Imperial Russia (1721–1917)
Films and series set during one of the largest empires in world history, stretching over three continents. It played a major role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleon's ambitions to control Europe, and expanded to the west and south.
Related lists:
Napoleonic Era
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Related lists:
Napoleonic Era
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- DirectorFranklin J. SchaffnerStarsMichael JaystonJanet SuzmanRoderic NobleTsar Nicholas II, the inept last monarch of Russia, insensitive to the needs of his people, is overthrown and exiled to Siberia with his family.
- StarsPaul DanoJames NortonLily JamesAs the Russian conflict with Napoleon reaches its peak, five aristocratic families face the possibility of their lives being changed forever.
- DirectorSergey BondarchukStarsLyudmila SavelevaVyacheslav TikhonovSergey BondarchukThe Russian aristocracy prepares for the French invasion on the eve of 1812.
- DirectorSergey BondarchukStarsLyudmila SavelevaSergey BondarchukVyacheslav TikhonovNapoleon's tumultuous relations with Russia including his disastrous 1812 invasion serve as the backdrop for the tangled personal lives of five aristocratic Russian families.
- DirectorSergey GerasimovStarsPyotr GlebovElina BystritskayaZinaida KirienkoAn epic story of shattered lives of the Don Cossacks through chaos of World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the following Civil War.
- DirectorReverge AnselmoStarsKirsten DunstJulie WaltersGeraldine JamesA younger boy falls in love with a tragic girl who flirts with, and manipulates, her older suitors in 1800s Russia.
- DirectorAndrzej WajdaStarsBoguslaw LindaDaniel OlbrychskiGrazyna SzapolowskaIn the early 1810s, Poles, part of Russia's client state of Lithuania, think independence will come if they join forces with Napoleon when he invades Russia. This unity of purpose, in one district, is undermined by two families, feuding since the head of one shot the head of the other twenty years before. There are hopes of a reconciliation through a marriage of Pan Tadeusz, a Soplica, whose father, the murderer, is in hiding somewhere, and Zosia, a teen-aged girl, a Horeszko who lives in the household of Pan's uncle. Other cross-currents - of love, family, politics, village traditions, land reform, and what it means to be Polish - give the film texture. It's an exile's story.
- StarsYulia SnigirPavel DerevyankoViktoriya AgalakovaThe story of Catherine the Great from the time she came to Russia as the bride of the heir to the Russian throne.
- DirectorPaul CzinnerAlexander KordaStarsDouglas Fairbanks Jr.Elisabeth BergnerFlora RobsonStraightforward biography of the Russian Empress, up to her assumption of the throne.
- DirectorPaul BurgessJohn-Paul DavidsonStarsEmily BruniDiana DumbravaDan ChiriacDrama documentary reconstructing the life and times of Catherine the Great of Russia.
- DirectorMarvin J. ChomskyJohn GoldsmithStarsCatherine Zeta-JonesPaul McGannIan RichardsonTrapped in a loveless arranged marriage to the immature future Czar, a young German Princess proves a skillful political infighter and rises to become Catherine the Great.
- DirectorMichael AndersonStarsVanessa RedgraveChristopher PlummerFranco NeroA German princess is chosen to marry the heir to the Russian Throne, but faces plots and intrigues against her.
- StarsMarina AleksandrovaMichael GorVladimir YaglychThe life of Russian Empress Ekaterina II (Catherine the Great), a German-born princess who came to Russia as the wife of Peter III, chosen by her aunt Elizabeth, and who, once in power, transformed the Russian empire.
- DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsMarlene DietrichJohn LodgeSam JaffeA German noblewoman enters into a loveless marriage with the dim-witted, unstable heir to the Russian throne, then plots to oust him from power.
- StarsMaximilian SchellVanessa RedgraveOmar SharifBiopic of Peter I, Czar of Russia, from childhood in 1682 to the Great Northern War against Sweden during the 1700s.
- CreatorJohn ElliotStarsMichael HordernCharles KayBarry FosterThe collapse of three great European dynasties: the Romanovs, the Habsburgs, and the Hohenzollerns.
