Alexander Shirvindt Movies

In 1987, director Alla Surikova scored enormous success in her home country with Chelovek S Bulvara Kaputsinov, an engaging slapstick comedy about an idealistic film projectionist trying to introduce the Old West to the nascent art of motion pictures. This film, aptly named Choknutye / Crazy People, features another idealist, an Austrian engineer (Ulrich Pleitgen) who comes to 19th century Russia to build the first railroad. A group of aristocrats sees him as a direct threat to their thriving stagecoach business and they employ elaborate schemes to thwart his project. However, with the help of a dashing lieutenant (Nikolai Karachentsov), a double-dealing agent of the secret police (Leonid Yarmolnik), and a mysterious young woman named Maria (Olga Kabo), he manages to get the czar's approval. ~ Yuri German, Rovi

A light drama, this unpretentious story unveils the past and present of a modern dance instructor living in Moscow. Back in the 1950s in Gagra, unknown to his current pupils, the teacher was a celebrated tap dancer who once performed on stage with his five-year old daughter. The laurels of his past were left behind when he came to Moscow to work. But when a television show airs footage of the coach in his heyday, his students and colleagues decide to do something to honor his past (and present) accomplishments. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

A showcase for the talents of leading actress Lyudmila Gurchenko, this drama is entertaining largely because of her abilities as a singer, dancer, and dramatic actress. She plays Lera Goncharova, a star of musicals whose one desire is to perform in a serious dramatic piece. Lera seems to gotten her chance when director Shevtsov (Oleg Tabakov) is looking for someone to star in his new production. Aplodismenty, Apoldismenty, directed by Viktor Buturlin, won the prize for Best First Film in the 1985 Soviet Film Awards in Minsk. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In this lengthy romantic comedy, a married pianist runs away from a traffic accident and seeks refuge at an enormous railroad station where he experiences a string of bad luck. But the pianist also meets an older waitress (Lyudmila Gurchenko and the two -- after a long preamble -- start a romance of sorts. A certain amount of satire on the social system and its foibles, as well as slightly erotic segments, and the acerbic train conductor played by Nikita Mikhalkov (an Academy Award-winning director) are a surprise in this otherwise routine interlude at a train station. This was a popular film when released in the USSR because of the two lead actors, but it does not quite come up to the previous standards of director Eldar Ryazanov. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

It is 1927, and a former noblewoman's son-in-law (Anatoli Papanov) hears from her deathbed that during the revolution, ten years ago, she hid the family jewels in one of a set of 12 chairs. He teams up with charming con man Ostap Bender (Andrei Mironov) to find all 12. Also chasing after the chairs is a renegade Orthodox priest (Rolan Bykov). This film, told in a sly, slapstick style, holds many surprises as it recounts their desperate efforts to find the jeweled chair of the set, which has been scattered to the four winds. The story is based on the satirical Russian novel The Twelve Chairs, which offered a keen, humorous depiction of certain Soviet types during the so-called NEP (New Economic Policy) that allowed certain entrepreneurial activities to take place. This novel has been the subject for many adaptations including one by Mel Brooks. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi