BURNT BY THE SUN Movie Review

Outomlionnye Solntsem

Nikita Mikhalkov's seductive film takes place at a lively, warm, well-lived-in Russian country estate in 1936. It's a year in which many of the old veterans of the Revolution (one of whom is the head of this household, played by Mikhalkov himself) are taking the nation's direction for granted and are letting their guard down, not yet fully aware of the nightmare that Stalin was about to create. It's in this Chekhovian setting that Mikhalkov and his wife and daughter are visited by a mysterious stranger, as well as by an even more mysterious plague of fireballs, which race through the sky, zip in and out of windows, and just do not look like good omens at all. Burnt by the Sun is an easy-to-take cautionary tale about resting on one's laurels and the dangers of ceasing to be vigilant, and on that level it's a sobering experience. As drama, however, it tends to cross the border at some point from being leisurely to flaccid, and at two-and-a-half hours the picture seems like a long slog. The part of Mikhalkov's daughter is played by the enchanting young Nadia Mikhalkov, real-life daughter of the director; she neatly steals every scene that she's in. (When Burnt by the Sun won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, it was Nadia who charmed the L.A. crowd when she and her dad made their acceptance speech together.)

NEXT STOP … A Slave of Love, Oblomov, Close to Eden

1994 (R) 134m/C RU FR Nikita Mikhalkov, Ingeborga Dapkounaite, Oleg Menshikov, Nadia Mikhalkov, Andre Oumansky, Viatcheslav Tikhonov, Svetlana Krioutchkova, Vladimir Ilyine; D: Nikita Mikhalkov; W: Nikita Mikhalkov, Rustam Ibragimbekov; C: Vilen Kalyuta; M: Eduard Artemyev. Academy Awards ‘94: Best Foreign Film; Cannes Film Festival ‘94:Grand Jury Prize; Nominations: Australian Film Institute ‘96: Best Foreign Film; British Academy Awards ‘95: Best Foreign Film. VHS, LV COL