Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy
Journey into "Hamlet"-the play and the man-through the experiences of some of the major actors and directors who have brought Shakespeare's great tragedy to life. Christopher Plummer, David Tennant, John Nettles, John Simm, Sir Trevor Nunn, Franco Zeffirelli, Philip Saville, and others explore the enduring appeal of the Prince of Denmark more than 400 years after his stage debut.
Knowing that he will soon pass on, elderly Valentin Grack hires private detective Stanislav to follow him around for an entire day and write down everything that he does. It is a cold day and during Grack's travels he encounters a younger woman who addresses him as professor. He then meets a prostitute who turns out to be his daughter, and finally he meets an old woman, his worried wife who has been searching eight days for him. In between meeting the women, Grack finds himself in some almost surreal situations and having flashbacks about his youth.
A tragic accident happens during the shooting of a movie about Jesus Christ. An actor who plays Jesus is killed. The director of the movie believes that he is guilty of this death.
The spicy story of a modest Russian guy drawn into the incessant sexual marathon by the will of rival intelligence agencies. The victims of such an incredible love contest are charming ladies - from an opera singer to an overseas prostitute - and even the wife of an intelligence general. However, the love that has happened violates the plans of the rival intelligence agencies.
Historical drama about the engineer of the first printing press built in Muscovite Rus' and his complicated relationship with the state under the rule of tsar Ivan IV ("the Terrible"). Released for theaters as a 2-part 147 minute movie and for TV as a 5-part 5-hour miniseries.
Venice, eighteenth century. The young Rosanna, widowed on her wedding day, discovers that she is the sole heir to an enormous patrimony, becoming in this way the most coveted party of the Serenissima.
A factory worker leads a double life. In that other reality, he's a "killer" doing his dirty work. Receiving the order, he is as close to his "client", penetrating into his life before it is cut off. In parallel, it turns out that the "client" holds in the hands of three respectable women who are connected with each other by one craft - prostitution. Trying to cash in on their secret "killer" gets a feminine charms and falls victim to his greed
Daniel Corban reports his wife Elizabeth missing to the police. A priest arrives and says he has found her. When he brings her in, Corban insists she is not his wife. When several other people arrive and verify she is Elizabeth, Daniel feel's he is loosing the grip on reality.
The last twenty-four hours in the lives of a Jewish tailor and his family just prior to their deportation and execution at Babi Yar.
Three naval cadets accidentally get possession of a secret diary that was stolen from Bestuzhev, a vice-chancellor of Russia. If this diary ever gets abroad, the consequences for the country would be grave. The cadets are trying to return the papers to their owner, but there are others who want to get the papers...
The final film of the television series "the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson." It is based on the late and little-known stories of Arthur Conan Doyle, United by the theme of the approaching world war and the struggle of the legendary detective with foreign spies.
History teacher Nikolay Echevin on his sixtieth birthday receives an anonymous letter in which he is called the "center of public infection" and threatened with murder.
История о событиях в Петербурге в канун первой мировой войны, событиях странных, драматических, развернувшихся в течение одной недели Рождества перед Новым 1914 годом. Герой фильма - частный детектив Петя Чухонцев, не окончивший курса студент-юрист, - расследует дело изобретателя Куклина, который был убит. Убит именно так, как предсказывал во время странного, почти сумасшедшего, новогоднего визита к Чухонцеву. Расследуя дело Куклина, Петя очень быстро сообразит, что в этом деле центральной фигурой является немец Шольц, владелец , по дешевке скупающий изобретения русских умельцев и передающий их шпиону Зигфреду Гею, советнику германского посольства. Однако также скоро Петя поймет и то, что он влез явно не в свое дело...
Aboard a ship early in the 20th-century, a middle-aged Italian tells his story of love to a Russian. In a series of flashbacks filmed almost entirely in creams, whites, and ochers, the clownish and superfluous Romano Patroni leaves his wife's opulent home to visit a spa where he falls in love with a Russian woman whose marriage is a horror. He pursues her into the Russian heartland and returns to Italy resolved to leave his wife and marry his love. His amazed and appreciative Russian listener then narrates a shorter story.
