Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano (1976)
Director: Nikita Mikhalkov
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Mikhalkov's version of Chekhov's first play, Platonov, has a lyrical naturalism that Chekhov would have loved. Beautifully paced, the film knows when to draw back from its lethargic liberals, impotent idealists, and hedonists in hock. Stolidly unlikely to inflame even provincial female hearts, Alexander Kalyagin's once promising schoolmaster rings uncomfortably true as he rouses a sleeping household with the tragic self-realisation of the non-achiever down the ages. 'I'm thirty-five!' he shrieks, yesterday's radical now a blubbering clown. The household clucks, consoles, squabbles, goes back to sleep as dawn breaks. Chilly for some. MHoy.Author: MHoy
Cast & crew
Director: Nikita Mikhalkov
Cast: Alexander Kalyagin, Elena Solovei, Eugenia Glushenko, Antonina Shuranova, Yuri Bogatyrev, Nikita Mikhalkov full cast
Genre(s): Period/Swashbucklers
Duration: 100 mins
Top Stories
Ridley Scott interview
Director Ridley Scott tells Cath Clarke why he's making a science fiction comeback
Cannes Film Festival 2012: half-time report
Dave Calhoun reports on the hits, misses and a shocking new masterpiece from Michael Haneke






What do you think?
Post your review now