Window to Paris

Окно в Париж

Russia, France

1994

87 Min

Color

Russian, French

Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
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PROD Lavranti Aimrachvilli, Aleksei Kozodayev, Guy Séligmann

SCR Vyacheslav Leikin, Yuri Mamin, Guy Séligmann, Arkadi Tigai, Vladimir Vardunas

DP Anatoli Lapshov, Sergei Nekrasov

CAST Agnès Soral, Sergei Dontsov, Viktor Mikhaylov, Nina Usatova, Kira Krejlis-Petrova, Natalya Ipatova, Viktor Gogolev, Tamara Timofeyeva

ED Olga Andrianova, Joële Van Effenterre

MUSIC Yuri Mamin, Aleksei Zalivalov

Nikolai (played by Sergei Dontsov) has been fired from his job as a music teacher and has to live in the gym until he finds a place to stay. Finally, he gets a communal room in the apartment of Gorokhov (Victor Mikhalkov). The room’s previous inhabitant, an old lady, has died a year ago, and yet her cat, Maxi, is still in the locked room, healthy and fat. Soon, Nikolai and his neighbours discover the mystery: there is a window to Paris in the room. That’s when the comedy begins – will the Russians be able to cope with the temptation to profit from the discovery? —IMDb.

Director

Yuri Mamin

Mamin studied music formally from childhood and later studied piano and composition in musical professional school. In 1970, he graduated from the Leningrad State Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinematography, department of film and stage directing (class of Prof. L. F. Makariev). He served in the Soviet Army. Mamin staged and composed music for theatre productions in provincial theatres. He also staged variety shows and concerts. For 15 years he headed the Students Theatre of the Leningrad Railway Engineering Institute, garnering prizes in many All-Russia contests and student festivals. In 1976, he came to Lenfilm Feature Film Studio where he began his carrier as an assistant director and worked on pictures by I. Averbakh, S. Aranovich, V. Aristov. In 1980, he entered the Higher Two-year Course in film directing of the State Committee on Cinema of the USSR, a workshop headed by E. Riasanov. His graduation film was a short feature “Wishing You” (2 reels).
Yuri Mamin’s first full… read more

Mamin studied music formally from childhood and later studied piano and composition in musical professional school. In 1970, he graduated from the Leningrad State Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinematography, department of film and stage directing (class of Prof. L. F. Makariev). He served in the Soviet Army. Mamin staged and composed music for theatre productions in provincial theatres. He also staged variety shows and concerts. For 15 years he headed the Students Theatre of the Leningrad Railway Engineering Institute, garnering prizes in many All-Russia contests and student festivals. In 1976, he came to Lenfilm Feature Film Studio where he began his carrier as an assistant director and worked on pictures by I. Averbakh, S. Aranovich, V. Aristov. In 1980, he entered the Higher Two-year Course in film directing of the State Committee on Cinema of the USSR, a workshop headed by E. Riasanov. His graduation film was a short feature “Wishing You” (2 reels).
Yuri Mamin’s first full-length feature, the comedy “Neptune Holiday” (1986) made him widely popular overnight at home and won several major prizes at international festivals.

His second feature “Fountain” (Delit de fuites) was released in 1988 and won numerous major awards at Russian and international festivals. It was sold for foreign theatre and TV distribution. In 1990, Mamin shot his third film “Sideburns” satirizing political and social events taking place in Russia at that time.

In addition to films, Yuri Mamin makes TV entertainment programmes featuring popular actors and musicians. The mainstay of these programmes is the acting out of funny and instructive stories from world literature and history. Yuri Mamin’s is working in the comic genre. He is a winner of the “Chaplin’s Golden Stick” which is a unique prize awarded by the Vevey International Film Festival established in Switzerland to mark the Centennial of the great comedian.

In May – June, 2003, the CTC TV channel premiered the 18-episode series “Grim Tales from Russia” in which Mamin had invested two years work. —Seagull Films

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