Yelena Safonova Movies

This French film chronicles the amazing-but-true story of Lisa Alling who in 1928 successfully walked from New York City to Siberia via the Bering Straight by following telegraph poles. It was shot entirely in the Ukraine. Lisa, a chambermaid, has had enough of American life and wants go home to Siberia. Because she had no money, she decided it was better to walk than stay in the U.S. any longer. An opportunist, she takes whatever food, warmth and even romance that is offered along the way. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Romane Bohringer plays a young pianist ekeing out a living in Nazi-occupied Paris. When her favorite coworker, singer (Yelena Safonova), relocates to London, Bohringer goes along, much to the discomfort of Safonova's possessive husband-manager. The latter role is played by Romane Bohringer's father, veteran character actor Richard Bohringer, a fact that adds several subliminal layers to the already multitextured storyline. Avoiding the cruder implications of its material, The Accompanist is a model of taste and decorum -- perhaps too much so. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this romantic comedy, on the way to a birthday party with their families, a man and his girlfriend are driving in the countryside. When the girl takes a curve a little too fast, their car winds up in a lake. Undaunted, the couple gets on a train but bickers about the incident the whole way. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this thriller, "Greek" (Valery Garkalin) has a pretty pleasant life, running excursion boats with his partner and doing a little professional gambling on the side. Things take a sinister turn when his partner is killed after a big (and inexplicable) loss in a card game. Greek suspects the worst, and vows to track down the cheat and his partner's killer (he expects they are the same person). The outward pleasantness of Russians at play swifly becomes sinister, as more and more people come under Greek's suspicious eye. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

After his marriage with Lyuba (Yelena Safonova) breaks down, largely due to his all-night carousing away from the home, Boris (Sergei Koktakov) begins to search for an apartment of his own. Even now, this is a very difficult task. He locates an apartment for couples which is being inhabited by a lone old lady who is supposed to move into an old-age home. The old lady doesn't want to go, and tries to stave off the inevitable by taking in a young woman as a flat-mate. Boris rapes the girl, but despite this she eventually becomes friends with him, and eventually they become lovers, entitling them to rent the apartment together (without the old lady). ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Oci Ciornie was an international co-production tailored for Marcello Mastroianni. It received good reviews in Italy and France, and Mastroianni was awarded "Best Actor" at the Cannes Film Festival. However, some in Russia felt that director Mikhalkov (who previously received wide acclaim for another Chekhov adaptation, (An Unfinished Piece for the Player Piano) tried too hard to cater to foreign tastes rather than to convey Chekhov's mood. So this film conveys more of a foreign idea what Chekhov is about rather than a Russian one. In the story, Romano (Marcello Mastroianni) is living the life of a "kept" man in that he is the penniless husband of a rich aristocratic woman who supports him. Whenever life at home becomes too difficult for him, he goes off to some spa or other for a "rest cure." In addition to resting, the clownish fellow flirts shamelessly with the women he finds at these resorts. During one of his restorative excursions, he meets a shy Russian woman named Anna, whom he is much taken with. When she leaves to return to her life at home, he resolves to follow her and woo her there. With a great deal of buffoonery and ingenuity (such as pretending to be a manufacturer of a special kind of glass), he gets a visa to travel into Russia. There, he finds her unhappily married to a minor official, and before he leaves for Europe he promises to return and marry her. When he gets back home, he finds that his aristocratic wife is experiencing a genuine crisis (her family has lost its money), and he soon forgets about Anna and his promises to her. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide