----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Nikita Mikhalkov's recent Oscar (in 1995 for 1994) for "Burnt by the Sun"= has engendered some discussions on the director's "oeuvre," including= mentions of CLOSE TO EDEN (orig.title URGA). There seems to be some= confusion, such as the comment: > Mikhalkov's previous film, _Close to Eden_, available in > VHS format, you can get an idea of the kind of cinematography he does, > though that film is a historical peasant setting of Russia long ago, > whereas _Burnt by the Sun_ is Russia, with the officer's family living a > pastoral existence during the time of Stalin. =20 CLOSE TO EDEN/URGA is in fact, set in Inner Mongolia (within China),in= current times, is about Mongolian nomads, and includes Russian= "gastarbeiter." My review of it - below - contains more information. =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D BY EDWIN JAHIEL CLOSE TO EDEN (URGA) (France-Russia,1992)*** 1/2 Directed by Nikita= Mikhalkov from his own idea. Story, Mikhalkov and Roustam Ibraguimbekov.= Screenplay, Ibraguimbekov. Photography, Villenn Kaluta. Production design,= Alexei Levchenko. Music, Eduard Artemiev. Cast: Badema, Bayaertu, Vladimir= Gostukhin, et al. A French-Russian production. A Miramax release.= Mongolian, Chinese and Russian with subtitles. 106 min. Not rated. (If so,= PG-13).=20 You want a movie that's both different and delightful? Russian (and= international) actor-director Nikita Mikhalkov started this one with a= vague, exotic idea, kept improvising, and eventually came up with this most= appealing film, one that does not fit any classification. It is a kind of= freewheeling, documentary-ish fiction on cultures that clash or complement= each other, on true family values, on vanishing lifestyles, the whole made= with much wit and an eye for the bizarre. =20 Set in Inner Mongolia (a part of China), the movie first shows the daily,= traditional routines of a family of Mongolian nomads who herd horses and= sheep: Gombo, wife Pagma, three children and Grandma. The steppes are= extraordinarily beautiful. You may think you're watching the past, until= you start spotting modern artifacts: rubber wheels on a cart, a suitcase,= an accordion, a portable stereo, a Swiss Army knife. The time is late Gorba= chev. The family works hard and is happy, but not in a sentimentalized way. Papa= talks to the little boy about Genghis Khan and the Mongols (oral history)= and explains a dragonfly (natural history).=20 The true title of the film is "Urga, " a long pole with a lasso at the end, = for catching quadrupeds. When stuck on the ground, the urga becomes a "Do= Not Disturb" sign signifying love-making in progress. =20 The title "Close to Eden" is tendentious. It prods the audience into= thinking in nostalgic terms of Paradise Lost -- which is only partly true. As a minority in China, the couple is allowed a maximum of three children= --which is two more than for the Chinese majority. Pagma, who used to be a= city girl and is more sophisticated than Gombo, asks him to buy condoms= (and a television set) on his next trip to town.=20 Sergei, a foreign worker from Russia, forced by joblessness at home to work= abroad on road building, is a burly, loquacious, volatile extrovert.= Driving his truck in a state of stupor from sleeplessness, he gets it stuck= and is rescued by Gombo, who takes him to the yurt. The noisy Russian and the quiet Mongols make friends, communicate as well as= they can. Curiously, the audience knows exactly what is being said, thanks= to the subtitles. =20 =46amily and guest share dinner. (The skinning alive of a sheep, in graphic= detail, calls for closing your eyes, especially if you are a vegetarian.= Otherwise the movie contains no shocks). The next day Sergei drives Gombo= and two horses to town. =20 It's another world, whose contrasts are presented naturally. At a fancy= disco, the locals swing, Gombo watches, and gregarious Sergei gets good and= drunk and homesick. He has the band play a melancholy Russian waltz from= the music tattooed on his back. This is but one of the many humorous= aspects of the film.=20 Sergei is carted away by cops in a Jeepster. Gombo, assisted by a friend who= plays piano bar in a ritzy hotel, liberates Sergei. He then gets cold feet= at the pharmacy and does not buy the condoms, but he does purchase a TV= set.=20 On his way home he enters a lamasery to consult a priest about his= birth-control dilemma. The voice of a chanting, unseen lama is heard: "= You have problems, so do I. Let us pray together" -- a droll utterance= worthy of the book of Quotes from the Silver Screen. Cut to Gombo, in the steppe, having a vision of Genghis Khan reproaching him= for his modern ways. On Genghis's cry "Kill that thing!" his micro-horde= attacks the TV set.=20 Back at home, as Grandma systematically (and hilariously) pops the plastic= bubbles that packed the set, the television programs turn out to be= irrelevant to the family. The antenna symbolically looks like the "urga."= Will that new lasso replace the old one or can they co-exist? The answer is= in the film's delicious multiple closure.=20 All this plot-telling does not hurt, and there is much more to it in the= details.=20 On the descriptive level , the movie reminds me not so much of modern= documentaries but of the old, ground-breaking, affectionate ones, like= Robert Flaherty's "Nanook of the North" (1922) or "Grass" (1925) by the= future makers of "King Kong."=20 At the same time, "Close to Eden" is rich in realistic yet surreal or= absurdist sights and sounds : the Mongols' daughter vigorously playing on= the accordion the most popular of Spanish "paso dobles"; the visits by a= friendly ever-soused neighbor who brings a poster of "my brother in= America"... Sylvester Stallone; the unseen Russian couple making love while= outside their locked door, their little girl recites Lenin-glorifying= poetry; a horseman in the corridors of the apartment house; the hotel= pianist playing Chopin then mounting Gombo's spare horse, in his tuxedo. = =20 =20 This charming film has top photography and superior sound, even on the= monaural speakers of the Art Theater.=20 It was Oscar-nominated, losing to "Indochina" which was not half as good or= original.It did, however, win the top prize at the 1991 Berlin Festival,= where it was shown at 2 hours -- 14 more minutes of pleasure than on the= U.S. release print.=20 [ Publ. 12 Febr. 1993] =20 =20