Vladimir Kashpur Movies

In this humorous sexual romp, the story begins as its hero (Gennadiy Khazanov), now an old man, is being pushed in his wheelchair at a Black Sea resort in post-Soviet Russia. His nurse is prim and very professional, the essence of asexual coolness. In a series of flashbacks, memories are screened of the man's happier days as a student in postwar Moscow, and then as a photographer at the same resort in the 1950s. He was an inveterate womanizer, and most of the time, the women were as willing as he was. His romantic career continued without major setbacks (though his encounter with a houseful of lesbians was a bit daunting), until he inadvertently begins an affair with the mistress of Stalin's chief spymaster and torturer, Laventy Beria. When he finds out about who her other boyfriend does, it is at a very inopportune time, and he suffers an attack of impotence which afflicts him frequently thereafter, for he cannot get the spymaster's face (and the fate he barely escaped) out of his mind. However, sometime in the course of these recollections, his memory heals itself, and he is potent once again, as is proved by the warm and protective way his once-cool nurse cares for him at the end of the film. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This children's tale of a boy's wishes coming true is set in the 18th century at a boarding school for youngsters of noble birth -- but as it turns out, not so noble behavior. Little Alyosha (Vitali Sidiezki) has been orphaned, and consoles his poetic nature with fantasies that one day knights in shining armor will come to save him from the inequities at school so he no longer has to endure or witness any tribulations and mistreatment. His savior appears in the unlikely guise of a black hen that Alyosha saves from death -- and subsequently, the hen reveals that she is a minister and ruler of a magical kingdom. Suddenly Alyosha finds himself arriving in the kingdom and accepting a special charm that will allow him to remember anything ever written in any and all of his school textbooks -- as long as he does not lose the charm or brag about the source of his mental powers. Sure enough, he loses the charm one day and is so remorseful that the king gives him back the magical powers of memory. This time, however, Alyosha has the confidence to politely refuse the king's kind gift -- and to rely on his own abilities, telling the simple truth about the reason for his former spectacular memory to his class and his teacher. Their reaction is just what one would expect, given the nature of the tale. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide