Nikita Mikhalkov Movies
Born to a family of celebrated painters and poets, Muscovite Nikita Mikhalkov is the younger brother of director Andrei Konchalovsky. An actor in theater and films since the age of 16 (including his brother's Dvoryanskoye Gnezdo and Siberiade), Mikhalkov also studied cinema at Moscow's State Film School in the 1960s. He debuted as a director in 1970 with his diploma film A Quiet Day at the End of the War. He then returned to acting for a few years, finally unveiling his first full-length feature, Svoy Sredi Chuzhikh, Chuzhoy Sredi Svoikh, in 1973. An avowed idolater of playwright Anton Chekhov, Mikhalkov adapted Chekhov's very first play, Platonov, into the autumnal dramatic film An Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano (1977). Mikhalkov won several awards for this effort, and would do so again for his subsequent films Oblomov (1980) and the Italian-produced Oci Ciornie (Dark Eyes, 1987). In 1995, a breathless Mikhalkov, in the company of his beaming young daughter, accepted the Best Foreign Picture Oscar for his Burnt By the Sun (1994). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Director Vladimir Khotinenko takes the helm for this historical drama set during the Polish-Muscovite War, and exploring the events that followed the legendary massacre of Tsar Boris Godunov and his family. As Russia is thrown into disorder and Moscow sinks into lawlessness, Prince Pozharsky attempts to regain control and the enormous Polish and Swedish armies ponder the possibility of conquering the troubled nation. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ramon Langa, Artur Smolyaninov, (more)
- 2007
- PG13
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When a Russian youth is put on trial for the murder of his adoptive father, it's up to a room full of jurors divided by racism and prejudice to determine the boy's ultimate fate in director Nikita Mikhalkov's loose remake of Reginald Rose's 12 Angry Men. At the center of the storm is a broodingly silent foreman (Mikhalkov). As the deliberation grows increasingly tense, a racist Russian cabbie (Sergei Garmash) attempts to sway the vote of a well-dressed television producer (Yuri Stoyanov) by staging a vivid recreation of a gruesome murder scene; an elderly Jewish man (Valentin Gaft) recovers the nightmares of the Holocaust; and a Caucasus surgeon (Sergei Gazarov) is pushed over the edge by a hateful rant about the brutishness of Chechens. Later, after one soft-spoken juror (Sergei Makovetsky) wins the jury over with a heartfelt monologue about intemperance and redemption, the volatile group struggles to settle on a final verdict. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 2006
Vodka, women, and wandering dreams define director Slava Ross black comedy set in a children's theater and centering on the lives of drunken actors who take the stage each day to perform as pigs, goats, and plants. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alexander Bashirov, Alexei Maklakov, (more)
- 1999
Love blooms amidst the backdrop of czarist Russia in Nikita Mikhalkov's The Barber of Siberia. The story opens in 1905 Springfield, MA, when a woman writes a letter to a young man in a military summer-training camp. He is currently being punished by one of his superiors, who forces him to wear a gas mask until he acknowledges that Mozart was a worthless composer. The woman has an important story to tell her addressee, and our story flashes back 20 years to Russia, where American Jane Callahan (Julia Ormond) is traveling to Moscow. A man who may or may not be Jane's father, Douglas McCracken (Richard Harris), is trying to perfect a machine, christened "The Barber of Siberia," that will harvest trees from the vast Siberian forests. Douglas hopes Jane can charm Gen. Radlov (Alexei Petrenko), the head of a Russian military academy, into arranging the financing that will enable him to complete his work on the harvester. En route, Jane meets a friendly Russian soldier, Andrei Tolstoy (Oleg Menshikov), and the two soon fall in love. Jane then meets and flirts with Radlov, who grows reciprocally fond of her -- enough so that he asks her to marry him. When it becomes evident she'd rather be with Tolstoy, he finds himself shipped off to Siberia after allegedly attacking a grand duke. Merging romance, costume drama, and slapstick comedy, The Barber of Siberia was screened at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Oleg Menshikov, Julia Ormond, (more)
- 1996
Love and desperation amongst the impoverished provides the basis of this romantic Russian melodrama that is based on a novel by Dostoyevsky and is set in St. Petersburg during the 19th century. The tale centers on the attempts of aspiring writer Ivan "Vanya" Petrovich to win the love of the glorious Natasha who unfortunately, loves Alessia, the son of a fallen prince whose family has lost its fortunes. Vanya and Natasha are similarly impoverished. Knowing that the lure of being married to nobility, even poor nobility, puts Vanya out of the competition for her love, he resorts to character assassination as a means of swaying her. Alessia's father also is against a union with Natasha for she will do nothing to refill the empty family coffers. Finding dirt on Alessia isn't difficult, for he is a cad and refused to marry another woman whom he impregnated. Vanya learns this after meeting Nelly, the chronically ill spawn of the illicit union. Great drama ensues when the different parties involved collide. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nastassja Kinski, Nikita Mikhalkov, (more)
