''Khrustalyov, My Car!'' (russian: Хрусталёв, машину!, Khrustalyov, mashinu!) is a 1998
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
Canal+
Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...
,
CNC
Numerical control (also computer numerical control, and commonly called CNC) is the automated control of machining tools (such as drills, lathes, mills, grinders, routers and 3D printers) by means of a computer. A CNC machine processes a p ...
,
Goskino
Goskino USSR (russian: link=Yes, Госкино СССР) is the abbreviated name for the USSR State Committee for Cinematography (Государственный комитет по кинематографии СССР) in the Soviet Union. It w ...
On the first day of the cold spring of 1953 two events occur, not comparable in importance: fireman Fedya Aramyshev is arrested and "the greatest leader of all times and peoples"
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
is found lying on the floor of his
dacha
A dacha ( rus, дача, p=ˈdatɕə, a=ru-dacha.ogg) is a seasonal or year-round second home, often located in the exurbs of post-Soviet countries, including Russia. A cottage (, ') or shack serving as a family's main or only home, or an outbu ...
.
Some time before these incidents, we see events from the life of military-medical service general Yuri Klensky. In the Soviet Union, the ''
Doctors' plot
The "Doctors' plot" affair, group=rus was an alleged conspiracy of prominent Soviet medical specialists to murder leading government and party officials. It was also known as the case of saboteur doctors or killer doctors. In 1951–1953, a gr ...
,'' in which a group of predominantly Jewish doctors are accused of a plot to kill Stalin, is in full swing. But Klensky, himself Jewish, cheers himself up with almost non-stop drunkenness, hopes that Soviet justice will not touch him. However, a number of events suggest that Klensky's hopes are futile, and that his arrest will soon follow. In an early scene, the general meets his own double in the hospital, and then there is a "foreigner" in his house bearing news about a relative who allegedly lives abroad. Klensky, suspecting that this is a provocation, throws the "foreigner" down the stairs, but a local snitch manages to report in time to the MGB senior about the doctor's contact with foreigners.
Klensky tries to escape, but ends up getting arrested. The general's family is evicted and is placed in a crowded
communal apartment
Communal apartments (singular: russian: коммунальная квартира, ''kommunal'naya kvartira'', slang. ''kommunalka'') appeared in the Soviet Union following the October Revolution of 1917. The term ''communal apartments'' is a produ ...
, and Klensky himself, after being detained, is left to the criminals who brutally beat and rape him. But then a miracle happens: the bloody general is driven directly from the cell to the country to a certain "high-ranking" patient, who the shocked Klensky learns to be the "Great Leader". Stalin's state is hopeless, he is dying while wheezing and agonizing, and Beria's voice full of triumph utters the first sentence of post-Stalinist Russia, "Khrustalyov, My Car!".
Klensky is immediately released, but he does not return to medicine. Instead, the general "goes to the people". At the end of the film he is the commandant of a train. Drinking happily, he balances a glass of port on his shaved head.
Cast
*
Yuri Tsurilo Yuri may refer to:
People and fictional characters
Given name
*Yuri (Slavic name), the Slavic masculine form of the given name George, including a list of people with the given name Yuri, Yury, etc.
* Yuri (Japanese name), also Yūri, feminine Ja ...
as general Yuri Georgievich Klensky
*
Nina Ruslanova
Nina Ivanovna Ruslanova (russian: Нина Ивановна Русланова; 5 December 1945 – 21 November 2021) was a Soviet and Russian theater and film actress. She was honored as a People's Artist of Russia (1998).Mikhail Dementyev as the general's son
* Jüri Järvet Jr. as a Finnish reporter
*
Aleksandr Bashirov
Alexander Nikolaevich Bashirov (russian: Александр Николаевич Баширов; born 24 September 1955, in Sogom) is a Russian film and theater actor, director and screenwriter. He performed in more than sixty films since 1986.
...
as Fedya Aramyshev
* Ivan Matskevich as the general's lookalike
*
Paulina Myasnikova
Paulina or Paullina (, ) was a name shared by three relatives of the Roman Emperor Hadrian: his mother, his elder sister and his niece.
Mother of Hadrian
Domitia Paulina or Paullina, Domitia Paulina Major or Paulina Major, (''Major'' Latin fo ...
as the general's mother
* Viktor Mikhaylov as the general's driver
*Nijolė Narmontaite as Sonya
*Olga Samoshina as a teacher in love
* Genrietta Yanovskaya as the general's sister
* Evgeniy Vazhenin as an officer in plainclothes
*
Aleksei Zharkov
Aleksei Dmitrievich Zharkov (russian: Алексей Дмитриевич Жарков; 27 March 1948 – 5 June 2016) was a Soviet and Russian film and theater actor. He was a People's Artist of Russia (1994).
Biography
Aleksei Dmitrievich Zharko ...
as the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of USSR
* Aleksandr Lykov as a convict-driver
* Yuriy Nifontov as Tolik
* Konstantin Vorobyov as a guard at the general's clinic
*Ali Misirov as
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
*Mulid Makoev as
Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (; rus, Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия, Lavréntiy Pávlovich Bériya, p=ˈbʲerʲiə; ka, ლავრენტი ბერია, tr, ; – 23 December 1953) was a Georgian Bolsheviks ...
Uncredited appearances
*
Viktor Stepanov
Viktor Fyodorovich Stepanov (russian: Виктор Фёдорович Степанов; 21 May 1947 — 26 December 2005) was a Russian actor. He appeared in more than fifty films from 1964 to 2005.
Selected filmography
References
Extern ...
as Terenty Fomich
*Vladimir Maschenko as chief of the GPU
*Valery Filonov as KGB officer "Pobuzhinsky"
*Nikolay Dick as inspector
*Sergei Diachkov as cadet
*Sergei Russkin as KGB officer
*Sergey Lanbamin as Junior Lieutenant
*
Dmitri Prigov
Dmitri Aleksandrovich Prigov (russian: Дми́трий Алекса́ндрович При́гов, 5 November 1940 in Moscow – 16 July 2007 in MoscowKonstantin Khabensky
Konstantin Yurievich Khabensky, PAR (russian: link=no, Константин Юрьевич Хабенский; born 11 January 1972) is a Russian actor of stage and film, director and philanthropist.
From 1997 he was part of the Saint Petersbur ...
as orchestra musician with Bengal lights
*Mikhail Trukhin as Conductor
*Gennady Chetverikov as underworld boss
*Anatoly Shvedersky as general doctor in the clinic
*Evgeny Filatov as general doctor in the clinic
Production
Production of ''Khrustalyov, My Car!'' took seven years for writer-director Aleksei German to finish. German was able to bring the film to completion through financial backing from France.
Reception
The film premiered at the 51st Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 1998 as part of the main competition for the ''
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...
'' award.
Critical response
During the Cannes premiere of ''Khrustalyov, My Car!'', numerous critics walked out of the screening in disapproval due to its obtuse narrative and lengthy "unfunny" scenes of visual satire. However, film director
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, inclu ...
, the jury president for Cannes in 1998, considered it to be the best film in the festival that year.
Jacques Mandelbaum
Jacques Mandelbaum (born 1 May 1958, in Neuilly-sur-Seine) is a French journalist and film critic, currently working for the newspaper ''Le Monde'' which he joined in 1995. He is the author of numerous works on the cinema including a biographical ...
of ''
Le Monde
''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
'' also gave the film praise, writing that it is a " carnivalesque record of the Soviet era", and belongs to a category of cinema that "challenges all categories of taste". J.-M. Duran of the
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...
-based newspaper ''
Le Progrès
''Le Progrès'' is a regional daily newspaper which is based in Lyon, Rhône.
''Le Progrès'' reports primarily on local news in the Rhône-Alpes region. The paper has its headquarters in Lyon. The print works is in Chassieu, near Lyon. The fo ...
'' stated that the film is "incomprehensible, but bewitching", and compared its director Aleksei German to Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini.
Upon its re-release by
Arrow Films
Arrow Films is a British independent film distributor and restorer specialising in world cinema, arthouse, horror and classic films. It sells Ultra HD Blu-rays, Blu-rays and DVDs online, and also operates its own subscription video on-d ...
in December 2018, the film was given renewed critical acclaim. British film critic Peter Bradshaw of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' gave the film five out of five stars, describing it as "a surreal fantasia-epic and nihilist political satire of cynicism and violence". Tara Brady of ''
The Irish Times
''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...
'' gave it four out of five stars, stating that "People come and go without introduction or elucidation. All of them are in keeping with the Soviet auteur’s grim view of humanity."