The Inner Circle

Powerful
This is by far the most underrated film ever made. Granted, it might seem emotionally draining and depressing the first time you see it. However, it is still one of the most memorable pictures I have ever seen. The story is simple in a sense that everyone's motivations are clear, and that is precisely what is so good about the film; you don't have to spend hours figuring out who did what and why. The characters are not one-dimensional, as Leonard Maltin said. They are as complex as they need to be. Matlin also pointed out that the film lacks subtlety. Actually, the film is more subtle than it appears to be. Think about it. The Inner Circle is, among other things, a statement against Stalinism. Yet we never see any labor camps. We do not see anyone getting shot. The Inner Circle only tells a story of one family. After seeing what they have to go through we begin to understand the true extent of the horror that Stalin unleashed on his nation. Also, this film is...

Haunting movie
Even though this movie is very long and at times can be viewed as depressing, I think this is my all-time fave movie. Ever since the first time I saw it on the History Channel in July of 1996, coming on it during the scene where Ivan is first meeting Stalin and saying his hands are shaking because it's the first time he's stood so close to him, I've been enraptured by it, and always watched it from then on out whenever the History Channel showed it during Movies in Time. Thankfully I videotaped it in June of 1997 and got all of the quotes and commentary on the movie between commercial breaks (such as the quote from director Konchalovskiy about how he wanted to portray terror by showing the arrest of a single Jewish intellectual in lieu of mountains of dead bodies), as well as the interview and movie discussion with Daniel Pipes that took place right after the movie ended, stuff specific only to the History Channel's viewing of it. Unfortunately they no longer have Movies in Time...

How many Katyas are there?
A poignant, chilling and fascinating look into what Totalitarianism does to the human mind, and how it destroys innocent lives.
Ivan, played by Tom Hulce, is a simple-minded projectionist, who is devoted with all his heart and soul, the Communist Party and its leaders, first and foremost, the mass murderer Stalin.
He gets a job working for Stalin and his Ministers, and cannot see that this is the heart of evil.

Lolita Davidovich plays the role of his beautiful young wife, Anastasia, who is also a wonderful person, who cannot live in such an evil society.

The humanity of her relationship with the little daughter of their neighbors (Katya), the Kupermans (executed as enemies of the people) is extremely touching, but cannot survive the cruelty of the Communist system.

It is essentially a human drama, not a political movie, but humanity is destroyed in totalitarian systems, and after we see the suffering it has caused, we see how the old Professor in Ivan�s...

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