Customer Reviews

Anna [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have seen this film at the movies 7 times, and I can't help being moved each time.It treats a universal theme: the difficulty and fear of growing up and finding values to live by in your life. This film is exceptional, and by far the best of Nikita Mikhalkov: it is intimate, moving in the way it portrays family life, extremely sincere and beautifully nostalgic. Additionally, to those who have not travelled to Russia, it gives a very special glimpse of the Russian soul. You will be marked by this film for a long time: it effects your whole vision of life, in a very positive and human way.

Anyone who is interested in or familiar with N. Mikhalkov's work as a director and actor will certainly enjoy and admire it more and more with "Anna." This brilliant display of footage from the days of the Soviet Union, its collapse, and the somewhat chaotic aftermath of society trying to define itself includes clips from all parts of life: politics, pop-culture, and private life. How he interweaves this is into the premise of the film is remarkable. For anyone interested in how Soviet/Russian life has changed over the years or stayed the same, this is an excellent educational film as well. It certainly gives a good idea of how the Russian people lived their lives, thought about their place in life and their future, and were transformed from the late seventies to the nineties. In addition, genuine "humanness" comes out in this film more than others of this genre. We see the transformation in people's lives (especially the charming Anna) on a human scale instead of through a traditional documentary format. We are brought directly into Anna's life at various times in her life and at the time of historical events in her homeland with the same five questions asked to her by her father (Mikhalkov). Towards the end of the film we see the adorable Nadia, his youngest daughter starting to grow up. You will remember her from his later Oscar winning film, "Burnt by the Sun," another remarkable film. I am excited for his latest feature film "The Barber of Siberia" to come out on video. Until then, I will watch this one over and over again, always learning something new and interesting each time.

In 1980, director Nikita Mikhalkov ("Burnt by the Sun") began filming a clandestine home-movie of his six-year-old daughter Anna. By asking her the same five questions every year for thirteen years, and juxtaposing her answers against a collage of Soviet historical events, Mikhalkov reveals the effects of propaganda and patriotic fervor on the developing mind of a child. Little Anna's greatest fear, Baba Yaga the Witch of fairytale, is replaced by the terror of American nuclear weapons she believes aimed at her home and family. As Anna matures, she begins to doubt her Soviet indoctrination and the absolute "truths" she trusted as a child. I feel a parallel empathy with Anna: as a "babyboomer" and quintessential "product of the sixties", I experienced a similar reevaluation of "infallible" doctrines, those of Church and Society I had once accepted without question. "Anna" is a wonderful movie, not to be missed. The rare, archival historical footage is extraordinary. The young girl is utterly charming. Mikhalkov's family portrait very gently challenges Western stereotypes about the Russian people.

Sometimes, it is the simplest, sweetest things in life that have the most impact on one's psyche. As a student of international relations, my focus is Russia and Eastern Europe. This film is not a piece filled with overly-artistic, distracting elements. It is a simple piece on the life of a young girl, growing up under Soviet rule, who later experiences the demise of what she was she was taught to love.

Perhaps it is compelling because the film is set at a time in which I can personally remember these events. As a young girl, a slight bit younger than Anna, I can relate to Anna's story, albeit from a different perspective, that makes this film so enticing.

It is an interesting look into the life of a family under Soviet rule, and its demise. It paints an image of life that is unforgettable and undeniably interesting. It is truly a gift to be able to peer into someone's personal experience under something so callous and cold as the Soviet rule. This film is a combination of documentary and film , brilliantly combined to exoke myriad emotions.

Do not expect too much from this work and you can see the masterpiece that it is. Anna is truly an enjoyable film, even for those not specifically intrigued with Russian culture. Enjoy.

This film was quite an interesting exercise although it is by no means a conventional film. Acclaimed Russian film director Nikita Mikhalkov filmed his own daughter, Anna, at various intervals in her young life (between the ages of 6 and 18) and asked her the same series of questions. Of course, the concept has been tried before with the Seven-Up documentary series, but this was somehow a more personal operation and also a riskier one. In the Soviet Union it was forbidden to take home movies with the aid of film and camera crews, but these crews risked helping Mikhalkov film. At one point some of the footage was even confiscated, but eventually the completed film was released. Anna was a charming little girl, and you can see how she changes and how her thoughts and concerns change. As a child she is scared, for example, of childish things. Later in life she becomes more guarded, more shy, and she cares about far more in depth issues. In a way it is an examination of the loss of naivete and innocence, and in that sense, the film is quite sad. But it is a beautiful picture, and it will be worth watching.

If you've seen other Mikhalkov movies, you'll understand why this film embraces the views that it does. Much like in Burnt by the Sun (Academy Award winner in 1996 for Best Foreign Film), Anna explores the abrupt arrival of Communism which caused the denial of the pre-Revolution Russian mindset where religion and the family provided a firm ground for the people of Russia.

Filming his own daughter over a period of thirteen years or so, on film stock for which Mikhalkov often apologizes in his voice-over narration, Anna reveals the man's tenderness not only for his family, but for the his homeland. Every year he asks his daughter to answer the same five questions. He allows the audience to witness his daughter growing up, maturing, and gaining the mindset of a Soviet-born child, all the while losing the innocence of a child to the uncertainty of a teenager. The director subtly at times, harshly at others, parallels his daughter's growing pains to those of Russia (and the Soviet Union).

