In comparison with the classical version of 1955, this one is more melodramatic, stretched to 3 hours instead of 90 minutes, less dramatic, and made for the TV, not for the screen, which also reduces its impact, although Sergei Bondarchuk as the cardinal does his best to make as grandiose effects as possible in the final scenes, but somehow, he is not as convincing as was Nicolai Simonov in 1955 - he is more Sergei Bondarchuk than a cardinal. On the other hand, Andrei Kharitonov is even better than Oleg Strizhenov in 1955, and as this version is more detailed, his transformation from a pious student to a fantacic embittered and furious revolutionary is made impressingly psychologically realistic here. Anastasia Vertinskaya is also outstanding as Gemma, and this film is actually intended as three films: the first dealing with the crisis that made the Gadfly, the second dwelling on the relationship between him and Gemma, and the third concentrating on the relationship between him and the cardinal, completely dominated by Bondarchuk. There is no Shostakovich romance here and no Bach, but instead the leading motive is Mozart's "Lacrimosa" from his Requiem, which plays every time the cardinal fills the context. This film also includes the Gadfly's gipsy sweetheart, who is totally ignored in 1955. The music is on the whole a decisive ornament to the film, both deepening its tragedy and heightening its pathos and above all, permeating the whole film with endless melancholy and sadness, which is n't wrong at all, but which has a trendency to sentimental exaggerations. The cinematography of the 1955 version is missing here, although this is also beautifully made, and you can't get enough of those wonderful takes all around Pisa and Florence. The 1955 version is much more dramatic with tremendous riot scenes, while here they are reduced to almost some chamber skirmishes. The story is also more altered from the book: the circumstances of the Gadfly's final arrest are very spectacular indeed both in the book and in the 1955 film, while here they are closeted in a church. Anyway, it's still a great film, made especially great by this extremely human and dramatic story, which never could be a failure, and the main part of the Gadfly (really s signature and pseudonym for a radical pamphleteer) is another of those characters that no actor ever could fail in but only excel in.