“Without the Sun” is the first name that Gorky himself gave to his play and which most closely matches its essence. For this work is not about the "day" and its people, but about the indestructible, passionate desire of people from darkness to light, to the sun. "
Soviet full-length animated film based on drawings by Alexander Pushkin directed by Andrey Khrzhanovsky, which includes all three pictures of the Pushkin's trilogy of the director: "I Am Tlying to You as a Memory..." (1977), "With You I Am Again..." (1980) and "Autumn" (1982).
In addition to the two-part television version of the film, a shorter version was installed to show the film, entitled “Sherlock Holmes in the 20th Century.” In this installation version, in particular, the entire plot of the story “Bruce-Partington Drawings” was deleted. A film version was released before the premiere of the full (two-part) television version of the film.
About the death of Aleksandr Pushkin, the leading poet and writer of Russia, who was shot on a duel and died when he was 37.
Soviet adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
The story is about Goddess that became as legendary as the sex symbol of Soviet Union.
The film is a recollection of an adult about the unforgettable days of the first post-war year. Klava, who lost her husband at the front, with her 12-year-old daughter Lyusya sheltered Aygul with a seven-year-old boy in her house. Aygul's son - the main character, now became a pilot, recalls his childhood in a small Kazakh city, which fell on a difficult post-war time. Flying high above the Earth, he thinks of the Russian girl Lyusya, from his distant past.
A story from the life in the beginning of XX century based on the theater play by Maxim Gorky.
Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov plans to buy the titles to “dead souls” and use them as collateral to obtain a large loan. He comes to a small provincial town and begins to proposition the local landowners. These landowners are revealed to be so petty and avaricious that not even Chichikov’s amazing offer can be worked to his advantage on them. Some stall, some refuse for no obvious reasons, some promise and then renege, and others want “in on the deal.” In the end, Chichikov, having concluded that the landowners are a hopeless lot, leaves for other regions.
One soviet programmer has problems in his job. He is laughed at by women, they think he is too awkward. His chiefs are giving no rest to him. In addition to that they give him very difficult project to be done very soon. Overcoming himself he does impossible. After closing away in his office and spending there several days and nights without sleep he finds some solution and immediately fells asleep. After waking up after very surrealistic dream he surprises of what has happened while he was asleep. And the miracles have just started for him…
Juggler Dan is beautiful and carefree and not too eager to become the circus main star. However, the meeting with Olga, who has no doubts about his talent, makes Dan think about a creation of anew circus show.
Theft takes place in Washington, DC. Howard Knox is a well-intentioned Congressman crusading for reform. He is scheduled to make a speech in which he will expose the corrupt activities of an industrial magnate and his congressional stooges. The wealthy capitalist in question, Anthony Starkweather, along with his son-in-law and political puppet, Senator Thomas Chalmers, will do everything in their power to foil Knox's great speech and publicly disgrace him. To complicate matters, Margaret Chalmers, wife of Senator Chalmers and daughter of Starkweather, forms a friendship with Knox and begins to sympathize with his cause.
Hermann is an officer of the engineers in the Imperial Russian Army. He constantly watches the other officers gamble, but never plays himself. One night, Tomsky tells a story about his grandmother, an elderly countess. Many years ago, in France, she lost a fortune at cards, and then won it back with the secret of the three winning cards, which she learned from the notorious Count of St. Germain. Hermann becomes obsessed with obtaining the secret.
A rich caliph is leading a careless life. One day an evil wizard sells him a magic potion that can turn human into any animal he wants. The only condition: one mustn't laugh.
The second part of a trilogy of films based on Pushkin's drawings, poems and letters.
A musical fairytale based on the poem "The Tale of the Dead Princess" by Alexander Pushkin.
In this picture, the barrier epitomizes the line between reality and dreams, the pattern of harmony and happiness. The delicate, pretty, sensitive Dorotea and the sedate middle-aged composer Antoni meet by chance. He gives her shelter in his house. Famous composer falls under the spell of young Dorothea: A pretty, thin-skinned, though quite an eccentric girl.
In the fall of 1938, three former fighters of the international brigade — russian Shukhov, frenchman Henri and american Liz — fall into a resort town on the border of Spain and France. Having met a nurse who is supposed to send Spanish children to Corsica, they decide to help her. However, a fascist rebellion suddenly breaks out in the city, and the children are held hostage to criminals.
