is it so foolish?

- Stop it! - What is it now?

You!

Gentlemen! Prosecutor! Jurors!

I have one more piece of evidence to give!

Here is a letter, take it, read it!

He killed his father!

And the other one is ill, ill, he’s delirious!

I received it on the eve of the crime itself.

He was drunk when he wrote it.

He hated me then, because he himself had done a base thing

and went after that creature.

I gave him three thousand on purpose, I wanted to catch him out,

and he understood

that giving him the money I was torturing him.

I looked into his eyes, and he looked into my eyes

and yet he took my money!

True, Katya! I looked in your eyes,

knowing that you were dishonoring me,

and yet I took your money! I took it!

Despise the scoundrel, all of you, despise me!

Defendant, one more word and I’ll order you to be removed.

That money tormented him, so he killed his father!

But he still did not give it back

but went with that creature to that village and squandered the money!

But read it, read it more closely and you’ll see

that he described everything beforehand: how he would kill his father.

Do you acknowledge the letter, defendant?

Gentlemen, we are all cruel.

We are all monsters.

We all make people weep,

mothers and nursing babies.

But of all — let it be settled here and now — of all,

I am the lowest vermin! So be it!

But I swear by God and the Day of Judgment that

I am not guilty of my father’s blood!

I forgive you, Katia!

Brothers, friends,

- have pity on the other! - Mitya!

Mitenka!

Your serpent has destroyed you!

See, she’s shown you what she is!

- Grushenka! - She’s shown what she is!

Murderers! Monsters!

Be cursed, all of you!

Be cursed, all of you!

There he is! Mitya! Mitya!

Farewell, Alyoshka!

Farewell, my brother!

Remember, the truth will shine on earth!

It will shine!

Farewell, Alyosha.

Farewell, my dear.

Thank you for everything. For everything.

Don’t forget Mitya and me in Siberia. Write to us.

Of course! Certainly.

Remember me kindly.

- Go! - Hait! Hait!

END

Restoration Produced by Karen SHAKHNAZAROV

© MOSFILM Cinema Concern 2023