Khrustalyov, mashinu! (Khrustalyov, My Car!)

Critics Consensus

No consensus yet.

100%

TOMATOMETER

Total Count: 7

88%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 139

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Movie Info

Alexei German directed this French-Russian co-production with atmospheric black-and-white cinematography on snow-covered streets depicting Moscow life of the early '50s. After work, boiler repairman (Alexander Bashirov) walks through the night and into an encounter with Stalin's police. Glinsky (Y. Tsurilo), aka The General, heads a household of his wife (N. Ruslanova), son, twins, grandmother, and servants. Amid anarchic actions at a madcap hospital, the staff turns toady as the General goes about his usual routines. When a KGB plot leads to the General's arrest, he flees only to be caught at the train station. Forced from their apartment, his wife and son move into a seedy rooming house where everyone has their own individual toilet seats. En route to a gulag, the General is gang-raped. Since he's a doctor, he winds up being taken to the country house of the dying Stalin. After a return to his family and the ruins of his home in Moscow, he eventually links up with the boiler repairman. Shown in competition at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

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Cast

Yuriy Tsurilo
Nina Ruslanova
as Wife
Mikhail Dementyev
Aleksandr Bashirov
Natalya Lvova
Yuri Tsurilo
as Yuri Glinsky
Misha Dementyev
as Son
Alexander Bashirov
as Idiot
Jüri Järvet Jr.
as Swedish Reporter
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Critic Reviews for Khrustalyov, mashinu! (Khrustalyov, My Car!)

All Critics (7) | Top Critics (1)

  • Dreamlike scenarios unfold, fragments of gnomic dialogue tumble out, all depicted with a vivid, documentary realism.

    Dec 14, 2018 | Rating: 5/5 | Full Review…

    Peter Bradshaw

    Guardian
    Top Critic

  • A bleached out monochrome mix of purgatorial realism, slapstick nihilism, emotionless brutality and surrealist nightmare.

    Apr 25, 2019 | Full Review…

    Rob Aldam

    Backseat Mafia

  • Shot in stark, high-contrast monochrome, a ceaseless, roving camera, Altmanesque overlapping dialogue and entirely random incidents make for chaotic viewing.

    Dec 28, 2018 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

    Tara Brady

    Irish Times

  • This is a film of spit and paranoia, a truly raw satire that looks even better than it did 20 years ago thanks to a loving, new restoration.

    Dec 14, 2018 | Full Review…

    Joshua Brunsting

    The CriterionCast

  • One of the great Russian films about how the Soviet Union works as a police state.

    Jun 30, 2015 | Rating: A- | Full Review…

    Dennis Schwartz

    Ozus' World Movie Reviews

  • Watching Alexei German films is akin to watching those by Hungarian auteur Bella Tarr - you may not be able to figure out the story but it sure is interesting to watch from the visual viewpoint.

    Jun 1, 2012 | Rating: B | Full Review…

    Robin Clifford

    Reeling Reviews
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Audience Reviews for Khrustalyov, mashinu! (Khrustalyov, My Car!)

  • Feb 16, 2015
    In "Khrustalyov, My Car!" General Klensky(Yuriy Tsurilo) is the head of a mental hospital in the former Soviet Union. The insanity that he witnesses there carries over to his family life which is depicted in the same madcap and whirligig way. What can be inferred is that this is set during the Stalinist reign of terror, replete with random people being disappeared right, left and center while it would take more information to identify everybody in Klensky's home to any satisfaction. There is also a key turning point in history that the movie treats in as matter of fact way as humanly possible. Which is the way history usually happens in real time. Except I'm sure the participants would have some feeling as to what was about to change, no matter what the movie may think. At least, it chooses the perfect moment to end on.
    Walter M Super Reviewer
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