In 2015, in honor of the 70th anniversary of the famous Soviet and Russian actor and director Nikita Sergeyevich Mikhalkov TV channel "Russia" prepared a documentary Ella Tukhareli"Nikita Mikhalkov". And in my opinion, since then almost nothing has changed in the life of the master of Russian cinema, who once received the Oscar statuette. This film is still considered relevant today.
The structure of the work was uneven. There are elements of the interview film. In particular, we see how Mikhalkov answers questions of journalist Vladimir Solovyov, as well as a number of interviews with friends and colleagues of Mikhalkov on cinema (among which there will be foreigners, such as Emir Kusturica and Steven Seagal). But there are also elements of the portrait film, since the viewer is shown the life of Mikhalkov in his estate surrounded by relatives and friends. And as for the film-portrait, the “Nikita Mikhalkov” is inferior to the same documentary project “Lives such a gentleman” by Andrei Zaitsev, filmed for the 65th anniversary of the director. And the interviews shown in the film, in my opinion, it was necessary either to reduce the number of people interviewed, or to increase screen time to more fully reveal the character of the main character through the prism of evaluation by others.
As for the main character, the consequences of the formed personality cult of Nikita Sergeyevich (almost like his namesake Khrushchev) are shown here. Almost all the questions that Solovyov asks him, one way or another, he reduced to excuses and protecting himself and his character. Yes, he was born not quite an ordinary Soviet family - both parents are known throughout the Soviet Union people. But as if not wanting to hear the apparently annoying question about the status of the major and the influence of the famous father on his fate, Mikhalkov himself answers that his parents did not help him (and moreover, he was flogged as a child). In doing so, he demonstrates his willingness to stand up to the haters and other envious people he has, like any media personality.
One of the popular techniques in documentary film is the illustration of what the hero said fragment from the film / series. But most often in this film will appear fragments from the painting by Ryazanov “Station for two”, demonstrating the hot-tempered character of Mikhalkov, who in his youth constantly got into the police for fights because of jealousy for his beautiful wife.
And although colleagues in the workshop praise Nikita Sergeevich as a talented director, thanks to the footage of the filming processes of “Siberian Barber” and “12”, it becomes obvious that Mikhalkov is a rather tough leader on the set, sometimes resorting to foul language. Which, however, does not negate the fact that he confidently does his job, fully immersed in the process.
No matter how each of us treats Mikhalkov, as an actor, director, chairman of the jury, public figure, blogger (after all, his author’s program “Besogon TV” is not only shown on Mikhalkov’s YouTube channel, but also on the federal channel), Nikita Sergeevich is a bright and charismatic personality of domestic cinema. You could say lump. And that is why this film seemed superficial to me, because with such material there was where to turn the creators.
5 out of 10