Mikhalkov's eye for details, his love for a beautiful, spiritual life give this documentary film (called that for lack of a better term) a life beyond itself, seeking not an answer to Russia's problems but offering itself as an example of moderation and responsible thought.

With funny scenes and sad scenes, Mikhalkov weaves a story by manipulating and editing stock footage and his own recordings. By no means an objective or detached film, Anna leaves one with the idealistic feeling that love for the homeland is most important in troubled times. Not the love for trends (ie. perestroika, capitalism, etc) for those are fleeting moments in the development of the human mind and spirit, especially the Russian spirit.

Mikhalkov may have just as well labeled Anna "for Western audiences only." His narrative is a catalogue of disparate and incongruous thoughts, commentaries and ideas that flooded the public discourse in Russia in the immediate wake of the Soviet Union's collapse. The film's usefulness is limited to chronicling, not providing an insightful analysis of, what happened in the last days of the Soviet Union. Word of caution: Mikhalkov's perspective is unmistakeably Russian, unfailingly ignorant of or oblivious to the experiences of non-Russian peoples in USSR--Balts, Central Asians and other non-Slavs.

I must admit the flowery, cliched language of Mikhalkov's voice-over (I am a native Russian speaker) left me irritated. The poetic pretensions of his commentary were designed, I am sure, to evoke the simultaneously unique and universal "humanness" of his own experiences and of those of his family, but they sounded banal at best and rang false at worst. I do not begrudge his having had a "dacha" near Moscow (in addition to a nice apartment in the city) or having a personal Mercedes in the early 1980s--he was a beloved actor and director in the Soviet cinema and he deserved the material rewards wrought by his labor. His perspective is not unwelcome, it is simply unrepresentative of the vast, overwhelming majority of people's experiences in the Soviet Union.

Mikhalkov's biggest failure in Anna is his inability to truly listen to what his daughter was saying without attempting to find validation for his own theories. Because I at times saw myself in Anna (we are the same age and I also grew up in the Soviet Union), I was somewhat upset at Mikhalkov's inability to trust her, trust that the naivete and purity of childhood will eventually give way to serious contemplation and that inevitably, Anna will understand the truth about the country she was born into. Did he not say in the beginning of the film that he cried at the news of Stalin's death? He also seems to think that indoctrination only occurs in oppressive regimes and does not realize that imparting any information to children qualifies as indoctrination. There is nothing inherently strange or "communist" about being afraid of war. American kids in the 1970s and 1980s grew up on Red Dawn, for Pete's sake, and were as terrified of invading "Russians" as Russians were of America.

And the conclusion, frankly, is not a conclusion at all. Crying at the mention of one's country may be a sign of patriotism, as Anna does. What I want to know is whether Anna came back to Russia after studying in Switzerland. That would be a befitting end to the story of her self-discovery and a true test of her patriotism.

The first review here is very accurate and detailed, so I will avoid writing too much here. This was a beautiful film, as much a family portrait as a documentary, entertaining, thought-provoking, and touching. This is as close as an American can get to understanding "the mysterious Russian soul."

This is a review of the film "Anna" by Soviet/Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov. I bought this movie because I am such a big fan of Nikita Mikhalkov, both as a director and as an actor. This is a very good film: it is a vivid review of the tremendous social and personal changes that occurred during and after the rapid collapse of the Soviet Union.

I was somewhat misled by the Amazon "Editorial Review," as well as many of the reviews here. From these, I expected that this film would be mostly interviews with Nikita Mikhalkov's daughter Anna. In fact, these interviews with Anna make up only a small fraction of the film. Most of the film is composed of narration and commentary by director Nikita Mikhalkov as we witness the changes in the Soviet Union through archival film footage and television reports. Even during the interviews with Anna we are not really listening to Anna's viewpoints; instead, we listen while Nikita Mikhalkov coaches her what to say.

While Nikita Mikhalkov is a great director, as a father he was quite abusive with his daughter on several occasions during this movie. For example, he harshly berates his little five year old girl for smiling during his questioning. Later, when Anna is a teenager, she starts crying during the interview. Nikita Mikhalkov then tells us that Anna is crying for Russia. Hardly, she is crying because her papa is being such a jerk to her.

For me, this film was an outstanding and personal review of the dramatic changes that occurred when the Soviet Union died and the "new Russia" was born. I was vividly reminded of the events, and I was moved when I thought about how these great changes affected the lives of individuals. Nikita Mikhalkov is truly a great film maker.

As an aside, I purchased this movie as a used VHS tape. I had no problems with the tape; I was just glad to finally have a version of this film to watch. I wish it had been available on DVD.

In a nutshell: daughter Anna gets fatter, Russia loses some weight. The pretentious voiceover is so deadpan that you realize the Anna's father/director actually convinces himself that his forbidden home movies have meaning beyond his own wishful (f)artistic pseudomartyrdom. Plays like a bad segment from Michael Apted's __UP series on continuous repeat with a voice-over pasted on from the boringest most egotistical professor you've ever had.