Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Kirpianuscus beautiful landscapes. and seductive story. clever mixture of humor and drama. a bitter love story. and Russia in a splendid portrait about past, tradition, image about world, love and duty. Oleg Menshikov does one of that characters who are essence of a state of soul. the science to explore the emotions of young Tolstoy, the madness of gesture from profound love, the dialog with Jane, the search of sense in an absurd universe, all as embroidery of significant details. Julia Ormond gives a special aura to her character. and that is not a real surprise. the film is about evolution. the evolution of lead characters. the evolution of Russia itself. an admirable scene - the presence of Nikita Mikhalkov as Alexander II . a not great film. but, surely, a beautiful one.

chopinmoz While not one of my favorite movies of Mikhalkov, this last review from this what-on-earth-he-think-he-is guy from Bulgaria made me to write something. How can it be a waste of time watching Russian cinema? Only a rat mind can conceive something like this. Anyway, stupidity mixed with pretentiousness is so terrible that you can't even laugh about it. Of course, the movie will seem boring to someone with a such an attitude and such a narrow brain. As I said, I like the more other movies from this author. "Unfinished piece for mechanical piano" is what first come to mind. But anyway, to anyone it's own. I don't know for example why Julia Ormond seemed out of place here, and, someone else noted, the age of the Russian protagonist. But, it's a movie after all and you absolutely enjoy it.

gilesdereis What wonderful cinematography! The colors are great. The whole cast is well photographed. The sets are lovely to look at. Even the US Army camp is made to look like a resort.Julia Ormond glowed, and warmed the screen with her smile.But the storyline dragged. Actually, "dragged" suggests movement, which is at time the opposite of what happened. The story just came to a complete stop at times. You found yourself in two minute scenes which lasted fifteen minutes, but seemed more like an hour. And these halts did nothing to advance character development, plot or anything visible.The director can't blame the writer, or vice versa, because they were one and the same person.You could back a very large truck through the holes in the plot and not touch their sides.In addition to a sputtering storyline, whose idea was it to make the Russian cadets 30+ years old, but act as if they were 16? Is there such a shortage of young actors in Russia? I knew that their national demographics have gone to hell, but I assumed that there were still enough presentable Russian 20 year olds to play 16 year olds to cast one film. Except for the lead, they didn't even have to say anything much, so they could have rounded up a bunch of eastern European catwalk models from D&G.Also, I got the feeling that there WAS supposed to be a big age difference between the principals. In fact, the 38 year old actor who played the romantic lead is referred to as a "boy" several times. Its just that he wasn't. And to avoid this being too obvious, they made all of his friends the same age.The Tsar in 1885 is clearly Alexander III, but looks like a portly Nicholas II, and has a son seen with him - the Crown Prince - who could not possibly be the next Tsar (that would have made Nicholas about 30 when WWI began, rather than the actual 45 he was). Why bother to play with history like this? It just makes the film clang with dumb anachronisms.Too bad, because there was some real talent on show here. 5/10

Armand A beautiful film. In fact, a travel in the heart of Russian spirit. Love, traditions, drama and memories. The subtle past, the gloomy present, gestures at pieces of an old mirror and drops of a old rain. A film about an age. Age of everybody with different nuances but warm ashes, with secrets and words transfigured in memory waters, with resignations and desires and snow of a personal past. It is easy to say: a splendid film. A film of Mihalkov. Good, precious and real. But it is more. It is the discover of yourself. It is a drama. It is a comedy. It is a kind of Proust's madlene. The director as the czar, Menshikov as the young cadet and Osmond - the foreign lady, who discover the roots of reality. A movie without public because each man, each woman is a character of this masterpiece about beauty, values and lost ages.