Director Andrei Konchalovsky—whose past works include House Of Fools, Gloss, and, in a brief, bizarre turn into the world of brainless ’80s action blockbusters, Tango & Cash—has spoken out against a cornerstone of the communcal movie-going experience: eating popcorn. “My films are not for those who eat popcorn,” Konchalovsky told Russian news agency Tass, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “I’ll try to make sure that popcorn is not sold at screenings of my films.”
Konchalovsky‘s latest movie, Paradise, was recently submitted as a Russian entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the upcoming Oscars, and has since been shortlisted for the award. The director denied himself a similar honor two years ago, when he refused to theatrically release The Postman’s White Nights, presumably because he was worried audiences would get butter on it. It’s not clear how serious the director was about his popcorn ...
Konchalovsky‘s latest movie, Paradise, was recently submitted as a Russian entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the upcoming Oscars, and has since been shortlisted for the award. The director denied himself a similar honor two years ago, when he refused to theatrically release The Postman’s White Nights, presumably because he was worried audiences would get butter on it. It’s not clear how serious the director was about his popcorn ...
- 12/17/2016
- by William Hughes
- avclub.com
Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky's most recent film, The Nutcracker in 3D (2010), was a box office flop in the States. However, in the past Konchalovsky has also known great success, including the award winning House of Fools (2002) which took the 'Grand Jury Prize' at the Venice Film Festival.
As a film maker, Konchalovsky has certainly had a varied career, from working with Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell in Tango & Cash (1989), creating a TV adaptation Homer’s The Odyssey for HBO, and also directing numerous Russian language films, including the highly regarded Uncle Vanya (1970) and The First Teacher (1964), his debut feature made whilst he was still a student.
Last week, Cine-Vue travelled to Pushkin House in Holborn to ask Konchalovsky how he felt about the forthcoming Directorspective at London's Barbican Centre, who his influences were, and what he thought about living and working in Hollywood.
Joe Walsh: Why did you...
As a film maker, Konchalovsky has certainly had a varied career, from working with Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell in Tango & Cash (1989), creating a TV adaptation Homer’s The Odyssey for HBO, and also directing numerous Russian language films, including the highly regarded Uncle Vanya (1970) and The First Teacher (1964), his debut feature made whilst he was still a student.
Last week, Cine-Vue travelled to Pushkin House in Holborn to ask Konchalovsky how he felt about the forthcoming Directorspective at London's Barbican Centre, who his influences were, and what he thought about living and working in Hollywood.
Joe Walsh: Why did you...
- 1/26/2011
- by Daniel Green
- CineVue
With a retrospective of his films set to begin at London’s Barbican Centre, we caught up with director Andrei Konchalovsky for a brief chat about movie making…
There are few directors who can claim to have worked with such talents as Akira Kurosawa, Andrei Tarkovsky and Sylvester Stallone, but Russian filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky has done just that. In a career that has spanned over 45 years, he directed critically acclaimed dramas such as First Teacher and Uncle Vanya in the 60s and 70s, before moving to the Us in the 80s to helm Maria's Lovers, Runaway Train and Tango And Cash.
With a retrospective of some of Konchalovsky's Russian movies appearing at the Barbican this week, we sat down with the director for a brief discussion about filmmaking and the Hollywood film industry...
The Barbican retrospective covers a broad cross-section of your career to date, which spans a period of over 45 years.
There are few directors who can claim to have worked with such talents as Akira Kurosawa, Andrei Tarkovsky and Sylvester Stallone, but Russian filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky has done just that. In a career that has spanned over 45 years, he directed critically acclaimed dramas such as First Teacher and Uncle Vanya in the 60s and 70s, before moving to the Us in the 80s to helm Maria's Lovers, Runaway Train and Tango And Cash.
With a retrospective of some of Konchalovsky's Russian movies appearing at the Barbican this week, we sat down with the director for a brief discussion about filmmaking and the Hollywood film industry...
The Barbican retrospective covers a broad cross-section of your career to date, which spans a period of over 45 years.
- 1/17/2011
- Den of Geek
The Disney 50, London
Watching every Disney feature animation ever made wouldn't take a month of Sundays, it would take a year of Sundays, and here's your chance. That's right: to mark the release of the 50th Disney feature, Tangled, the BFI is playing every one of its 49 predecessors – including Bambi, Snow White and Pinocchio – chronologically, every weekend throughout 2011. By the end, you should never again want for the sight of a talking woodland animal, a silver-throated princess, a homicidal stepmother or a dated example of politically incorrect stereotyping. Beyond the all-time classics, there are some intriguing obscurities – anyone remember Make Mine Music, a jazz answer to Fantasia? – while Tangled, a snappy, Pixar-ish spin on Rapunzel, proves there's life in the 74-year-old formula yet. There'll be a preview of it this Sunday to kick off the season, and its directors host a Q&A at the IMAX later this month.
BFI Southbank,...
Watching every Disney feature animation ever made wouldn't take a month of Sundays, it would take a year of Sundays, and here's your chance. That's right: to mark the release of the 50th Disney feature, Tangled, the BFI is playing every one of its 49 predecessors – including Bambi, Snow White and Pinocchio – chronologically, every weekend throughout 2011. By the end, you should never again want for the sight of a talking woodland animal, a silver-throated princess, a homicidal stepmother or a dated example of politically incorrect stereotyping. Beyond the all-time classics, there are some intriguing obscurities – anyone remember Make Mine Music, a jazz answer to Fantasia? – while Tangled, a snappy, Pixar-ish spin on Rapunzel, proves there's life in the 74-year-old formula yet. There'll be a preview of it this Sunday to kick off the season, and its directors host a Q&A at the IMAX later this month.
BFI Southbank,...
- 1/15/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Gloss, released in 2007, will be screening at the Barbican this month on Saturday 20 with an introduction from the director himself as part of the Andrei Konchalovsky Directorspective. Each film has been chosen by Konchalovsky and the season will reflect the breadth of his critically acclaimed work.
Gloss exposes the obsession western culture has with beauty and wealth. Yuliya Vysotskaya stars as Galya, a young women with dreams of making it big in Moscow’s fashion industry as a model. Leaving her mining town for the dreamed of life of glitz and glamour, Galya learns that all that glitters is not gold. She manoeuvres herself through the Moscow underworld of designers, photographers, high-class pimps, Russian oligarchs and Mafia gangsters, realising that in order to achieve what she initially perceives as success, she must sell herself heart, mind, body and soul.
Konchalovsky scathingly attacks consumerist culture and how companies market their “products...
Gloss exposes the obsession western culture has with beauty and wealth. Yuliya Vysotskaya stars as Galya, a young women with dreams of making it big in Moscow’s fashion industry as a model. Leaving her mining town for the dreamed of life of glitz and glamour, Galya learns that all that glitters is not gold. She manoeuvres herself through the Moscow underworld of designers, photographers, high-class pimps, Russian oligarchs and Mafia gangsters, realising that in order to achieve what she initially perceives as success, she must sell herself heart, mind, body and soul.
Konchalovsky scathingly attacks consumerist culture and how companies market their “products...
- 1/13/2011
- by Daniel Green
- CineVue
This January, Barbican Film’s regular director retrospective series presents the films of one of Russia’s best known and revered Russian film makers, Andrei Konchalovsky.
Konchalovsky was student to the celebrated Mosfilm veteran Mikhail Romm at Vkig (Moscow State Film School) and his filmmaking career has seen him receive both censorship and major awards such as Venice Grand Special Jury Prize for his 2002 work, House of Fools (2002).
This is going to be a fantastic event with an introduction by Konchalovsky to his self-penned satire Gloss (2007) on the 20th and a ScreenTalk discussing his expose of the Chechen conflict House of Fools (for which he was attacked in Russia by critics for being “warmongering,”) on the 22nd.
The films being screened cover Konchalovsky’s early and more recent works including his first full length debut film First Teacher (1961) on the 29th and what is regarded as one of the greatest Russian language films,...
Konchalovsky was student to the celebrated Mosfilm veteran Mikhail Romm at Vkig (Moscow State Film School) and his filmmaking career has seen him receive both censorship and major awards such as Venice Grand Special Jury Prize for his 2002 work, House of Fools (2002).
This is going to be a fantastic event with an introduction by Konchalovsky to his self-penned satire Gloss (2007) on the 20th and a ScreenTalk discussing his expose of the Chechen conflict House of Fools (for which he was attacked in Russia by critics for being “warmongering,”) on the 22nd.
The films being screened cover Konchalovsky’s early and more recent works including his first full length debut film First Teacher (1961) on the 29th and what is regarded as one of the greatest Russian language films,...
- 1/12/2011
- by Cine-Vue
- CineVue
Hong Kong International Film Festival
HONG KONG -- In what is sure to be viewed as a Russian spin on The Devil Wears Prada, director Andrei Konchalovsky (Sibiriada, Runaway Train) turns an only partially jaundiced eye at the modern fixation on celebrity and fashion.
This is somewhat outdated and well-worn material, and explorations of the encroachment of Western celebrity culture on developing nations isn't new either. On top of that, a good amount of the film relies on tired character archetypes. Although cinematically polished and possessing an engaging lead, Gloss never manages to take flight as an effective satire.
Any film skewering the fashion industry and what was once called The Jet Set is likely to get attention from independent and Art House distributors. Gloss certainly has the production values for limited overseas release, but it's just as likely to be consigned to DVD after a spin on the festival circuit.
Galya (an appropriately low-rent Yulia Vysotskaya) is a working-class seamstress in the backwater town of Rostov-on-Don who dreams of becoming Russia's next great supermodel. After she's featured in a second-rate ad in a local newspaper, she decides the time is right to move to Moscow. She borrows enough money to get there from her on-and-off thug boyfriend, Vitya (Ilya Isaev), and quickly finesses her way into the office of the editor of Beauty magazine.
The editor, Marina (Irina Rozanova), lays the brutal truth on Galya: She doesn't stand a chance of making her mag's cover. Only temporarily defeated, Galya lands on her feet by working as a seamstress for the Karl Lagerfeld-like Mark (Yefim Shifrin), stumbles (literally) onto the runway in his new collection's show, loses her job and winds up working for erstwhile agent and escort mogul Petya (Gennady Smirnov). In the end, she does make the cover of Beauty after being transformed into a latter-day Grace Kelly and marrying up to politico Klimenko (Alekander Domogarov).
There's a lot going on in Gloss, and Konchalovsky and co-writer Dunya Smirnova go to great pains to draw links among fashion, prostitution, power and celebrity while at the same time peeling some of the glamor from the glitterati. The film is populated by shallow, fundamentally unhappy people who are simply spinning their wheels.
Marina's magazine is just a little behind the curve, and she feels her age when she looks at her competition, some of which comes in the form of her arrogant, needling daughter Nastya (Olga Arntgolts). Rozanova is affecting as a former beauty facing forced retirement, but she's only in Galya's sphere for a fleeting moment. Gloss is loaded with partially explored ideas, but therein lies the problem: They're also partially unexplored.
GLOSS
A Mosfilm, Motion Investment Group, Cadran Prods., Studio Canal, Backup Films production
Sales agent: Fortissimo Films
Credits:
Director: Andrei Konchalovsky
Screenwriters: Andrei Konchalovsky, Dunya Smirnova
Producer: Andrei Konchalovsky
Director of photography: Mariya Solovyova
Production designer: Yekaterina Zaletayeva
Music: Eduard Artemyev
Co-producers: Jeremy Burdek, Nadia Khamlichi, Adrian Politowski
Editor: Olga Grinshpun
Cast:
Galya: Yulia Vysotskaya
Zhanna: Olga Meloyanina
Vitya: Ilya Isaev
Marina: Irina Rozanova
Nastya: Olga Arntgolts
Mark: Yefim Shifrin
Petya: Gennady Smirnov
Klimenko: Alekander Domogarov
Running time -- 118 minutes
No MPAA rating...
HONG KONG -- In what is sure to be viewed as a Russian spin on The Devil Wears Prada, director Andrei Konchalovsky (Sibiriada, Runaway Train) turns an only partially jaundiced eye at the modern fixation on celebrity and fashion.
