The Inner Circle

In Andrei Konchalovsky's THE INNER CIRCLE a naive comrade discovers the personal cost of his beliefs when he becomes the movie projectionist for Stalin and his paladins. Despite the luxury of using actual Russian locations and performers, the film is heavy-handed in its symbolism, facile in its explanations and sentimental in its characterizations.

In the opening scene, a vintage Soviet newsreel depicts the construction of statues, male and female, peasant and worker, brandishing the twined symbols of their classes, the hammer and sickle. The voice extolling this bit of politicized optimism belongs to Ivan Sanshin (Tom Hulce), the projectionist who's showing t...