- 1994
Home movies with a political edge are the focus of this documentary that chronicles the childhood of director Nikita Mikhailkov's daughter Anna. He began this film in 1980 when his daughter was only 6-years old. At that time it was illegal to make home movies in Russia so he and his friends were very careful. Each year he would film her and ask her the following questions: What do you want the most? What do you fear? What do you hate? Her answers each year reflect her changes from innocent child to Soviet citizen. Her changes correspond well with the recent changes in Russia. Included in the film are also archival newsclips that complement her story. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Mikhalkova
Stalinist Russia, circa 1930, is recreated in this Russian-French film that focuses on a small, elite gathering of family and friends who appreciate the idealism of Stalin's visions because they do not have to experience its darker side of gulags and purges. The story focuses upon a single day in Soviet revolutionary hero Serguei Kotov's life. Kotov lives an idyllic country life with his lovely wife Maroussia, and their feisty daughter Nadia. He is highly respected by the locals. On this day, the Kotovs are visited by the roguishly handsome Dimitri, who was a former lover of Maroussia. Dimitri is on a dark mission that may have profound effects on Kotov's peaceful, happy, and idealistic existence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nikita Mikhalkov, Oleg Menshikov, (more)
- 1991
- PG
Veteran Russian writer-director Nikita Mikhalkov's film about the impact of modern civilization on an idyllic part of Mongolia won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Oscar as Best Foreign Film. A farmer (Bayyartu) and his wife, who live in a rural part of Inner Mongolia, have three children. Chinese population control policies prevent them from having any more. The farmer sets out for the nearest town to obtain birth control. He comes upon a Russian truck driver (Vladimir Gostyukhin) who has ended up in a lake. The farmer takes the man back to his farm, and after initially being appalled at the lack of civilization, the Russian becomes enchanted with the peaceful life of the backwards countryside and decides to stay. But his presence presages big changes for the peasants. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Badema, Vladimir Gostyukhin, (more)
- 1987
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
- Starring:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Marthe Keller, (more)
Slow-paced and in some longer stretches, this period melodrama features the heroine Larisa (Larisa Guzeyeva) and her various, competing suitors. Sergei Paratov (Nikita Mikhalkov) dashes into Larisa's sister's wedding like a knight in shining armor and starts to court Larisa. Her head is turned, but not enough to keep her from getting engaged to the boring Yuli Karandyshev (Andrei Myagkov) when the handsome, singing, dancing, and bon vivant Sergei has the temerity to be gone for a year. What ensues is a classic case of seduction by the immoral Sergei and then the inevitable happens -- betrayal and tragedy. The movie is based on the classical play Bespridannitsa ("Without Dowry") by Alexander Ostrovsky that was previously filmed by Yakov Protazanov in 1937. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Larisa Guzeyeva, Nikita Mikhalkov, (more)
- 1983
This absorbing movie is from beginning to end, no more than a dialogue that happens between a now-divorced couple when the ex-husband visits his former wife in her two-room apartment, intending to destroy her pending marriage to a colleague who has control over him and his career. Apparently the husband has always done whatever he could to further his own advancement, even at the expense of family and friends. Tension mounts as he tries to manipulate his ex-wife by any means possible. These scenes were shot over a seven-week period of stage rehearsals for a play that finally did not open, so the filmed play was released as this movie. First shown at the Moscow Film Festival in 1983, it shared the FIPRESCI (International Association of Film Journalists) Critics' Prize. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irina Kupchenko, Mikhail Ulyanov, (more)
A bittersweet love story between a pair of middle-aged people takes center stage in this 1982 Russian drama from director Eldar Ryazanov. After meeting by chance at a train station, Platon confesses to Vera that he'll soon be taking a legal fall for a crime his uncaring wife committed. Though romance blossoms between the two, Platon's inevitable trial and jail sentence hang over their relationship. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- 1982
In this lengthy romantic comedy, a married pianist runs away from a traffic accident and seeks refuge at an enormous railroad station where he experiences a string of bad luck. But the pianist also meets an older waitress (Lyudmila Gurchenko and the two -- after a long preamble -- start a romance of sorts. A certain amount of satire on the social system and its foibles, as well as slightly erotic segments, and the acerbic train conductor played by Nikita Mikhalkov (an Academy Award-winning director) are a surprise in this otherwise routine interlude at a train station. This was a popular film when released in the USSR because of the two lead actors, but it does not quite come up to the previous standards of director Eldar Ryazanov. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Oleg Basilashvili, Lyudmila Gurchenko, (more)