This is somewhat outdated and well-worn material, and explorations of the encroachment of Western celebrity culture on developing nations isn't new either. On top of that, a good amount of the film relies on tired character archetypes. Although cinematically polished and possessing an engaging lead, Gloss never manages to take flight as an effective satire.
Any film skewering the fashion industry and what was once called The Jet Set is likely to get attention from independent and Art House distributors. Gloss certainly has the production values for limited overseas release, but it's just as likely to be consigned to DVD after a spin on the festival circuit.
Galya (an appropriately low-rent Yulia Vysotskaya) is a working-class seamstress in the backwater town of Rostov-on-Don who dreams of becoming Russia's next great supermodel. After she's featured in a second-rate ad in a local newspaper, she decides the time is right to move to Moscow. She borrows enough money to get there from her on-and-off thug boyfriend, Vitya (Ilya Isaev), and quickly finesses her way into the office of the editor of Beauty magazine.
The editor, Marina (Irina Rozanova), lays the brutal truth on Galya: She doesn't stand a chance of making her mag's cover. Only temporarily defeated, Galya lands on her feet by working as a seamstress for the Karl Lagerfeld-like Mark (Yefim Shifrin), stumbles (literally) onto the runway in his new collection's show, loses her job and winds up working for erstwhile agent and escort mogul Petya (Gennady Smirnov). In the end, she does make the cover of Beauty after being transformed into a latter-day Grace Kelly and marrying up to politico Klimenko (Alekander Domogarov).
There's a lot going on in Gloss, and Konchalovsky and co-writer Dunya Smirnova go to great pains to draw links among fashion, prostitution, power and celebrity while at the same time peeling some of the glamor from the glitterati. The film is populated by shallow, fundamentally unhappy people who are simply spinning their wheels.
Marina's magazine is just a little behind the curve, and she feels her age when she looks at her competition, some of which comes in the form of her arrogant, needling daughter Nastya (Olga Arntgolts). Rozanova is affecting as a former beauty facing forced retirement, but she's only in Galya's sphere for a fleeting moment. Gloss is loaded with partially explored ideas, but therein lies the problem: They're also partially unexplored.
GLOSS
A Mosfilm, Motion Investment Group, Cadran Prods., Studio Canal, Backup Films production
Sales agent: Fortissimo Films
Credits:
Director: Andrei Konchalovsky
Screenwriters: Andrei Konchalovsky, Dunya Smirnova
Producer: Andrei Konchalovsky
Director of photography: Mariya Solovyova
Production designer: Yekaterina Zaletayeva
Music: Eduard Artemyev
Co-producers: Jeremy Burdek, Nadia Khamlichi, Adrian Politowski
Editor: Olga Grinshpun
Cast:
Galya: Yulia Vysotskaya
Zhanna: Olga Meloyanina
Vitya: Ilya Isaev
Marina: Irina Rozanova
Nastya: Olga Arntgolts
Mark: Yefim Shifrin
Petya: Gennady Smirnov
Klimenko: Alekander Domogarov
Running time -- 118 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 3/27/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- Fortissimo Films has picked up the rights to Andrei Konchalovsky's Russian satire Gloss, which will be screened next month at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.
The feature centers on a poor girl from a coal-mining town who travels to Moscow with dreams of being a supermodel. After being forced to work as a seamstress, she stumbles her way to the top in a story that spoofs Russia's newfound capitalism.
Writer-director Konchalovsky broke through with U.S. films in the 1980s with the Oscar-nominated Runaway Train after his acclaimed 1980 Russian feature Siberiade.
Fortissimo's Michael J. Werner made the deal for all worldwide sales rights outside France and Russia with the director. The film was screened this month at the European Film Market in Berlin.
The feature centers on a poor girl from a coal-mining town who travels to Moscow with dreams of being a supermodel. After being forced to work as a seamstress, she stumbles her way to the top in a story that spoofs Russia's newfound capitalism.
Writer-director Konchalovsky broke through with U.S. films in the 1980s with the Oscar-nominated Runaway Train after his acclaimed 1980 Russian feature Siberiade.
Fortissimo's Michael J. Werner made the deal for all worldwide sales rights outside France and Russia with the director. The film was screened this month at the European Film Market in Berlin.
- 2/28/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.