Andrei Konchalovsky Movies

The final year of Russian Socialist writer Leo Tolstoy comes to the screen with Christopher Plummer in the lead role and Helen Mirren portraying his wife, Sofia. Paul Giamatti, James McAvoy and Anne-Marie Duff co-star in the Warner Bros. production, directed by Michael Hoffman from the novel by Jay Parini. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

At the time of its production, To Each His Own Cinema represented the latest arrival in a tidal wave of internationally oriented omnibus films, with no official relation between them but all produced within a few years of one another. Few could claim a roster of talent comparable to this one, which boasts contributions by 33 of the most acclaimed directors in world cinema,
each responsible for three minutes of celluloid. Gilles Jacob, president of the Cannes Festival, devised the project as a "gift" to commemorate the festival's 60th birthday, and recruited many Golden Palm winners in the directorial selection process. Simply put, Jacob asked each director to express, cinematically, his or her "state of mind of the moment as inspired by the motion picture theater." Featured filmmakers include Joel and Ethan Coen; Olivier Assayas; Atom Egoyan; Walter Salles; Lars von Trier; Nanni Moretti; Roman Polanski; Theo Angelopoulos; Chen Kaige; Andrei Konchalovsky; and many, many others. Many of the initial entries (by Angelopoulos and others) involve the neglect or disrepute into which contemporary cinema, as a collective viewing experience, has fallen; a few segments, such as the Coen Brothers' short, about a cowboy (Josh Brolin) who attempts to determine which movie he should go see in sunny Los Angeles, employ a light and whimsical approach. At the other end of the spectrum sits David Cronenberg's piece -- a brutal short in which he prepares to commit a very public and graphic suicide on television before millions of viewers. Other highlights include Moretti -- offering a typically witty divertissement on what cinema means -- and Zhang Yimou, who lyrically depicts the gathering of numerous rural children for a screening at a movie theater. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

The career of revered Russian filmmaker Mikhail Kalatozov is explored in this documentary film comprised of rare behind-the-scenes footage, interviews with French director Claude Lelouch, and conversations with some of the biggest names in contemporary Russian cinema. Kalatozov's grandson Mikhail Kalatozishvili pays tribute to the director of such timeless classics as I Am Cuba, Salt for Svanetia, and The Cranes are Flying as such notable fans as Andrei Konchalovsky, Sergei Solovyov, and Alexei Batalov discuss the remarkable influence Kalatozov had on their own film careers. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

War brings together a disillusioned soldier and a sweet but delusional woman in this romantic comedy-drama from director Andrei Konchalovsky. A small Russian mental hospital near the border of Chechnya is home to a group of eccentric but harmless patients, among them Janna (Julia Vysotsky), a cheerful woman who likes to play accordion and is convinced pop singer Bryan Adams is her fiancé; over-excitable Vika (Marina Politseymako); and highly prolific would-be poet Ali (Stanislav Varkki). When fighting between Russians and Chechens flares up and bombing threatens the hospital, the doctor in charge (Vladas Bagdonas) goes out to find vehicles to evacuate his patients, briefly leaving them to their own devices. While the doctor is away, a group of Chechen soldiers happen upon the hospital, but they seemingly mean no harm to the patients, and one of them, Ahmed (Sultan Islamov), starts flirting with Janna. Janna quickly falls head over heels for Ahmed, and leaves behind her treasured Bryan Adams poster to be with him...though in her mind, Adams isn't about to give up her affections without a fight. As love grows between them, Ahmed finds himself wondering just who is supposed to be sane -- the lunatics at the hospital, or the soldiers fighting a pointless war. Bryan Adams appears as himself in Dom Durakov, and sings several songs, including his international hit "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Lumière brothers' first films, filmmakers Sarah Moon and Philippe Poulet challenged 39 renowned international directors to each complete a 52-second film using the original Cinematographe camera under the conditions endured by the brothers. The result of the project was this film, Lumière et Compagnie. The film stock used was homemade from a slightly altered version of the Lumières' recipe. No synchronized sound was allowed and only natural lighting was permitted. The participating directors included John Boorman, Costa-Gavras, Peter Greenaway, Lasse Hallström, Spike Lee, David Lynch, Liv Ullmann, and Wim Wenders. Among the actors who performed in the films were Liam Neeson, Lena Olin, Aidan Quinn, and Alan Rickman. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

