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It is a performances centric movie

i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

This is a strange insider's tale, that's for sure. A man named Ganshin was the NKVD's cinema projectionist (called the 'KGB' in English, but that is just a simplification of course for people who never heard of its predecessor) and was suddenly coopted to start screening movies for Stalin and his 'Inner Circle', which included the spy boss Beria. This is therefore an extraordinarily interesting and revealing film of that man's tragic story. Ganshin is played in the film by the American actor Tom Hulce, best known for playing Mozart in AMADEUS (1984). He does an excellent job, far better I must say than he did with Mozart. He has just the right amount of naïve credulousness and open-eyed faith in Stalin and the system to be convincing. He, like so many millions of others at that time, was a 'true believer'. Such people genuinely believed that Stalin was a kind and loving Father of the Nation. Such was the extent and success of the brainwashing at that time! Indeed, Stalinist Russia was so like today's North Korea that the resemblances are eerie. The personality cult of Stalin was all-encompassing, and the mystique of his invincibility and superhuman wisdom was wholly accepted by the mass of the public. This is why the portrayal of Stalin in this film by the Russian actor Aleksandr Zbruev is so incredibly effective. Zbruev himself was the son of one of Stalin's ministers! But in 1937 the father was arrested and executed for being 'an enemy of the people' in the Great Purge. Zbruev here plays the man who ordered his own father's execution. He plays Stalin as a quiet, modest and straight-talking man who very softly, like a priest or a sophisticated gentleman, orders millions to be killed. In other words, as a psychotic, Stalin did not rant and rave, he quietly killed people by the millions as if he were putting a baby to sleep in a cot. The total terror inspired by the man amongst his immediate associates is better understood when we realize that they were dealing with a quiet psychopath, who smiled gently at those whom he intended to exterminate minutes later. As for Beria, he is played with great subtlety and terrifying menace by Bob Hoskins. The film was shot in Moscow, using a number of the real buildings as locations, and directed by Andrey Konchalovskiy, one of Russia's most brilliant directors, who has also worked a lot abroad. He is known for SIBERIAD (1979), RUNAWAY TRAIN starring Jon Voigt (1985), and SHY PEOPLE (1987), which is set in the bayous of Louisiana. His film RAY will be released in 2016, so that he is still very hard at work despite the fact that he is 79 years old. Hulce's wife is played by the Canadian actress Lolita Davidovich. Her acting is very intense and effective in the latter half of the film, where her situation has become so desperate. There are wonderful Russian character actors in the film, such as Feodor Chaliapin, Junior, aged 85, playing the old professor who insists that 'Satan is in the Kremlin'. The story of this film is a hair-raising one and not easily summarised. The many tragedies are heart-breaking, but then very many millions of hearts broke under Stalin, not to mention the many millions of hearts which stopped beating altogether under his gentle policy of looking after his beloved people by means of mass murder. One is left with the big question to which there has never been an answer: why is it that most of human history has been defined by psychopathic leaders who commit mass murder? Why has this scenario recurred throughout all the thousands of years of recorded history with unerring similarity? A maniac gets control of a country and starts killing everyone and no one stops him. Millions die. Still no one stops him. Even more millions die. And even then no one stops him. Does the blame lie with those who let him rise to power? Does it lie with those who suffer quietly under him and sometimes worship him while the blood in the street rises up the level of their necks? Why is it that so many political leaders are psychopaths anyway? (There are plenty of them spread around the world at the present time.) This is a question which people ignore at their own peril. This film is a useful lesson in how homicidal maniacs seize and use power, and keep it by means of inspiring sheer terror.

Too often, films set in Russia depict its citizens as simply Americans who happen to have a communist government. The truth is, of course, that they're two very dramatically different cultures. So why does this film get it right? Andrei Konchalovsky, the director, is Russian. Born in 1937, he grew up in exactly the world he creates here on screen. But this isn't a film designed for Russians - it is in English, and was destined to clarify the average westerner's understanding of the world's largest nation. Sadly, that was not to be. "The Inner Circle" played well in just about every country it was received - EXCEPT America. Konchalovsky, despite his early 80s artistic successes, was just coming off a pair of pathetic director-for-hire jobs ("Homer and Eddie", "Tango & Cash"). This is a return to form promised by earlier work like "Runaway Train". What makes Andrei Konchalovsky's style so enthralling exactly? I couldn't tell you. It's actually an older style of film-making, semi-static in nature. But its ability to create singular, intense images, leaves a film that stays in your mind.But what of the other factors essential to "The Inner Circle"? Tom Hulce plays a man with a tragic flaw - he places all his trust in those who deserve none of it. He is enthralled with a world of people who are, at best, amused by his devotion - at worst, utterly indifferent. Hulce gives a lot to the role. He covers every conceivable emotion, going up highs and down lows with such complete believability that you go with him. This is the best performance I've seen from him. Other performances center around this. Lolita Davidovich, who plays his young wife, is given some of the film's best scenes (many of which she actually plays solo). She can break your heart.There's a key scene in the cinematography for me. During the passage where two women have a conversation in the empty bunkroom of an orphanage, Ennio Guarnieri creates an intensity that alters back and forth as the cross between different lightings. Throughout the entire film, he brings out deep browns and blues, miserable, cold tones. Any production filmed in the Kremlin could easily mimic its atmosphere, but "The Inner Circle" brings a humanity that is just that much more miserable.I can't promise that this is exactly your sort of film, but if Russia interests you, or epic dramas, or the former USSR, or even the character of Stalin himself - this is something you should see. Besides anything, "The Inner Circle" is a great film. It truly is.

This is a very rare picture, in that Western films very, very rarely mention Stalin and even fewer feature him on film. It's funny because although several movies have been made about Hitler, films about Stalin (and Mao) are conspicuously absent. That is why I appreciated this film so much. Although Stalin was not the MAIN character in the movie, but his projectionist, it gave great insights into this monstrous man. What also is very interesting is how Hulce's character adores Staline, but over time he becomes more and more horrified of him--sort of like how the USSR viewed him over time as well.The acting, direction and camera work are all excellent and there is really nothing negative I can say about the film. An unusual and important film historically.

Unbelievable...that's all that kept going through my mind. How could people treat others so badly? I saw this around Christmas time and it totally bummed me out. Wow, not a film for the holiday season! Basically, if you had any doubts at all about the horror that was Russia's Stalinist era, here is your confirmation. Good Acting, sad, sad story, tragic even, photography excellent (some shots looks so realistic! Of course, some scenes were shot in the Kremlin, supposedly).Very moving film.