Mikhalkov succeeded in creating a film that is visually stunning - one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.
That said, Sibirskii Tsir'ulnik is a sentimentalist piece, designed to pull at the heartstrings, and make the viewer wish for a Russia past that never really existed. Mikhalkov makes the Russian monarchy look benevolent, and the Russian peasants seem jolly in much the same way that Gone With the Wind made American viewers believe that there was something romantic and good about a society built around slavery.
I left the theater enamored with the visual images I had seen, and touched by the story of Ormond and Menshikov's romance, but with a pit in my stomach because Mikhalkov had managed to draw me in.
Watch the movie, enjoy it, but realize that it is not an accurate historical piece.
That said, Sibirskii Tsir'ulnik is a sentimentalist piece, designed to pull at the heartstrings, and make the viewer wish for a Russia past that never really existed. Mikhalkov makes the Russian monarchy look benevolent, and the Russian peasants seem jolly in much the same way that Gone With the Wind made American viewers believe that there was something romantic and good about a society built around slavery.
I left the theater enamored with the visual images I had seen, and touched by the story of Ormond and Menshikov's romance, but with a pit in my stomach because Mikhalkov had managed to draw me in.
Watch the movie, enjoy it, but realize that it is not an accurate historical piece.