The Inner Circle (1991)

The true story of Ivan Sanchin, the KGB officer who was Stalin's private film projectionist from 1939 until the dictator's death. Told from Sanchin's view, the sympathetic but tragically ... See full summary »

Director:

Andrey Konchalovskiy (as Andrei Konchalovsky)

Writers:

Andrey Konchalovskiy (as Andrei Konchalovsky), Anatoliy Usov

Stars:

Tom Hulce, Lolita Davidovich, Bob Hoskins

12 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Hulce	...	Ivan Sanshin
Lolita Davidovich	...	Anastasia
Bob Hoskins	...	Beria
Aleksandr Zbruev	...	Stalin
Feodor Chaliapin Jr.	...	Prof. Bartnev
Bess Meyer	...	Katya (16 years)
Mariya Baranova	...	Katya (10 years)
Irina Kupchenko	...	Directress
Vladimir Kuleshov	...	Colonel Schelkasov
Vsevolod Larionov	...	General Rumiantsev
Aleksandr Filippenko	...	Major Khitrov
Evdokiya Germanova	...	Governess
Lyubov Matyushina	...	Sonia Gubelman
Aleksandr Garin	...	Vasily Morda
Mariya Vinogradova	...	Fedosia

Storyline

The true story of Ivan Sanchin, the KGB officer who was Stalin's private film projectionist from 1939 until the dictator's death. Told from Sanchin's view, the sympathetic but tragically flawed hero maintains unwavering faith in his "Master" despite the arrest of his neighbors and his involvement with their daughter, his wife's affair with the chilling State Security chief Lavrentii Beria and her tragic decline, and the deadly political machinations within the Kremlin he witnesses firsthand.

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Plot Keywords:

projectionist | russia | stalinism | dictatorship | uniform | 

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | History

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Certificate:

PG-13

Did You Know?

Trivia

While in Russia, Tom Hulce met with Alexander Ganshin (upon whose life the film was based) to better learn what it was like to work for Stalin.

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Goofs

When Anastasia asks directress, if the Pokrov town located to the south of Moscow, she (maybe intentionally) answers 'Yes'. In reality, Pokrov is located to the east of Moscow.

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Quotes

Beria: You will not drink to Comrade Stalin?

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Connections

Features The Great Waltz (1938)

User Reviews

another brilliant realization of the theme of "little man"

There is a human tragedy of global scale - and those humans who sway this tragedy and who just turned out to be grains of sand under those wheels of history. To model what those people were in their good and weak producers and authors of "The Inner Circle" made an awesome cast in this movie - don't you agree that Bob Hoskins playing marshal Berija is worth seeing anyway. Lolita Davidovich's and great Russian actor Oleg Tabakov's was magnificent performance. And at last the central character - Ivan Sanshin - is utterly shrill figure and utterly potent message. Due to genius Tom Hulce who looks and acts completely and very naturally Russian - as I see it being Russian myself. No further words on Tom Hulce - he's just a great actor (though not a "star" in the industry, as I can guess) and every one of his works worth seeing. Even in his small role in "Parenthood" he's very convincing and dramatic - and in "The Inner Circle" he has a great material to work on... An obvious merit of this film - it is historically accurate (with exception of ahead-of-time tanks and probably something else) in details. Accurate Soviet uniforms in a Western movie is really very rare thing and in this film uniform of NKVD-officers looks authentic to the Soviet people like me... And the director's job is not bad at all - Konchalovsky has his peaks and faults and The Inner Circle is one of the peaks, I guess...

Details

Country:

Italy Soviet Union USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 December 1991 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Projectionist

Filming Locations:

Russia

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$36,782, 29 December 1991

Gross USA:

$93,292

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$93,292

Company Credits

Production Co:

Numero Uno International, Mosfilm, Columbia Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

137 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Stereo

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1