Nikita Mikhalkov

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Nikita Mikhalkov in the 2005 Fandorin movie The Councillor of State.
Nikita Mikhalkov in the 2005 Fandorin movie The Councillor of State.

Nikita Sergeyevich Mikhalkov (Russian: Никита Сeргеевич Михалков; born in 1945, Moscow) is perhaps the most famous living Russian filmmaker and actor.

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[edit] The Mikhalkov family

Mikhalkov was born into a distinguished artistic family. His great grandfather was the imperial governor of Yaroslavl, whose mother was a Galitzine princess. Nikita's father, Sergei Mikhalkov, is best known as writer of children's literature although he also wrote the lyrics to the Soviet and Russian national anthems. Nikita's mother, the poet Natalia Konchalovskaya, was daughter of the avantgarde artist Pyotr Konchalovsky and granddaughter of another outstanding painter, Vasily Surikov. Nikita's older brother is the filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky, primarily known for his collaboration with Andrei Tarkovsky and his own Hollywood action movies, such as Runaway Train.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early acting career

Nikita Mikhalkov on the 1964 film poster for I Step Through Moscow.
Nikita Mikhalkov on the 1964 film poster for I Step Through Moscow.

Mikhalkov studied acting at the children's studio of the Moscow Art Theatre and later at the Schukin School of the Vakhtangov Theatre. While still a student, he appeared in Georgi Daneliya's film I Step Through Moscow (1964) and his brother Andrei Konchalovsky's film Home of the Gentry (1969). He was soon on his way to becoming a star of the Soviet stage and cinema.

[edit] Begins directing

While continuing to pursue his acting career, he then went to VGIK, the state film school in Moscow, where he studied directing under filmmaker Mikhail Romm, teacher to his brother and Andrei Tarkovsky. He directed his first short film in 1968, I'm Coming Home, and another for his graduation, A Quiet Day at the End of the War in 1970. Mikhalkov had appeared in over twenty films, including his brother's Uncle Vanya (1972), before he co-wrote, directed and starred in his first feature, At Home Among Strangers in 1974, a Red Western set just after the 1920s civil war in Russia.

[edit] Gains international reputation

Mikhalkov established an international reputation with his second feature, A Slave of Love (1976). Set in 1917, it followed the efforts of a film crew to make a silent melodrama in a resort town while the Revolution rages around them. The film, based upon the last days of Vera Kholodnaya, was highly acclaimed upon its release in the U.S.

Mikhalkov's next film, An Unfinished Piece for Player Piano (1977) was adapted by Mikhalkov from Chekhov's early play, Platonov, and won the first prize at the San Sebastian Film Festival. In 1978, while starring in his brother's epic film Siberiade, Mikhalkov made Five Evenings, a love story about a couple separated by World War II, who meet again after fifteen years. Mikhalkov's next film, Oblomov (1980), with Oleg Tabakov in the title role, is based on Ivan Goncharov's classic novel about a lazy young nobleman who refuses to leave his bed. Family Relations (1981) is a comedy about a provincial woman in Moscow dealing with the tangled relationships of her relatives. Without Witnesses (1983) tracks a long night's conversation between a woman (Irina Kupchenko) and her ex-husband (Mikhail Ulyanov) when they are accidentally locked in a room.

In the early 1980s, Mikhalkov resumed his acting career, appearing in Eldar Ryazanov's immensely popular Station for Two (1982) and A Cruel Romance (1985). At that period, he also played Henry Baskerville in the Soviet screen version of The Hound of the Baskervilles. He also starred in many of his own films, including At Home Among Strangers, A Slave of Love, An Unfinished Piece for Player Piano and Burnt by the Sun.

[edit] International success

Nikita Mikhalkov as Tsar Alexander III in the movie The Barber of Siberia (1998).
Nikita Mikhalkov as Tsar Alexander III in the movie The Barber of Siberia (1998).

Incorporating several short stories by Chekhov, Dark Eyes (1987) stars Marcello Mastroianni as an old man who tells a story of a romance he had when he was younger, a woman he has never been able to forget. The film was highly praised, and Mastroianni received the Best Actor Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and an Academy Award nomination for his performance.

Mikhalkov's next film, Urga (1992, a.k.a. Close to Eden), set in the little known world of the Mongols, who live on the border between Russia and China, received the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Mikhalkov's Anna: 6-18 (1993) documents his daughter Anna as she grows from childhood to maturity.

Mikhalkov's most famous production to date, Burnt by the Sun (1994), was steeped in the nervous atmosphere of Stalinist purges. The film received the Grand Prize at Cannes and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, among many other honours. As of 2000, Burnt by the Sun was the top grossing movie to come out of Eastern Europe. Filming a sequel is under way.

[edit] Recent career

Mikhalkov used the critical and financial triumph of Burnt by the Sun to accumulate some $25,000,000 budget for his most epic venture to date, The Barber of Siberia (1998). The film, which opened the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, was designed as a patriotic extravaganza for domestic consumption. It featured Julia Ormond and Oleg Menshikov (a Mikhalkov regular) in leading roles, while the director appeared as Tsar Alexander III of Russia.

The movie received the Russia State Prize and spawned rumours about Mikhalkov's presidential ambitions. The director, 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.

In 2005, Mikhalkov resumed his acting career, starring in three brand-new movies - The Councillor of State, a Fandorin detective which broke the Russian box-office records; Zhmurki, a noir-drenched comedy about the Russian Mafia; and Krzysztof Zanussi's Persona non grata.

As of October 2006, Nikita is in Serbia, giving moral and ethic support to Serbia's sovereignty over Kosovo, its southern province under UN administration whose ethnic Albanian population seeks independence.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Director

[edit] Actor (selected)

[edit] Bibliography

  • National Identity, Cultural Authority, and the Post-Soviet Blockbuster: Nikita Mikhalkov and Aleksei Balabanov

by Susan Larsen in Slavic Review > Vol. 62, No. 3 (Autumn, 2003), pp. 491-511


[edit] External links

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