News on Canal+: a series where Ewan McGregor wears a mustache very well!

What is it about?

After the Russian Revolution, Count Alexander Rostov finds that his privileged status puts him on the wrong side of history. Even if he escaped immediate execution, the Soviet court sentenced him to live in a room in the attic of the luxurious Metropol Hotel and threatened him with death if he ever left. As the years pass and the country endures the most tumultuous decades in its history, Rostov’s limited living conditions open him up to a vast world of emotional discovery. As he builds a new life within the walls of the hotel, he discovers the true value of friendship, family and love.

Based on the novel “A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles.

A Gentleman in Moscow, a series created by Ben Vanstone with Ewan McGregor, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Paul Reddy…

Luxury as a castle

There are worse places to be in house arrest than a luxury hotel. Of course, this opulent setting turns into a prison when you are herded into a filthy, cold attic with barely a bed, very little heating, and the threat of being shot if you dare pass the hotel’s gilded doors.

Adapted from the 2016 novel by Amor Towles, which has sold more than four million copies, A Gentleman in Moscow is a beautiful historical drama set in post-revolutionary Russia, depicting a fallen, eccentric aristocrat with a written history. around him.

Count Rostov (Iwan McGregor) is a nobleman who returns to Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution. His species is endangered, and he’s lucky to escape a speedy trial that accuses him of being born rich.

Saved from death, but stripped of his property, wealth and titles, Rostov was sentenced to house arrest at the Hotel Metropol, a grand establishment where he was to live for the rest of his life. There, he was moved from his luxurious suite to a room formerly reserved for servants.

But with the promise of room and board — and his life — Rostov does well in his diminished circumstances. He continues to dress in hotel dining rooms served by staff with whom he bonds and engages in spiritual conversations.

catch the person

He also meets Nina (Alexa Goodall), a witty nine-year-old girl who wants to tell stories about princesses in a world where they are killed in the middle of the night. And Anna Urbanova (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), an actress whose career prospects are now uncertain in the new social order, becomes his intermittent companion when he stops by the hotel.

McGregor and Winstead are husband and wife in real life — “A Gentleman in Moscow” is their third on-screen collaboration — and their funny, intense chemistry is one of the show’s highlights. We want to see these two characters connected, two lonely souls together.

Rostov also deepens his relationship with Mishka (Fehinti Balogun), a revolutionary he once knew, and must come to terms with how their pasts blend into their present.

Behind the walls of the metropolis there are great rebellions that are gradually entering its borders. Even a great hotel can’t stay the same forever, as this story unfolds, and neither can Rostov, no matter how hard it tries.

Russian nightmare

He is trying to preserve his civilization and manners, the last vestiges of a life that no longer exists in a country he wishes did not exist. But there’s only so much you can control, and that steadfast facade slips from time to time, as when Rostov is faced with the harsh reality that old acquaintances are too scared or too dead to attend the memorial he’s organizing.

The series, adapted by Ben Vanstone and directed by Sam Miller and Sarah O’Gorman, details the incarceration imposed by the cruel and absurd policy. Something as innocuous as wine labels becomes politically significant.

Politics and fear are never far away. The series serves as a subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle reminder of the promises of revolution and the inevitable abuses that come from authoritarian rule. The sideways glances, forced adjustments inside the hotel and the presence of government agents give the series a gently menacing atmosphere.

Set over several decades, the series ages its characters, a challenge McGregor takes on with ease. There’s a grace to its execution and there’s an elegance to it – maybe a little too much? – in a gentleman in Moscow. This is a series that invites us to think about the world, to stay for a while before everything changes, again.

The first two episodes A gentleman in Moscow Broadcast this Thursday at 21:10 on Canal+ and available on MyCanal.