Andrei Konchalovsky

Andrey Sergeyevich Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky (Russian: Андре́й Серге́евич Михалко́в-Кончало́вский) (born August 20, 1937 in Moscow) is an acclaimed Russian film writer and director.

Born to an aristocratic family with centuries-old artistic and aristocratic roots, Andrei Mikhalkov changed his first name to Andron and took his maternal grandfather's surname as a pseudonym. He is the brother of Nikita Mikhalkov and the son of Sergei Mikhalkov.

He studied for ten years at the Moscow Conservatory, preparing for a pianist's career. In 1960, however, he met Andrei Tarkovsky and co-scripted his movie Andrei Rublev (1966).

His first full-length feature, "The First Teacher" (1964), was favourably received in USSR and screened by numerous film festivals abroad. His second film, Asya Klyachina's Story (1967), was suppressed by Soviet authorities. When issued twenty years later, it was acclaimed as his masterpiece. Thereupon, Konchalovsky filmed adaptations of Ivan Turgenev's A Nest of Gentle Folk (1969) and Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (1971), with Innokenty Smoktunovsky in the title role. His epic Siberiade upon its 1979 release was favourably received at Cannes and made possible his move to the United States in 1980.

His most popular Hollywood releases are Runaway Train (1985), based on Kurosawa's original script, and Tango & Cash (1989), starring Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell. In the 1990s Konchalovsky returned to Russia, although he occasionally produced historical films for U.S. television, such as the spectacular The Odyssey (1997) and the award-winning The Lion in Winter (2003).

Konchalovsky's latest full-length feature, House of Fools (2003, with a cameo role by Bryan Adams playing himself) set in a Chechen psychiatric asylum during the war, won him a Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

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