- DirectorAnatole LitvakStarsIngrid BergmanYul BrynnerHelen HayesAn opportunistic businessman tries to pass off a mysterious impostor as the Grand Duchess Anastasia, and she is so convincing that even the biggest skeptics believe her.
- DirectorRobert SiodmakStarsRomy SchneiderCurd JürgensPierre BlancharCzar Alexander II meets a schoolgirl called Katia. Realizing that he loves her, he attempts to push her away but to no avail. She becomes his mistress. With Katia's help, Alexander is working on a liberal constitution.
- DirectorAleksandr MittaStarsVladimir VysotskiyAleksey PetrenkoIvan RyzhovLoosely based on Peter the Great's Negro, Alexander Pushkin's unfinished novel based on his own great-grandfather, a black African brought to Russia.
- DirectorVladimir PetrovStarsNikolai SimonovNikolay CherkasovAlla TarasovaA historical film about the life and state activities of Tsar Peter I, the reformer of Russia of the XVIII century, starting from the Battle of Narva in 1700 and ending with the adoption of the title of emperor by Peter the Great in 1721.
- DirectorHerbert BrenonStarsEdward ConnellyIliodorAlfred HickmanA dramatization of the Russian revolution and the influence upon the Russian royal family of the famous "mad monk," Rasputin.
- DirectorUli EdelStarsAlan RickmanGreta ScacchiIan McKellenHBO biopic about the infamous "mad monk" Rasputin from the court of Czar Nicholas II in Russia.
- DirectorEsfir ShubStarsMikhail AlekseyevAlexei BrusilovNikolai ChkheidzeIn May 1913 the Romanov Dynasty celebrates its 300th anniversary at the Russian throne. The last emperor in the long line is Tsar Nicholas II. He rules over a country with huge social and economic differences. Russia is for the most part still an agrarian society, but capitalism and its industries are growing. In 1914 Russia gets involved in the First World War. Tsar Nicholas II declares a general mobilization. A vast number of peasants and workers have to go to the front as soldiers. After three years the country is ruined by the war, and there is a shortage of provisions. In February 1917 workers begin striking in the capital, Petrograd. Their protests are soon joined by soldiers. A complete anarchy is threatening the country, when the parliament, called the duma, reorganizes the power structure by forming a new Provisional Government. At the same time the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies forms another ruling body at the City Hall of Petrograd. In this situation Tsar Nicholas II sees no other possibility than to resign from his government. On the 4th of March 1917 he declares his abdication from the throne. The new Provisional Government and its war minister Kerensky continue the war. This presents an opportunity for the Bolsheviks to organize demonstrations and to persuade the workers and soldiers to overthrow the Provisional Government and seize power themselves.
- DirectorDon SharpStarsChristopher LeeBarbara ShelleyRichard PascoThrown out of his monastery for licentious and drunken behavior, Rasputin travels to St Petersburg in pursuit of wealth and prestige. He soon gains influence at court with his powers of healing and of hypnotism.
- StarsIlya SherbininThis history of the Romanov dynasty, the family that ruled Russia from 1613 until the October Revolution of 1917.
- DirectorGleb PanfilovStarsAleksandr GalibinLynda BellinghamVladimir GrachyovThe story of the last year and a half of Tsar Nicholas II and his family from the February Revolution of 1917 to their execution in July 1918.
- DirectorJosée DayanIrakli KvirikadzeStarsGérard DepardieuFanny ArdantVladimir MashkovA group of Russian noblemen want to maintain the monarchy and plan to kill Rasputin.
- DirectorLouis NeroStarsFrancesco CabrasDaniele SavocaFranco NeroThe true story of the greatest occultist of 1900. The truth beyond the Legend.
- DirectorMarcel L'HerbierStarsHarry BaurMarcelle ChantalPierre Richard-WillmStory of the Siberian monk Gregory Rasputin and the hold he exerted over the court of the last Russian czar, Nicholas.
- StarsAmy IrvingOlivia de HavillandJan NiklasStory of Anna Anderson, who claimed to be Anastasia Romanov, the only "surviving" child of the last Czar and Czarina of Russia.
- DirectorElem KlimovStarsAleksey PetrenkoAnatoliy RomashinVelta LineDetails the life of the Russian monk Rasputin. The film shows his rise to power and how it corrupted him. His sexual perversions and madness ultimatly leads to his gruesome assasination.
