V. Pavlov Movies

It is 1927, and a former noblewoman's son-in-law (Sergei Filippov) hears from her deathbed that during the revolution, ten years ago, she hid the family jewels in one of a set of twelve chairs. He teams up with a charming con man (Archil Gomiashvili) to find all twelve. This film, told in a sly, slapstick style, holds many surprises as it recounts their desperate efforts to find the jewelled 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), which allowed certain entrepreneurial activities to take place. This novel has been the subject for many films -- including one by Mel Brooks--and was the basis for a popular Russian TV mini-series. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

There have been several film versions of Feodor Dostoyevsky's tale of an obsessed elite and a Prince with a destructive passion for one woman. This interpretation by director Ivan Pyriev features Yuri Yakovlev as Prince Myshkin and Y. Borissova as his love, Nastassia. The tale opens with the impoverished, epileptic Prince returning to St. Petersburg in 1860, after a stay in a Swiss mental hospital. He restricts his activities and interests to the social circle of the aristocracy and his family, and their multitude of petty problems. When he falls in love with Nastassia, she returns his feelings but is also pursued by Rogogine (L. Parkhomenko), a classic villain. Given the Prince's mental weaknesses and his inexplicable, self-destructive love for Nastassia, his prognosis does not look good. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi