Soleil trompeur

This movie is about the most desperate and tragic situation in the human life. This is when our life is determined by external forces. Even the most basic form of happiness - being with you family, enjoying your child - were impossible in the Russia of Stalin.

Sometimes I think about people who were borne 20 years before World War II in Germany, Poland or Russia. I wonder whether they had a feeling that the life was extremely unfair to them. The feeling that your fate was determined by the time you were borne in, and that you couldn't do anything at all to somehow change it. If Mitya, Kotov and Marusya would not die then, they would have to wait for 50 years to be able to truly understand what happened to them and who was to blame for it.

I was puzzled why Mitya picked up the phone and agreed to arrest Kotov. Why didn't he stop his suffering immediately, as he knew that he had no other option than ruining lives of the people he loved. Was it his hatred towards Kotov and the opportunity to take revenge for being expelled for 10 years? Was it the last hope that his love to Marusya would reverse her marriage?

After watched the film again & again I decided that he knew from the offset there was no way out. Mitya went to his old home because he wanted just one thing - to say farewell to his dream that the old times would ever return. The dream that made him betray his comrades in the 20th, and come back from France in the 30th.

I'm so happy that we live in freedom and that the iron curtain fell.

"Burnt by the Sun" glides effortlessly, seamlessly though the genres as it tells of a handful of Russian characters who collectively constitute a family of sorts with great humor and drama, poignant and sweetly sentimental moments, and excellence both technically and artistically. What is more, the film's story is interesting, unpredictable, and well told with depth and thoroughly developed characters.

The much which has been written about the politics of the our time, the Oscar award and the bravura with which it was accepted, etc. is much ado about nothing. This is a movie. This is art and entertainment. And, when taken for what it is, "Burnt by the Sun" is truly a masterpiece.

"Burnt by the Sun" is a powerful example of what a genuinely Russian movie can be when it uses the good sides of western film-making : a coherent plot, professional camera work, and freedom of expression, all things that were rare for the cinema of Soviet times. Of course, it is not surprising that it was made by Nikita Mikhalkov, one of the few Russian directors who achieved lasting world success during communism, and therefore he had the right contacts abroad to get a decent budget. Though, "Burnt by the Sun" is way better than Mikhalkov's pompous "Barber of Siberia", which was alloted more money than any other film in the history of Russian cinema.

In "Burnt by the Sun", Mikhalkov was able to give us a palpable feeling of the beauty and genius of Russia. The lighting is magnificent all the way through, and the ripe and wide wheat fields shine like gold. The action takes place in a cozy dacha among the birch trees, a house which seems to be the nest of a bunch of gentle and carefree eccentrics, all in an atmosphere that reminds pleasantly of Tchekov.

Yet, you can tell from the start that "Burnt by the Sun" is not going to be just a comedy, as the first scene opens on a man cutting his veins in a bathtub while the telephone is ringing. However, this first forewarning soon gets forgotten throughout most of the film, which keeps a warm, light-hearted, slightly nostalgic tone almost all the time. It is only towards the middle you realize that it starts looming slowly towards predictable tragedy, and this only gets obvious in the very last moments.

It turns out that the characters we see are all members of an old aristocratic family who were spared the horrors of the revolution because the younger daughter, Marusia, married a Red Army colonel, much older than she is. Thus, they keep on living as they ever did, playing cards, drinking tea from samovars, making private jokes in French. They even have a maid and a parrot. They seem totally oblivious of the reality around them. Except for innocent looking balloons with Stalin's face on them and a few parading pioneers, the communist regime is visible almost only through the presence of colonel Kotov, brilliantly played here by Nikita Mikhalkov himself.

Colonel Kotov impersonates a character very familiar to the Russian mentality : he is tall, strong, authoritarian, but at the same time protective, warm-hearted, charming and prone to jokes. He is about just as sympathetic as the gruff milkman with a heart of gold in "Fiddler on the Roof". Although he is a military, he is not the kind of guy you think as having blood on his hands. But of course Lenin and Stalin's aura over Russian people was also partly due to the fact that they represented strong and protective father figures.

The story takes a sudden turn with the arrival of an enigmatic character disguised as a Santa Claus in the middle of summer. He turns out to be known by everyone in the house, as he is the adoptive child of the late grandfather. In fact, he was Marusia's childhood companion, and her lover in the first place, but was evicted by Kotov, who protected henceforth the whole family from repression. It soon becomes clear that the man, called Mitya, has come to take revenge for his shattered life.

All performances here are good, even though Nikita Mikhalkov, as an actor, still manages to steal the show. But one will not either forget the performance of his then six-year old daughter Nadya , who also plays his daughter in the movie. A charming, energetic and witty child performance which impersonates the innocence of the family about to be lost.

The French title for the movie was "Deceitful Sun", and I find it more appropriate. Although the film bathes in quiet sunlight, it deals with one of the darkest eras of Russian/Soviet history : Stalinism. In the early 1930's, Stalin decided to eliminate much of the newly arisen communist elite whom he did not trust anymore, and hired former enemies of communism, or half-criminals, to eradicate his own official allies. Thus, colonel Kotov remains self-righteous and sure of himself almost until the end because he simply cannot believe that Stalin will not protect him.

Needless to say that "Burnt by the Sun" is one of the first Russian movies that deals so openly with the subject. A subject which still remains quite sensitive since millions of people had their lives shattered by those events. Unlike what happened for Nazism, it was not until the end of the communist regime that it was possible to discuss it openly, even though Stalin's deeds had already been condemned officially a long time before. Therefore, this superb drama is also the symbol of a historical breakthrough.

Despite its dark subject matter, this is a very positive and heart warming movie. It shows Stalinism without the Western propaganda, through the lens of great Soviet people that made everything good even under Stalin possible. An ode of love to the great Russian and Soviet nation. Definitely recommended.

I just watched and loved this movie.

It originally portrays the contrast in character, personality, viewpoint, and the relative consequences of the Revolution upon two people -

a) Mitya, a handsome, charming, romantic, poetic, musical, child-loving man who before the movie began, lived in rural Russia, grew up with a girl who was 7 when he was conscripted into World War I, and deeply loved her parents, cousins, aunts, uncles and the household servants, and

b) Kotov, an older man, military, probably more courageous and less intelligent, bluff and physical, sentimental and less artistic, stronger but simpler, equally child-loving, from a poorer background.

Enemies in the Revolution, their behavior toward each other begins with cruelty by Kotov toward Mitya, Mitya's forced cruelty to others, and a changed and cruel man now (and knowing it) Mitya's cruelty to Kotov. And yes, a woman is also in the mix. The story is told as much through Kotov's eyes as through Mitya's.

And guess what? With all this cruelty, Kotov and Mitya are both people you'd love to spend the day with.

It's beautifully photographed - the same wonderful languor as watching say, Turgenev's A Month in the Country, the child is enchanting, the story is absolutely fascinating - far more original than such other "political" movies as The Conformist or The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. The movie is about social class, temperament, and how freely people make decisions in their lives, about love for the opposite sex, children, and country. It's compelling - you will truly always remember this movie.