Jean Daniel Lorieux - Documentary film

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The plaything of millionaire Evgeny Yakovlev

In 2008, the Russian businessman Evgeny Yakovlev was, in his own words, «so marked by the reading of The Master and Margarita» that he wanted «to introduce this work to a broader public». He asked the French photographer Jean Daniel Lorieux to realize the project.

On the background of the famous and recognizable natural decors of Moscow you can see Margarita, interpreted by the French actress Isabelle Adjani, the Master, represented by the Russian actor Vladimir Kochevoy, as well as Woland, whoes role businessman Evgeny Yakovlev reserved to himself. The fact that Yakovlev spent 2 million euro to be photographed together with Isabelle Adjani - he claimed the role of Woland for himself - may raise suspicions about his real intentions but, frankly speaking, most of the photos are beautiful. Especially those with Isabelle Adjani. The photos with Yakovlev himself look sometimes a little ridiculous.

After a very successful exhibition at the Ariane Dandois gallery in Paris at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, the photo series moved to London and New York, to end eventually on its starting point, as a return to its roots, in Moscow, where the photos were shown from March 28, 2009, until April 28, 2009. It was at the Spiridonov House, right behind the corner of the place where the master met Margarita, where Mkhail Bulgakov met his third wife Elena Sergeevna, and where your webmaster also met his third spouse.

Evgenij Yakovlev also found apparently the necessary funds to make this prestigious and somewhat romanticized documentary film about the shootings of the photo series.



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