Le cercle des intimes

This movie haunted me for months after seeing it, but I think that it should be considered required viewing. This movie does an amazing job at showing the kind of mindset which allows tyrants like Stalin to get away with their crimes. Those who don't understand history are doomed to repeat it, and this movie does a great job at hammering that understanding home in a very heart-wrenching manner. This movie will shake you up but you'll come away from it with some really interesting perspectives on the human spirit and what we're capable of.

This film is a great favorite of mine, though it's a hard-sell to recommend to friends. It's an extremely moving story that brings tears to your eyes, without manipulating you by "pulling the strings." The pathos emerge from the events and the (very well-played) characters depicted. Russian artists seem to have a special affinity for this, and for Konchalovsky this is a very accessible film. Was it tailor-made for Western audiences? The cast would suggest so. Although Tom Hulce was wonderful in "Amadeus," seeing him in "The Inner Circle" impressed me no end. I think it's telling that more than one reviewer of Russian descent on the IMDb found his characterization quintessentially Russian. It's a damn shame we don't see more of his work in films these days. The character of Ivan's wife Anastasia might have helped given rise to some comments that the characters are two-dimensional. As played by Lolita Davidovich, she is all simple, sweet naivety. Somewhat distractingly, for me she evoked memories of Gilda Radner in her appearance and voice. Nevertheless, I enjoyed her performance, and thought it an honest and effective one. All of us should have the opportunity to know someone like Anastasia in our lifetimes. Like many such characters in works of fiction, she proves to be too good to live. The scene at the end of the film, when Ivan sees the teenaged Katya amongst the mob at Stalin's funeral, and runs over the heads and shoulders of the crowd to prevent her from killing herself in the lethal crush -- it's absolutely devastating. How Konchalovsky finds a credible way to set the scene of their cathartic breakdown to each other to the fourth movement of Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique" symphony is really ingenious. I get misty just writing about it. Maybe it's not for everybody, but I can't praise it highly enough.

As an armchair historian who's read dozens of book on Stalin and the Soviet Union under his control, I was fascinated by this movie. A great cast helps underscore the paranoia, backstabbing, and fear of the Stalinist system as seen through the eyes of a small-time player who's been thrust into a very dangerous circle.

Hulce is terrific as the simple, hard-working Soviet citizen who wants nothing more than to believe in the system that dominates his life, yet he knows it's a system riddled with traps and monsters. Hoskins is equally good as the real-life monster Beria - Stalin's chief of state security and main hatchet-man.

A highly underrated movie.

Unbelievable...that's all that kept going through my mind. How could people treat others so badly? I saw this around Christmas time and it totally bummed me out. Wow, not a film for the holiday season! Basically, if you had any doubts at all about the horror that was Russia's Stalinist era, here is your confirmation. Good Acting, sad, sad story, tragic even, photography excellent (some shots looks so realistic! Of course, some scenes were shot in the Kremlin, supposedly).

Very moving film.

If, as me, you are interested in the Soviet Union period, its history, art, period atmosphere, Stalin and his whereabouts, if you want to dive into those gloomy years of terror for the common Russian folk, and especially from the inside the Kremlin walls, this TV movie is made for you; It is accurate, splendidly played, made, fascinating material and destined to people in search of the most actual, real events. It's not destined to make gross, to entertain the bulk of today's audiences. I would put it with another TV stuff STALIN, starring Robert Duvall in the lead character. Production design is outstanding here, very meticulously made. You will enjoy it for sure.