That was an excellent one.

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

This Russian and French film was made just around the time the Soviet Union was ending and chaotically giving way to a capitalist Russia, and that's reflected over every inch of it. There's a cute premise -- a down-on-his-luck music teacher moves into a new apartment and discovers a literal window to Paris that literally only opens every twenty years. This leads to some very fun, absurd comedy with Russians and French finding their way through the window and becoming very confused -- as well as a great deal of very self-conscious social commentary on the state of Russia at the time. This leads to some interesting contrasts, with the farcical often set against scenes of unhappy people on filthy streets. This contrast doesn't always sit easily, and i doesn't always increase the humor of what's going on but it does always leave an impression. Perhaps most striking is when Nicole finds herself suddenly in Leningrad/St Petersburg, and after some plain-old-hijinx, is confronted with the difficult-to-process sight of a man completely destroying a public phone booth just because nobody will stop him. There's a delicate balance, and sometimes it sways far enough into commentary that the humor stops being sharp, or far enough into comedy that the commentary seems out of tune, but overall they are both strong veins that make their mark on the viewer. Sergey Dontsov is great as a very likable hero for the piece, a shaggy, hard-luck music teacher who scorns the establishment but gets by because he is a pied-piper figure for children. Agnès Soral is very charming as Nicole, but while she works very amusingly as a running-gag neighbor who is constantly infuriated by Russian running through her apartment to get to Paris, she is not really developed enough as a character to make a great impact as a love interest. But because of the charm of Dontsov and his rapport with the children, there is an emotional pull when he convinces them to come back to St Petersburg through the window. And the film winds up very difficult to forget, for its rather wild combination of the whimsical and the grim.

I originally saw this movie as a Blockbuster VHS rental. That was quite some time ago, but still remembered it. Blockbuster doesn't have it anymore. Netflix didn't have it and there weren't many copies on the web -- only a few spendy VHS copies. Recently did finally find it available in DVD form on eBay for a reasonable price (in PAL format, but our DVD player will play PAL discs on our NTSC TV).Wife and I both enjoyed it. The style of the movie is a bit strong, and many if not most of the parts are rather strongly over-played as if amateurs were making it(especially the kids), but it's not bothersome. The contrasts of societies are accentuated in the overplay.There is a bit of political preaching in terms of saying that the young in Russia shouldn't try to escape their not-so-great life but instead should at least try to make things better first. But that's not dominant. It's fairly humorous most of the time.Some downplaying of the west commented upon by others isn't that at all IMO, I take it as a comment about expectations of the Russian characters. At least when taken from my western viewpoint. Perhaps it's a downplay of the west from a Russian viewpoint (which it is literally by the characters saying it).I can't say how literally true to the film the English subtitles are, but I can say that the subtitles were done very well, full of English idioms as if done by a native English speaker -- complete with "colorful" language.

This is one peace of art! If you like comedy you should watch this! Here comes a funny moment from the movie: "spoiler"Nikolai and Goroshkov are walking together in Paris for the first time. They are visiting the local market. And Goroshkov goes: -"Look Nikolai, how much food they have! Look! One-two-three-ten-thirty-fifty-hundred kinds of meat! But if ask for a tiny-tiny peace, just for the taste, they won't give you. French are very greedy!" Then Goroshkov takes Nikolai to a TV-shop...Goroshkov: "Tell me, who needs all these televisions? Look at this monster here, for example!" Goroshkov points a finger at the "monster"-TV and goes: "And this motherfu*ker...he is supposed to be digging a ditch, but no, he's on TV...wait a minute... that's ME! hahah!"Wanna laugh? Watch the movie, you won't regret!

This was a wonderful little film that truly was creative and fun--something you see all too seldom in movies. The film begins in Russia just after the fall of the Communist government. As a result, society seems to be in chaos and life has yet to improve now that the old regime is gone. Dirty cities, crime and lack of housing still plague the poor residents of St. Petersburg.Into this scene of bleakness and uncertainty comes an idealistic music teacher. He is among those without a home and he FINALLY gets a letter from the government that tells him he has a tiny room in a nearby flat. When he arrives, the place is a mess but the people seem friendly enough so they all have a lovely party. In the middle of the night, they are awakened by an old lady walking out of the giant wardrobe in the room (I was half expecting Lucy and the other kids from THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE to come out, but they didn't). They are too shocked to do anything at first but decide soon to investigate. Instead of just being a clothes closet, the wardrobe opens into Paris! How the residents of the flat respond to this magical gateway is really intriguing. Some, like the music teacher, are thrilled and in awe. Most of the others are more pragmatic and are mostly concerned with looting everything from Paris before the gateway closes once and for all! These Russian thieves are awful people--greedy, coarse and crude but down deep---VERY DEEP--are hearts of gold. I like how this is a metaphor for the nation now on the brink of Capitalism. At first, they run amok grabbing everything they can and only later do they reveal some depth--but mostly they act much like guests on THE JERRY SPRINGER SHOW! The film has many twists and turns and is both funny and mesmerizing. About the only negative is that due to some harsh language and a nude scene (albeit, a very funny one), this is not a film for kids. This is a real shame, as with some very minor editing, this could have been a great family film.