FRANCE: JULIA ORMOND SAYS RUSSIAN DIRECTOR NIKITA MIKHALKOV USED HIS POLITICAL CONNECTIONS TO FILM SEQUENCES OF HIS FILM "THE BARBER OF SIBERIA"

Record ID: 388424

  • Title: FRANCE: JULIA ORMOND SAYS RUSSIAN DIRECTOR NIKITA MIKHALKOV USED HIS POLITICAL CONNECTIONS TO FILM SEQUENCES OF HIS FILM "THE BARBER OF SIBERIA"
  • Date: 22nd May 1999
  • Summary: CANNES, FRANCE [MAY 14, 1999] [REUTERS -ACCESS ALL] [SOUNDBITE] [English] JULIA ORMOND SAYING: "There is one scene in the movie on a frozen lake and it's the pancake festival and when Nikita turned up to do a location scout and look at it, the Mafia arrived in their Armani suits and demanded more money for him to work there and he turned round and made a phone call and te
  • Embargoed: 6th June 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CANNES, FRANCE AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVADHO1FT92OAMZE370D9G8H5A9S
  • Story Text: Julia Ormond, the star of the Nikita Mikhalkov's film "The Barber of Siberia" has told Reuter's Television that the Russian director's political connections gave him special help during shooting, including a hand in getting the mafia off his back.
    Nikita Mikhalkov's dazzling movie 'The Barber of Siberia' opened this year's Cannes film festival to mixed reviews.But this is not the film's first premiere -- it already debuted in the Russian Kremlin in February to Moscow's political and cultural elite.
    Mikhalkov's three hour tale of star-crossed love between a young Russian cadet and an experienced American woman cost 43 million US Dollars to produce -- ten million of which was financed by the Russian government.
    Critics say the lavish production glamourises Tsarist Russia.It's clearly set in an historical era that Mikhalkov admires -- the director has made no secret of his support for a constitutional monarchy in Russia.Newspapers there went so far as to suggest that the film is his first shot in Russia's presidential election campaign.Editorials also say Mikhalkov plans to run for the country's highest office.
    British actress Julia Ormond, who stars in the film as Jane Callahan, says Mikhalkov's political links helped several times during filming.Ormond added that the director even managed to frighten off the Mafia.
    On another occasion, when Mikhalkov was shooting the Kremlin at night, he and his crew noticed that a Communist red star on top of one of the building's famous bulbous towers was lit.As the $45 million film is set in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Mikhalkov wanted to avoid a glaring anachronism.
    Another sign of the director's clout was the government's $10 million subsidy for the "The Barber of Siberia", at a time when it owed millions of roubles in unpaid wages to state workers.The rest was privately financed.
    Julia Ormond turned up for the Cannes premiere of 'Barber of Siberia', along with Mikhalkov and her co-star Oleg Menshikov.But supporting Irish actor Richard Harris boycotted the event.Speaking in London last week, Harris told media that his role had been reduced to a cameo after radical editing.Harris added the film was not what it had started out to be.
    In 'Barber of Siberia' Harris plays an eccentric Inventor, Douglas McCraken, who uses Jane played by Ormond to get backing from the Grand Duke for his invention -- a huge machine for cutting down forests.
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