Don't let it die
Added 9/22/2009
It is one of my favorite movies. So hard, so dramatic, so moving, such good performances.So much to learn
Please do not let it go into oblivium. Give us this picture on DVD, very, very, soon and make this new generation, who are forgetting what happened watch it, that means distribute this picture everywhere. There are so many hunderdts of horrible films going arround, how can it be that good pictures like these be forgotten.???
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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A Real Eye Opener
Added 3/5/2009
I saw this movie years ago after purchasing it on VHS. Not sure why this has not been released on DVD. Reviewers can disagree about what this movie is about. Regardless of whether you feel it is about the character Sanshin (the Kremlin projectionist), or life under Stalin, I think you will be impressed with how powerful and yet underrated the collective performances are. I was impressed with how well the story conveyed the sense of paranoia and fear that pervaded Soviet life under Stalin.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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When is this EXCELLENT movie going to be released on DVD?
Added 1/20/2008
This movie is to me Andrei Konchalovsky at his very best.
One of the darkest periods of the Russian history told through the eyes of the innocent Ivan Sanshin. Communist Joseph Stalin purportedly killed millions of fellow Russians through famines, executions, deportations, and in the Gulag, most of them for political reasons. No opposition was allowed whatsoever, and Russia experienced the horrors of a blood-thirsty despotic regime with an asphyxiating cult to the "leaders'" persona.
As we see Ivan Sanshin's story develop in the movie (Tom Hulce), we can't help but wonder how many peoples along history have blindfoldedly fallen in the depths of savage and ruthless regimes?
How many more will keep falling?
We have lessons to learn from "The Inner Circle" particularly in countries where rise of totalitarisms (this time with the dangerous ingredient of populism attached) seem to be growing stronger by the day.
Hulce and Davidovich performances are flaweless. Bob Hoskins role as "Komrad Beria" is both stunning and powerful.
And Aleksandr Zbruyev as "Komrad Stalin" totally creeps me out.
(...I'll keep waiting for the DVD...)
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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When the result is minor than the sum of the parts!
Added 12/5/2006
This is one of these films in which the dimension of the script simply did not cover all the expectations; there was so much to grasp beneath this interesting plot but the one -dimensional approach of the main character and the anecdotic character weakens it deadly.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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An eyewitness to history---behind Stalin's own Curtain.
Added 3/1/2005
Buzz, buzz, goes the doorbell. A man in his underwear rises to answer the summons in the dead of night, leaving his new bride in bed. "Comrade Sanshin?" the uniformed agent of the KGB asks, as the door opens. "Sir!" Sanshin responds. "You'll be coming with us", the uniform announces. "Where are you taking me, Sanshin asks, nervously; thinking of his neighbor who had just recently been taken away in the middle of the night. "No questions," says the uniform, adding, "we must leave immediately." Toward the waiting car downstairs they go, Sanshin declaring that "there must be some mistake. I've done nothing wrong." His neighbor, having been arrested for being 'an enemy of the people' leads Sanshin to state, "I've had no contact with foreigners"---the charge leveled against that neighbor. They get into the black official car and begin to move through streets wet from recent rain. Through semi-fogged windows and lingering raindrops clinging to them, Sanshin spies the obscured outline, lights, then walls of the fortress that sits at the center of Moscow, the seat of Soviet power. More to himself then questioningly, Sanshin finally declares aloud what's increasingly obvious (though unbelieveable) to him---"We're going to the Kremlin?!" Hence the title of this film, for we---through this character---are taken into the heart of the inner circle of the USSR under Stalin; as this man, Sanshin, is not arrested, but rather has his skills as a film projectionist commandeered by the Soviet leadership. Alexander Ganshin, the real person on whom this character was based actually served as Stalin's projectionist for almost 20 years until that film enthusiast/tyrant died in 1953. That's why this film is important. No, it's not a great film---it's a bit slow at points, etc., but, as windows into Stalin's inner circle go, it is unparalleled. It was the first western film to shoot within the walls of the Kremlin (in 1991, thanks to Gorbachev's winds of change). Its feel is thus spot-on, very authentic in all respects: sets, dialogue, realism, etc. The (Russian) actor who portrays Stalin, moreover, does a wonderful job. "Variety", Hollywood's trade paper, called this film "misconceived;" no doubt because it attempted to show what Hollywood would rather ignore---ie., that life under Stalin's rule was repressive. (Have you ever wondered why there are dozens of films about the Nazis & Hitler and barely a handful about Stalin and aspects of Soviet history?) As I said, this film is a good film (Roger Ebert gave it 3 stars), but it isn't a genius film---hence my rating. But it IS probably the BEST western film, accurate across the board, of any made about the USSR since Doctor Zhivago. If you have a serious interest in what life was like under Stalin you cannot avoid this film. (PS: For a great book written by a former Soviet party official of what life was like under Stalin, by someone who experienced it firsthand, I recommend Viktor Kravchenko's "I chose Freedom.") Cheers!
4 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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Don't let it die
Added 9/22/2009
It is one of my favorite movies. So hard, so dramatic, so moving, such good performances.So much to learn
Please do not let it go into oblivium. Give us this picture on DVD, very, very, soon and make this new generation, who are forgetting what happened watch it, that means distribute this picture everywhere. There are so many hunderdts of horrible films going arround, how can it be that good pictures like these be forgotten.???
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
A Real Eye Opener
Added 3/5/2009
I saw this movie years ago after purchasing it on VHS. Not sure why this has not been released on DVD. Reviewers can disagree about what this movie is about. Regardless of whether you feel it is about the character Sanshin (the Kremlin projectionist), or life under Stalin, I think you will be impressed with how powerful and yet underrated the collective performances are. I was impressed with how well the story conveyed the sense of paranoia and fear that pervaded Soviet life under Stalin.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
When is this EXCELLENT movie going to be released on DVD?
Added 1/20/2008
This movie is to me Andrei Konchalovsky at his very best.
One of the darkest periods of the Russian history told through the eyes of the innocent Ivan Sanshin. Communist Joseph Stalin purportedly killed millions of fellow Russians through famines, executions, deportations, and in the Gulag, most of them for political reasons. No opposition was allowed whatsoever, and Russia experienced the horrors of a blood-thirsty despotic regime with an asphyxiating cult to the "leaders'" persona.
As we see Ivan Sanshin's story develop in the movie (Tom Hulce), we can't help but wonder how many peoples along history have blindfoldedly fallen in the depths of savage and ruthless regimes?
How many more will keep falling?
We have lessons to learn from "The Inner Circle" particularly in countries where rise of totalitarisms (this time with the dangerous ingredient of populism attached) seem to be growing stronger by the day.
Hulce and Davidovich performances are flaweless. Bob Hoskins role as "Komrad Beria" is both stunning and powerful.
And Aleksandr Zbruyev as "Komrad Stalin" totally creeps me out.
(...I'll keep waiting for the DVD...)
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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