By now, few will remember the tragic kidnapping of the grandson of the man who, in the '60s, was the world's richest man, J. Paul Getty. Getty, a paranoid and miserly man, refused to pay ransom for his handsome, ne'er do well grandson, J. Paul Getty III. He may have believed that the boy engineered it himself, as a means to get some money out of the old skinflint. As a result, the boy was mutilated by his kidnappers (his ear was sliced off) in an attempt to persuade the old man of the seriousness of their intentions. As it happened, the kidnappers made two mistakes: one was to attempt to extort money from the world's richest miser, the other was in their handling of the boy, who managed to escape. Had it not been for those events, the world's media spotlight would probably have passed the otherwise undistinguished young man by. In this documentary, which assumes familiarity with these events, the troubled life and loves of the grandson's wife and her sister, luminous and beautiful twins from Switzerland, are explored in the light of the boy's tragic life. When Gisela married him, he was a handsome, charming, darling of the jet-set, and fully expected to inherit some portion of his grandfather's billions. In the kidnapping and its aftermath, not only did he become melancholy and erratic, ever more prone to dangerous drug use, but he was cut out of his grandfather's will. Angela, who was accused of being a gold-digger, loyally stuck by his side through all their ups and downs. In fact, even after J. Paul Getty III was rendered permanently comatose following an accident, she remained with him. One gathers that the marriage was something of a ménàge à trois, because Gisela's twin, Jutta, rarely left her side. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Director Andrei Konchalovsky comes a cropper with this mawkish road movie starring Whoopi Goldberg and James Belushi. Goldberg plays Edwina, an escaped mental patient with a brain tumor and only a month to live. Belushi is Homer, a retarded man abandoned by his parents when he was a child after a smack with a baseball bat rendered him an idiot. The two team-up when Homer takes off to Oregon to visit his parents and catch up on old times. Edwina agrees to drive him there to recover the $87 that Homer has stolen from her. As they drive down the American roadways, they bond, and Edwina is granted the shining love of Homer as she lapses into a coma. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Writer Jill Clayburgh wants to remove her coke-addicted daughter Martha Plimpton from the corruptive environs of Manhattan. When assigned to write an article about family trees, Clayburgh, with daughter in tow, heads to the bayous of Louisiana, there to seek out an elusive great-uncle--and, it is hoped, to give Plimpton a new start in life. Upon their arrival in the deep south, Clayburgh and Plimpton are confronted with the uncle's rugged, iron-willed wife Barbara Hershey and her four grown sons. The anticipated culture clash results in tragedy for all concerned. Wavering between the plausible and the outrageous, Shy People makes for fascinating, almost mesmerizing viewing. Released late in 1987 to qualify for the Academy Awards, the film was given a general release in mid-1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky's second American film may well be the only existential adventure flick in Hollywood history. Two prisoners, Manny (Jon Voight) and Buck (Eric Roberts), escape from a desolate Alaskan maximum-security facility. They hop aboard a speeding train, making a clean escape. But the engineer has suffered a heart attack, and the train goes out of control. To prevent a disastrous head-on collision, the railroad heads decide to derail the runaway train, killing its occupants to save the lives of hundreds of others. Once Manny catches on to what's happening, he tries to jump off the train, only to be talked out of such a foolhardy act by railroad employee Sara (Rebecca DeMornay). As doom approaches, Manny apparently goes mad, viciously preventing any attempts to stop the train or rescue its passengers: if he's to die, and if the others are to be saved, it will be on his terms, or no terms. Runaway Train was slated as a project for Akira Kurosawa in 1970, but for various creative and scheduling reasons, it remained on the back burner for 15 years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Nikita Mikhalkov examines the plight of the filmmaker operating in an uncertain political climate in his irony-laden seriocomedy Slave of Love. The time is 1918, at the height of the Bolshevik revolution. A small group of filmmakers are hurriedly trying to complete a silent melodrama while the world changes all around them. As production progresses, leading lady Elena Solovei metamorphoses from self-centered movie star to committed revolutionary. Normally described as "Chekhovian," director Mikhalkov borrows a few pages from Pirandello. With Slave of Love he gained his first serious international attention. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This visually stunning Kazakh movie tells a tragic tale of absent and misplaced compassion. A young orphan rescues an orphaned wolf cub and lavishes considerable affection on it. His uncle, believing that this "softness" will result in the boy's being unable to endure the rigors of life on the Kazakh steppes, savagely beats the cub in front of the boy. By the time the grown wolf is released into the wild, it has grown extremely ferocious and it returns and attacks the boy, perhaps because it perceives him as being weak, just as the boy's uncle did. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this drama, an adaptation of Chekhov's play, a rural doctor falls in love with an unavailable beauty while plying his trade. It is frustrating for the old man, because he realizes that his devotion to medicine has caused him to miss out on many of life's pleasures. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide