Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano

Nikita Mikhalkov, perhaps the most internationally famous living Russian filmmaker and actor is the son of soviet poets Sergei Vladimirovich Mikhalkov and Natalya Petrovna Konchalovskaya and brother of well-known Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky. He started with acting at the children’s studio of the Moscow Art Theatre and later at the Schukin School of the Vakhtangov Theatre. Still as a student he appeared in Georgi Danelyia’s film I Walk Down Moscow (1964) and few years later in his brother – Andrei Konchalovsky’s – film Home of the Gentry (1969). While on the best way to become a star of the Soviet stage and cinema, he decided to study directing at VGIK (State film school in Moscow) in the class of Mikhail Romm and Andrei Tarkovsky. From VGIK he graduated in 1970 with the short film A Quiet Day at the End of the War. The fame and recognition came along with his first feature At Home Among Strangers (1974), a Red Western set just after the 1920s civil war in Russia.

His further movies Slave of Love (1976), An Unfinished Piece for a Player Piano (1977), and A Few Days in the Life of I.I.Oblomov (1979) – the latter two inspired by the themes from the Russian classical literature – were praised for technical brilliance. As his fame and international audience grew, his films never went unnoticed at prestigious European film festivals and earned him numerous awards. Dark Eyes (1987) – a love story loosely based on Chekhov’s novel, Hitch-hiking (1990), and Close to Eden (1991) enjoyed popularity with cinema-goers and got widespread critical acclaim. In 1994 his Stalin era drama Burnt by the Sun won an Academy Award (Oscar) for the Best Foreign Film. Despite he fall from the public favor in the late 1990s, as a result of his controversial political views his The Barber of Siberia (1998) – a grandiose, big budget romance set in the 19th century Russia became a great box office success. The movie received the Russia State Prize and spawned rumours about Mikhalkov’s presidential ambitions. Mikhalkov, however, chose to administrate the Russian cinema industry. Despite much opposition from rival directors, he was elected the President of the Russian Society of Cinematographists and has managed the Moscow Film Festival since 2000. He also set the Russian Academy Golden Eagle Award in opposition to the traditional Nika Award. —Seagull Films