Alisa Freyndlikh Movies

This French-Italian drama is set in pre-Revolutionary Russia during 1907 and chronicles the relationship between a cold-hearted, blue-blooded woman and a handsome stranger. The two first meet during a walk in the park. Later, the woman, Natalia's, husband, a dentist, is found murdered in his home. Natalia finds herself the prime suspect in the death. She seems to be unmoved by the whole situation and continues to carry on with her two disparate lovers. One of them is a revolutionary and the other a conservative sculptor. One night she is again walking when she finds herself in the midst of a revolutionary fracas. Fortunately, the stranger appears and saves her. He takes her to his elegant apartment and there she tells him all about her life. Eventually the real murderer is revealed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama, Masha (Natalia Anreischenko) is a research lab worker who throws her husband out of the house when she discovers he has a mistress. Her friends encourage her to attend parties in order to be sociable and to perhaps meet a new man. She goes home with a taxi driver, but she leaves suddenly when his wife returns unexpectedly. There are comic touches to this feature, but viewers should be warned of a brutal gang-rape scene. After her adventures, Masha considers reconciling with her wayward husband when he vows to give up his mistress. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this well-executed coming-of-age drama, the interactions between two teens, both running away from situations they cannot face, form the engaging nexus of a brief sojourn in a busy Moscow train station. Victor (Vyacheslav Baranov) has run away because he stole a canary cage from an apartment after being goaded into doing it by some so-called friends. His solution is to join the Soviet Navy to distance himself from home and his conscience as much as he can. He meets Alessia (Yevgenia Dobrobloskaya) in the train station, she has also run away after some final, intolerable disagreements with her stepfather -- but she wants to start looking for her real father too. The pair evade the police and station guards by hiding in nooks and crannies and by passing themselves off as actual passengers, all the while talking over their personal problems. By the time nearly 24 hours have elapsed, they have helped each other reach a good and inevitable solution to their dilemmas. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker, an allegorical science fiction film like his earlier Solaris, was adapted from the novel Picnic by the Roadside by brothers Boris Strugatsky and Arkady Strugatsky. The film follows three men -- the Scientist (Nikolai Grinko), the Writer (Anatoliy Solonitsyn), and the Stalker (Alexander Kaidanovsky) -- as they travel through a mysterious and forbidden territory in the Russian wilderness called the "Zone." In the Zone, nothing is what it seems. Objects change places, the landscape shifts and rearranges itself. It seems as if an unknown intelligence is actively thwarting any attempt to penetrate its borders. In the Zone, there is said to be a bunker, and in the bunker: a magical room which has the power to make wishes come true. The Stalker is the hired guide for the journey who has, through repeated visits to the Zone, become accustomed to its complex traps, pitfalls, and subtle distortions. Only by following his lead (which often involves taking the longest, most frustrating route) can the Writer and the Scientist make it alive to the bunker and the room. As the men travel farther into the Zone, they realize it may take something more than just determination to succeed: it may actually take faith. Increasingly unsure of their deepest desires, they confront the room wondering if they can, in the end, take responsibility for the fulfillment of their own wishes. ~ Anthony Reed, All Movie Guide

Sluzhebny Roman won the State Prize of the Russian Federation in 1979 and was well-received by Russian audiences. One of the most popular films by director Eldar Ryazanov, it had no overt political content and was simply a funny romantic comedy. Andrei Myagkov plays a clerk, a widower with two children; Alisa Freindlikh plays his boss, a woman so committed to her career that she spares no time for her appearance. Her manner irritates the clerk so much that he makes a bet with his office-mates that he can awaken the woman in her. He begins, therefore, to court her. She is decidedly dowdy and mannish, and the advances of her clerk catch her by surprise. She seeks advice from her best friend about how to proceed. Based on his bantering manner with her, her friend advises her to invite him to dinner. Even at dinner, she can't soften her brusque office manner, and a fight breaks out. Nonetheless, love eventually wins the day. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

An elderly art restorer, at the peak of his eminence, waits to hear whether or not he has been given the title of "Academician," the highest scholarly title one can have in the Russian system. As he waits, he reminisces about his life, particularly an episode during World War II when his archives at the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Museum were nearly destroyed. As he muses, he comes to realize that his single-minded devotion to his career cost him a heavy price in terms of ordinary human experience. This Russian film bears more than a passing resemblance to the Swede Ingmar Bergman's earlier film Wild Strawberries. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide