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Barber Of Siberia [DVD] [1998]
 
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Barber Of Siberia [DVD] [1998]

DVD ~ Julia Ormond
4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
RRP: £15.99
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Frequently Bought Together

Barber Of Siberia [DVD] [1998] + Burnt By The Sun [1994] (in Russian with English sub-titles) [DVD] + Kolya [DVD] [1996]
Total RRP: £50.97
Price For All Three: £13.94

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Barber Of Siberia [DVD] [1998]
73% buy the item featured on this page:
Barber Of Siberia [DVD] [1998] 4.2 out of 5 stars (13)
£3.98
Burnt By The Sun [1994] (in Russian with English sub-titles) [DVD]
18% buy
Burnt By The Sun [1994] (in Russian with English sub-titles) [DVD] 4.6 out of 5 stars (8)
£5.98
Kolya [DVD] [1996]
4% buy
Kolya [DVD] [1996] 5.0 out of 5 stars (11)
£3.98
The Lives Of Others [DVD] [2007]
3% buy
The Lives Of Others [DVD] [2007] 4.7 out of 5 stars (114)
£3.98
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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Much criticised on its first appearance as spectacle without affect, Nikita Mikhalkov's The Barber of Siberia is a fascinating, loopy mess worth seeing for its large-scale set pieces and good central performances. The Barber of Siberia was the most expensive film ever made in Russia, with its epic sweeps of landscape and scenes of disorder and drunkenness that remind us what lurked under the superficial structures of late-Tsarist life. Jane Callaghan (Julia Ormond) is an adventurer hired to smooth the way for McCracken (Richard Harris), inventor of a vast tree-felling machine. She blunders around a world of aristocratic influence and intrigue, having become so used to cunning and deceit that she has forgotten she has a heart. Andrei (Oleg Menshikov) is the military cadet whom she meets on the train going east, an aesthete and chancer whose love for her in the face of all the her good sense finally becomes tragic. Menshikov is convincing as lover, buffoon and tragic hero. --Roz Kaveney

DVD Description
In 1905 Jane Callaghan, a once beautiful American, writes to her son at a famous military academy. Her memories take us back twenty years to when she arrived in Russia.

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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Uneven, flawed but beautiful and fascinating, 24 April 2006
By Mr. Stephen Kennedy "skenn1701a" (Doha, Qatar) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
This is a long, unevenly directed story which really wants to be an epic romance and almost, but not quite succeeds. It is undoubtedly beautiful. The scenery both in Moscow and also in the scenes in Siberia is a suitably breathtaking stage for a tragic story of romance set against turn of the Century Russia. Julia Ormond is also ravishing here, and her performance underpins the success of the movie. Her Russian counterpart, the young Russian cadet Tolstoy (no relation to the author, as he frequently has to explain) with whom she falls in love when he stumbles into her train compartment, played by Oleg Menshikov, is less successful. His performance lurches somewhat heavy handedly from slapstick clown to would be troubled young man with deep feelings.
Richard Harris is wasted and gives an altogether over the top performance as the inventor of the titular machine - a steam driven contraption for chopping down the trees of Siberia, which he nicknames the barber of Siberia. The would be clever part is that Tolstoy plays the barber of Seville in the officers school performance. Robert Hrdy even crops up unexpectedly in one scene as an English language instructor.
The direction goes to lengths in certain scenes to come across as epic and is often beautifully photographed and set up - to the point where it can feel TOO staged - as in the scene on the platform where the cadets looking for their colleague search for him in such a way as their search becomes a dance for the camera. However the overall effect is pleasing enough as long as you can swallow the stageiness, mixed as it is with some truly un-stage-like milieus of Moscow and Siberia.
The dual language here works well. This does not feel like some euro film with too many cooks spoiling the broth - it is clearly a filmmakers vision (Nikita Mikhalkov), where English speaking actors speak English speaking roles and Russian actors the Russian roles, successfully giving the movie crossover appeal from the normal arthouse crowd. In particular, it is a pleasure to see a movie showing this part of history showing the Russians of the time who supported the Tsar as patriots, and the officer cadre as being a chivalrous life.
In summary I would have to say this IS a beautiful movie, worth watching - Julia Ormond is terrific, the music score is suitably melancholic, the scenery fantastic, and the story interesting - if a tad futile come the end. Worth the journey, if not the destination!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Expensive Hollywood-like modern Russian movie., 30 Oct 2003
This review is from: Barber Of Siberia [VHS] [1998] (VHS Tape)

Any way: it shows the true Russia, the viewer can enjoy the flavour of the pre-Revolutionary Russia with it’s luxury and poverty, nobleness and cruelty, tradition and culture.

If you’ve liked Dr Zhivago, this film is for you! But I wouldn’t call it a masterpiece though:-).

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars What a waste, 5 Dec 2008
By D. Giediminas "Picco Z" (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Thought it would at least worth paying for it. Actors are not alive and shabby style. Dont watch it, save yourself a time for better things
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't Bother
I found the film wooden, poor in production values and boreing. The Dual Layer single sided disc, did as stated on the box, triggered pauses in the Video. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. W. A. Nuttall

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
I normally love costume dramas and historical masterpieces, as this has been described, but I got very bored with it half way through, and didnt like over-acted style. Read more
Published 5 months ago by H. Mattiazzi

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT RUSSIAN CINEMA
BARBER OF SIBERIA is a freat film, reflecting very much of the Russian soul. Oleg Menshikov does a brilliant acting job in this one - as usual. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Lou Almighty

5.0 out of 5 stars A Sense of Another Place & Time
From the very beginning I was totally absorbed in this spectacular film, and the time seemed to go by so quickly as one brilliant scene followed another. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Christina Croft

4.0 out of 5 stars Flawed but must be seen
A beautiful film, visually, with Mikhalkov conjuring up 19th century Moscow brilliantly. Oleg Menshikov flirts with self-parody at times (Richard Harris goes way overboard, alas)... Read more
Published 24 months ago by E. Baumgartner

5.0 out of 5 stars View from Russian point of view
One of the best films I have seen for the last few years. It makes me feel.
Published on 7 Oct 2005 by Makarova Svitlana

5.0 out of 5 stars breathtaking
This is one of the best movies I've ever watched; it's a breathtaking, heartbraking, masterpiece.

It got me mesmorised from the minute I started watching it; the light sense of... Read more

Published on 18 May 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!
I saw the video a couple of times and every time learnt more details that had been somehow 'hidden' when watching the time before. Read more
Published on 21 Dec 2001 by J. Watson

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent and breathtakingly classic.
A superb dramatic, comic, visual, costume, tragic, love epic of Russia at the turn of the century. A film that rarely flags within its near three hour length - three hours of... Read more
Published on 17 April 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Russia in All Its Glory
Excellent portrayal of old Russia, its tradition of honour, valour and its true values. Distinctive historical perspective yet very relevant. Interesting plot and startling scenes.
Published on 15 Mar 2001

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