"Other Madnesses" begins with a quote from the American expatriate
author Henry Miller about the loneliness of the city that produces "crime, sex, anger, and other madnesses." The film then morphs into an adaptation of Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment" that is transplanted from St. Petersburg to New York City.
The Raskolnikov character is named Ed, and he is an apparently mild-mannered tour guide, who fastidiously memorizes facts to recount over a microphone on the open-air bus that guides the newcomers through the Big Apple. But Ed has never truly experienced the sites he is describing, remaining primarily a bookworm and a loner in a dowdy apartment.
There is a love interest with a young tourist named Lucya, who, without much credibility, falls in love with Ed. Lucya learns about Ed's fascination with true crime, but she is slow in suspecting that he has become so deeply enmeshed in the world of violence that it has taken over his being.
The Inspector character from Dostoevsky is a formidable and scary Russian, who is on the trail of Ed, who has become a serial killer. The narrative is nothing like Dostoevsky's novel, where Raskolnikov murders an old woman for no justifiable reason. In this film, Ed is more like Charles Bronson or Bruce Willis in the "Death Wish" films, as he seeks to be a crime-stopper and avenge the atrocities in the big city. It is not made clear how for crimes that have stumped the police, Ed is able to intuit who are the killers, where to find them, and how he is able to overcome each one of them only with an ordinary hammer.
The film was a misfire when it came to seeking an analogue of Dostoevsky's rich philosophy about crime and morality. The ruminations and quotes from Ed are closer to the superficial denotations of words that he has found in a dictionary. The film lacked the probing and introspective nature of Dostoevsky's profound novel.
Still, there are some salient qualities to this film, especially in the inventive camera angles, the New York locations, and the quirky performance from the actor playing the troubled tour guide. While "Other Madnesses" is not a great film, it is nonetheless an extremely watchable one.
Perhaps a better Henry Miller quote to describe this film would be Miller's personal description of New York: "The City of New York is like an enormous citadel, a modern Carcassonne. Walking between the magnificent skyscrapers one feels the presence on the fringe of a howling, raging mob, a mob with empty bellies, a mob unshaven and in rags." That would appear to be the experience of Ed, trapped in the megalopolis from which he cannot escape.
The Raskolnikov character is named Ed, and he is an apparently mild-mannered tour guide, who fastidiously memorizes facts to recount over a microphone on the open-air bus that guides the newcomers through the Big Apple. But Ed has never truly experienced the sites he is describing, remaining primarily a bookworm and a loner in a dowdy apartment.
There is a love interest with a young tourist named Lucya, who, without much credibility, falls in love with Ed. Lucya learns about Ed's fascination with true crime, but she is slow in suspecting that he has become so deeply enmeshed in the world of violence that it has taken over his being.
The Inspector character from Dostoevsky is a formidable and scary Russian, who is on the trail of Ed, who has become a serial killer. The narrative is nothing like Dostoevsky's novel, where Raskolnikov murders an old woman for no justifiable reason. In this film, Ed is more like Charles Bronson or Bruce Willis in the "Death Wish" films, as he seeks to be a crime-stopper and avenge the atrocities in the big city. It is not made clear how for crimes that have stumped the police, Ed is able to intuit who are the killers, where to find them, and how he is able to overcome each one of them only with an ordinary hammer.
The film was a misfire when it came to seeking an analogue of Dostoevsky's rich philosophy about crime and morality. The ruminations and quotes from Ed are closer to the superficial denotations of words that he has found in a dictionary. The film lacked the probing and introspective nature of Dostoevsky's profound novel.
Still, there are some salient qualities to this film, especially in the inventive camera angles, the New York locations, and the quirky performance from the actor playing the troubled tour guide. While "Other Madnesses" is not a great film, it is nonetheless an extremely watchable one.
Perhaps a better Henry Miller quote to describe this film would be Miller's personal description of New York: "The City of New York is like an enormous citadel, a modern Carcassonne. Walking between the magnificent skyscrapers one feels the presence on the fringe of a howling, raging mob, a mob with empty bellies, a mob unshaven and in rags." That would appear to be the experience of Ed, trapped in the megalopolis from which he cannot escape.