A boy in Russia, circa 1900, makes a daunting trip from his home village to a school in the city.
The film is based on the play of the same name by the national poet of Bashkortostan Mustai Karim. The events of the film take place in the XVII century. Drama from the history of the Bashkir people.
The film is based on the drawings and manuscripts of A.S.Pushkin.
Based on the novel by Charles de Coster "The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak, and their Adventures Heroical, Joyous and Glorious in the Land of Flanders and Elsewhere." First part: "The Ashes of Claes". XVI century. The freedom-loving and cheerful people of the Netherlands under the rule of the Spanish king: persecution, torture, bonfires of the Inquisition, encouraging scammers. The fearless Thyl Uhlenshpiegel and his faithful girlfriend Nele have to go through many trials. Second part: "Viva Beggars!". The people of the Netherlands, tormented by cruel royal decrees, taxes, heresy, torture and executions, began a war of liberation against Spanish rule. Many feats will be performed by the national hero Tilbert (Thyl) Ulenspiegel and his friend Lamme Gudzak before peace returns to their homeland.
A story about a good doctor - surgeon Mishkin who works in a countryside hospital.
In one of the realms, there was time for the prince to get married, but the bride would have to be a real princess. A sign was put up on the gates: “ A Princess Wanted”. But in response to it there appeared only a small girl, wet to the bones after the rain and bearing no resemblance to nobility. So the prince was obliged to venture off to other lands in search of a suitable match. Henceforth the prince’s adventures unfold. In one kingdom, he met a fat king, in another – a hospitable king. He also visited the kingdom of arts. He saw enough princesses, beautiful and clever. And yet, the real princess, the only one he longed for, proved to be the girl who had knocked at their door during a rainstorm…
A story of the creation of the atomic bomb in America, Germany and the USSR.
Interstellar expedition equipped by "pioneers"(soviet scouts) reached Alpha Kassiopea and found that smart robots took control on hole planet. Their only goal - to make happy , as they understand, their masters. Happines was, actually, sutisfactions of primitive needs, and removing "disturbing" emotions like love, responsebility etc. A many years ago they succeded to reach this goal and all aborigines died out. A very little amount of people escaped from "total happening" and their descendants orbiting the planet in a big orbital station for many generations. Brave soviet pioneers land on a planet, destroy robots and bring it back to their residents
The young girl Olga Vasilyeva grew up in an orphanage. She never knew her mother and wants to find her. The only trace she has is a preserved letter from her mother from her personal file, which she managed to get from the administration of the orphanage. For a short vacation at her factory school, she travels from Sverdlovsk to Moscow following the unreliable traces of this letter. Yelena Alekseyevna — the woman she finds when she arrives at the address turns out to be a teacher in a ballet school, the wife of an ordinary senior teacher at the Moscow Technical Institute (who didn't defend his dissertation and is complacent about this) and an old-Moscow intellectual. She kindly meets her, but she is not the person Olga is looking for, she only has the same last name and first name and consonant middle name. She is kind and hospitable, ready to help the girl find her real mother and offers Olga to visit her house during a short stay in Moscow.
In July 1942, in the Second World War, the rearguard of the Russian army protects the bridgehead of the Don River against the German army while the retreating Russian troops cross the bridge. While they move back to the Russian territory through the countryside, the soldiers show their companionship, sentiments, fears and heroism to defend their motherland.
Researching for a script about a famous scientist who tragically passed away, a writer meets his wife Anna who's been struggling with the loss. A tale of the couple's life and love unfolds.
About Russian space program and missile industry, and it's founder Sergei P. Korolev, from the 1920s to the first man in space in 1961.
Andrei Konchalovsky’s Uncle Vanya surely has the greatest claim as the best screen adaptation of a Chekhov play. Featuring brooding and articulate performances, especially from Sergei Bondarchuk as Doctor Astrov and gorgeous cinematography that shifts from sepia to autumnal colours, the film has an elegaic and bittersweet atmosphere. The setting is a crumbling country estate which supports the chic urban lifestyle of the elderly Professor Serebryakov who visits with his young and glamorous new wife, Elena.
Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-law student, kills an old pawnbroker and her sister, perhaps for money, perhaps to prove a theory about being above the law. He comes to police attention through normal procedures (he was the victim's client), but his outbursts make him the prime suspect of the clever Porfiry. Meanwhile, life swirls around Raskolnikov: his mother and sister come to the city followed by two older men seeking his sister's hand; he meets a drunken clerk who is then killed in a traffic accident, and he falls in love with the man's daughter, Sonia, a young prostitute. She urges him to confess, promising to follow him to Siberia. Will he accept responsibility?
The film is dedicated to the great Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893). It tells of the last twenty years of the great master’s life, of his friendship with Baroness von Meck, an outstanding woman of her time, who for many years was Tchaikovsky’s guardian angel. The film also includes retrospections of the composer’s childhood and adolescent years, with Tchaikovsky’s life poetically recounted against the background of fragments from his operas and ballets performed by the best Russian musicians.
Based on the play of the same name by Leo Tolstoy. According to Fyodor Protasov, the surrounding life is riddled with dirt and falsehood. He does not want to participate "in all this dirty trick", he does not have the courage to fight it, and he chooses the third way — to stage suicide.
An insurance agent who moonlights as a carthief steals cars various crooks and never from the common people. He sells the stolen cars and gives the money to charity. His best friend, a cop, is assigned to bring in this modern robin hood.
Based on the classic novella, "Le petit prince", by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
Shakespeare's 17th century masterpiece about the "Melancholy Dane" was given one of its best screen treatments by Soviet director Grigori Kozintsev. Kozintsev's Elsinore was a real castle in Estonia, utilized metaphorically as the "stone prison" of the mind wherein Hamlet must confine himself in order to avenge his father's death. Hamlet himself is portrayed (by Innokenti Smoktunovsky) as the sole sensitive intellectual in a world made up of debauchers and revellers. Several of Kozintsev directorial choices seem deliberately calculated to inflame the purists: Hamlet's delivers his "To be or not to be" soliloquy with his back to the camera, allowing the audience to fill in its own interpretations.
Two young scientists are exploring new fields of nuclear physics. Dmitry Gusev and Ilya Kulikov are good friends, but rivals in love. Dmitry marries Lyolya and they live happily together. Luck has it that he makes an important discovery. Unfortunately he exposes himself to radioactivity during the experiments. As a result he falls seriously ill. However Dmitry has a strong spirit. His will to live, the deep passion for his work and his strong love for mankind makes it possible for him to recover.
Film version of the Rimsky Korsakov opera from the Pushkin story. Motsart i Salyeri (Mozart and Salieri), based on a legend that Salieri poisoned Mozart, meditates on the nature of creativity while introducing, in brilliantly compressed speeches, what was to be one of the important Russian themes—metaphysical rebellion against God.
For Vera — a student of the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute, first love instead of joy and happiness brings disappointment — and it was enough to have one first deception, and before a self-confident girl changes, becomes suspicious and closed. She no longer believes in anyone and runs away from people — having left the institute, Vera and her small daughter leave for a remote village where no one knows her. Soon she has a thin and responsive friend — a teacher at a neighboring school, Aleksei Nikolaevich...
On the streets of the regional city, a cheerful holiday bustle reigns. The apartment of the Kupriyanovs is also noisy — friends of their youngest daughter Yulka are preparing for the New Year. The old driver Leonid Kupriyanov will not have to celebrate the holiday with his family, he should go on the next trip. Preparing for the New Year, none of the heroes imagined what dramatic events would fall on them, how difficult and unexpectedly the destinies of three families would intertwine, how difficult it would be to recover from their experiences ...
Four geologists are searching for diamonds in the wilderness of Siberia. After a long and tiresome journey they manage to find their luck and put the diamond mine on the map. The map must be delivered back to Moscow. But on the day of their departure a terrible forest fire wreaks havoc, and the geologists get trapped in the woods.
The engineer and the reporter arrived at one of the plants of the Altai. They have just completed the institutions and are confident that the future is in their hands. At the plant, all relations are formed around the dubious glory of the Turner Milovidov. A fresh look, self-confidence and each other help friends to expose the "record holder".
