Sibirskiy tsiryulnik (1998)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Nikita Mikhalkov

Writers:

Nikita Mikhalkov (story)
Rustam Ibragimbekov (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

20 February 1999 (Russia)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

He's Russian. That explains a lot.

Plot:

Douglas is a foreign entrepreneur, who ventures to Russia in 1885 with dreams of selling a new, experimental...

Plot Keywords:

Russia | Military Academy | Firework | Drunkenness | Shrovetide

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Julia Ormond	...	Jane Callahan
Richard Harris	...	Douglas McCraken
Oleg Menshikov	...	André Tolstoi
Aleksei Petrenko	...	General Radlov
Marina Neyolova	...	The mother of Andrei Tolstoi
Vladimir Ilyin	...	Captain Mokin
Daniel Olbrychski	...	Kopnovsky
Anna Mikhalkova	...	Douniacha
Marat Basharov	...	Polievsky
Nikita Tatarenkov	...	Alibekov
Artyom Mikhalkov	...	Buturlin
Georgiy Dronov	...	Cadet Nazarov (as Yegor Dronov)
Avangard Leontyev	...	Andrei's Uncle
Robert Hardy	...	Forsten
Elizabeth Spriggs	...	Perepyolkina

Also Known As:

Сибирскiй цирюльникъ (Russia)
Il barbiere di Siberia (Italy)
Le barbier de Sibérie (France)
The Barber of Siberia (International: English title)

Runtime:

180 min | Russia:275 min (TV version)

Country:

Russia | France | Italy | Czech Republic

Language:

Russian | English | French | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Finland:K-11 | Netherlands:6 | South Korea:15 | France:U | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIB | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12 | Iceland:L

Filming Locations:

Aldeia do Meco, Sesimbra, Portugal

Company:

Three T Productions

Trivia:

The winter in 1997 was uncommonly snowless and warm but the movie makers wanted to film snowy Moscow streets and the Kremlin. So they used hundreds of tons of artificial snow.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In a scene which takes place in 1905, a US flag is seen with 50 stars. The correct flag would have 45 Stars.

Soundtrack:

Tales from the Vienna Woods

A very nice movie

I must have an extremely bad taste. Most professional critics have written devastating comments on this movie. I just loved it, all 180 minutes of it! Of course, according to the rules, you should not mix slapstick and serious drama. Mikhalkov does it and the result completely vindicates him, I feel. Critics should not forget that cinema is about entertainment. They blame Mikhalkov because he did not make another high brow artistic movie like « Burnt by the sun ». I liked both movies equally well, different as they are. Critics say Mikhalkov presented a phony image of old Russia. Of course, his billboard image of tsarist Russia is not devoid of clichés and camp, but what a glorious camp it is! Mikhalkov is accused of painting a much too rosy picture of old Russia. But are the Russians (and other people) not entitled to some glimpses of the beautiful Russia that could have been, but somehow never seems able to materialize in this century of gloom ? The critics point out that the movie has a lot of formal weaknesses. To the heck with the critics ! This movie may not have a very deep message, but I think it illustrates, in a poetic way, the difficulty Russians and Westerners have at understanding each other. Either you love this movie, or you ‘d better leave it . When you look at the viewer voting results, you see that three quarters of those who voted on this movie adore it (scores 8-10), while the others loathe it (scores 1-4). Apparently it is a movie you can't be indifferent about.