“As Russian Film Row Escalates, ‘Experts’ Malign Looks Of Last Tsar’s Lover”, 2017-04-19 (; backlinks):
Want to avoid the censor’s wrath for offending the Russian Orthodox faithful? Don’t suggest Russia’s last tsar preferred a ballerina with a face like a “rat” to the “classic European” beauty of his tsarina.
That’s a conclusion endorsed by a Russian lawmaker trying to quash the release of an upcoming biopic focused on a love affair between the future Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and a teenaged ballet dancer. Natalya Poklonskaya, a former Moscow-installed prosecutor-general in Crimea and current member of parliament, escalated her battle this week, saying she has handed prosecutors an analysis by 4 “experts” who denounce the film, Matilda, as a sordid smear against Nicholas and Russian Orthodoxy.
Among the myriad complaints levied against the film by the authors of the report is that the ballerina at the center of the story, Matilda Kshesinskaya, was too ugly for the tsar.
…The authors, all men who claim decades-long careers in academia, appear to be baffled that Nicholas could have embarked on an affair with Kshesinskaya, at one point veering off into a dissection of her appearance.
They write that the film builds a “negative image” of the tsar by having his character choose “an utterly homely” woman, qualifying this assessment by saying it is based on “classic European and, in part, Russian perceptions of female beauty.” The authors write that old photographs show Kshesinskaya, who had a Polish father, with “protruding, crooked teeth”, an “ungainly figure”, and a face that “resembled a mouse or a rat.” This, they write, “contrasts with the objectively classic, vibrant European beauty” of Empress Aleksandra.
For good measure, the report adds that the choice of Polish actress Michalina Olszanska to play Kshesinskaya does not mitigate this alleged smear of Nicholas. While Olszanska has “satisfactory looks”, audiences will associate the tsar with the real Kshesinskaya, the authors write.