Un nouveau Russe

A good movie about modern Russia. Two major problems, imho :

1) The desire of shooting "nice pictures" is often too invasive in the movie, it makes all the story too heavy, too dramatic

2) The financial aspect, the "how they succedd in conning people (and state)" is too quickly described. I'd rather had got more explanations.

But, despite its duration (more than 2 hours), this movie stays very interesting.

This is a very good and realistic movie showing the birth of Russian capitalism, the people who were behind it, the Russian mafia in its true form, and the man who made a fortune in a dawn of Russian capitalism. The movie is based on the novel "Bolshaya Paika" (The Big Slice) by Yuly Dubov about Boris Berezovsky, the true oligarch of Russia. This is the man whom Vladimir Mashkov brilliantly portrays in the charachter of Platon. 9/10

Pavel Lungin's "Oligarkh" (alternately called "Tycoon" and "Tycoon: A New Russian" in English) looks at the free-for-all that dominated post-Soviet Russia. The protagonist becomes the richest man in the country through all manner of vile means. It was unfortunate that Boris Yeltsin, initially seen as a champion of democracy, sold his country off to the old functionaries who became oligarchs. Some have fallen from grace and even faced criminal prosecution, depending on which ones the government favors.

I understand that Platon Makovsky is based on Boris Berezovsky. It probably could have just as easily focused on any of the magnates who rose to prominence in the 1990s. The point is, these ruthless people turned the Russian Federation into their playground.

It's not a masterpiece, but worth seeing.

"Tycoon: A New Russian" is a powerful saga that doesn't spare anybody. Oligarchs, Russian politicians, mafia - it is hard to tell them apart sometimes. The end of communism unfortunately didn't bring the peace and prosperity that people expected. The new economic rules were not followed with appropriate laws, hence the disaster happened. Some people with the brains , but without scruples, breaking all the rules of decency, became unbelievably wealthy. Platon Makovsky, the protagonist of this movie, loosely based on the life of Boris Berezovsky,was worth 5 billion dollars. It is mind boggling that in the disarray and tragedy after the fall of the Soviet Union, somebody can make that much money. This movie explains how it all happened, and it is clear to the viewer why the next leader of Russia became someone like Vladimir Putin. Like it or not it was inevitable.

Oligarkh, is an average movie about a group of friends taking advantage of the opportunities "new Russia" offered after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The movie has certain value in giving a rough sketch of how the vacuum left by the collapsed communist system was filled by various criminal elements. However, it fails to do that comprehensively, possibly because, as it targets the Russian audience, it assumes too much information. The transformation of the 'naive, jolly group of friends" into a vicious, ruthless, hierarchical criminal organization is not well demonstrated, phases of changes in characters' world views and emotions largely left to the imagination of the audience. Since the story is told going back and forth in time, some of the criticism can be overlooked, but one cannot help but notice some plot holes. Moreover, it ends in a quite cheesy way, reminding a cheap Hollywood B-movie, something I do not hope to see in a supposedly-sophisticated Russian movie.

The acting is generally good, but not outstanding. I thought supporting characters were more impressive than the hero, and I especially liked the commissar and his style. Direction is not bad, and actually it made me think that it was directed by a talented, but inexperienced director. It seems Lungin has a longer career than I expected.