- StarsVladimir MashkovEkaterina KlimovaAndrey SmolyakovTV series about the mad monk Grigoriy Rasputin, who became a hugely influential figure at the court of Tsar Nicholas II.
- DirectorJoe WrightStarsKeira KnightleyJude LawAaron Taylor-JohnsonIn late-19th-century Russian high society, St. Petersburg aristocrat Anna Karenina enters into a life-changing affair with the dashing Count Alexei Vronsky.
- DirectorAleksandr SokurovStarsSergey DreydenMariya KuznetsovaLeonid MozgovoyA 19th century French aristocrat, notorious for his scathing memoirs about life in Russia, travels through the Russian State Hermitage Museum and encounters historical figures from the last 200+ years.
- DirectorNikita MikhalkovStarsJulia OrmondOleg MenshikovAleksey PetrenkoAt the turn of the century, a young Russian cadet falls in love with an American beauty, endangering his career and even their lives.
- DirectorFilipp YankovskiyStarsOleg MenshikovNikita MikhalkovKonstantin KhabenskiyThird film based on Boris Akunin's "Priklucheniya Erasta Petrovicha Fandorina" series of novels. On a train from St. Petersburg to Moscow general Khrapov was killed and no one else but Erast Petrovich is under suspicion because the killer pretended to be Fandorin. There are initials BG on the handle of the knife Khrapov was stabbed with, the initials belong to a terrorist organization which keeps both capital cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg) in fear. This time Fandorin is not the only one trying to solve the crime, general Pozharski, a famous detective takes over the investigation...
- DirectorVladimir MotylStarsIrina KupchenkoAleksey BatalovNatalya BondarchukIn December 1825, distinguished members of the Russian military, most of whom were quite affluent and of noble lineage, took it upon themselves to stir revolution against the autocratic and tyrannical Czar Nikolai I in the wake of his not honoring (or even acknowledging) the drafting of a constitution for the Russian people. The revolution failed miserably and the conspirators (known as the Decembrists) were weeded out by the czar himself. One by one, each of the conspirators confess and are systematically exiled to the harsh winters of Siberia, slated to work and wither in a prison/mine. The wives of the conspirators are faced with the prospect of leaving the bosom of wealth and family (including their own children) to be with their husbands in the brutal Siberian locale. If they agree to this, they face having their illustrious social stations stripped away and certain disdain from everyone around them. Among these remarkable women is a princess exiled from France who falls in love with a man soon to be exiled. The film is the story of their unfathomable sacrifice and their dogged desire to be reunited with the men they love, despite the conditions and the circumstances.
- DirectorEldar RyazanovStarsAlisa FreyndlikhLarisa GuzeevaNikita MikhalkovA bitter story about tender love and its cruel betrayal set in Russia of the 19th century.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinStarsAleksandr AntonovVladimir BarskiyGrigoriy AleksandrovIn the midst of the Russian Revolution of 1905, the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutiny against the brutal, tyrannical regime of the vessel's officers. The resulting street demonstration in Odessa brings on a police massacre.
- DirectorMartha FiennesStarsRalph FiennesLiv TylerToby StephensRussia, 1820s: Onegin inherits his uncle's country estate and moves there from St. Petersburg. He befriends his neighbor, Lensky, and meets Tatyana through him. She falls in love with Onegin but he just wants friendship.
- DirectorRoman TikhomirovStarsAriadna ShengelaiaGalina VishnevskayaSvetlana NemolyaevaThe uncle's illness forces the nobleman Eugene Onegin to leave St. Petersburg for the countryside.
- DirectorVera GlagolevaStarsAnna Brenner-VartanyanRalph FiennesAleksandr BaluevA headstrong young woman is married to land baron. Her feelings for her son's tutor becomes a complex web of unrequited love.
- CreatorTony McNamaraStarsElle FanningPhoebe FoxGwilym LeeA royal woman living in rural Russia during the 18th century is forced to choose between her own personal happiness and the future of Russia, when she marries an Emperor.
- StarsHelen MirrenJason ClarkeGina McKeeThe life and times of the woman who reformed the Russian empire.